Chase Briscoe is 20/1 to win at Richmond

 

CHASE BRISCOE Richmond Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 3 ● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway ● Layout: .75-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) roll into Virginia’s capital city for the seventh race of the season. Opened in 1946 and last paved in 1988, the worn-out surface of Richmond Raceway will be a different kind of test for drivers who have only competed on short tracks with newer surfaces so far this year. Briscoe was having a strong showing at the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before a mechanical issue ended his race. Five weeks later, on the mile oval at Phoenix Raceway, he dominated the final stage of the race en route to his first career Cup Series win.   ● Six races into the 2022 season, Briscoe is ninth in points, 42 behind leader Chase Elliott. He currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win at Phoenix. He’s led laps in four of the first six races and ranks fourth in total laps led to date.   ● Briscoe has two Cup Series starts at Richmond with a best finish of 16th earned in September 2021. Though he struggled to earn top results on short tracks in his rookie year, Briscoe continues to adapt his dirt-racing style to stock-car racing on pavement and has already made gains this season in the NextGen car.   ● In his five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond, Briscoe earned his first top-10 in April 2019, then returned that September to earn a fifth-place result.   ● The red and white of Mahindra Tractors, a brand of Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America, will once again adorn the No. 14 Ford Mustang. Part of Mahindra Group’s Automotive and Farm Sector, Mahindra Ag North America is the No. 1-selling farm tractor company in the world, based on volumes across all company brands. Mahindra farm equipment is engineered to be easy to operate by first-time tractor or side-by-side owners, and heavy duty to tackle the tough jobs of rural living, farming and ranching. Steel-framed Mahindra tractors and side-by-sides are ideal for customers who demand performance, reliability and comfort at a great value. Mahindra dealers are independent, family-owned businesses located throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What suits this new car to your driving style? “I don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m really doing anything different. The last few weeks, the car has driven pretty similar to the old Cup car – not the 550 stuff, but the 750 package. I feel like just as a team we’ve gotten better. We’ve had more speed in our racecars where last year was obviously a struggle but, to me, the cars don’t drive a whole lot different. I don’t know if other guys just have more habits to break, where I didn’t really have a lot of things I needed to change as far as from an experience standpoint. The NextGen is kind of a hybrid between a Cup car and an Xfinity car in terms of feel, but I just think our cars have been really good. We’ve had a lot of speed and we’ve been able to capitalize on that, where last year we never had the speed we needed a lot of the time, and the races we did have speed and ran up front, we didn’t have it consistently like we have this year, so far.”   What do you think about this new car at Richmond?  “The racing at Richmond has been good in the past, it’s just so circumstantial. Everybody’s view of what makes it a good race is different. Some people want to see a lot of passing. Some people want to see the cars slipping and sliding around. Some people want to see wrecks. Others just want to see a close finish at the end. That definition of a good race is different for everybody, so I think for me at least, in the past Auto Club has been a blast. I had a blast there this year, too. Richmond, I don’t really know what to expect. I do think this car probably creates a little more grip than the old car does at places like Richmond, but I honestly don’t know what to expect when we get there. I think that we haven’t really seen this car on a true short track. Yes, Phoenix is a short track, but there’s not a lot of tire falloff, where at Richmond there’s a ton of falloff, so we have to see how this car reacts to that. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this car impacts tire saving and guys going hard and things like that. I do think that, with this car, everywhere we go there are a lot of comers and goers. You have guys that are extremely good on the short run, guys that are good on the long run, and with this car you’re just constantly changing positions. You throw in the tire falloff side of things at Richmond and it’s going to be interesting, for sure.”   Can you talk about your relationship with Johnny Klausmeier?  “I feel like from the beginning we’ve always gotten along really well. From a personal standpoint, we’re both a lot alike. That’s kind of been different for me than crew chiefs I’ve had in the past. A lot of my crew chiefs aren’t as, I guess – I don’t even know what the word would be – just as laid back and relaxed as Johnny is. So, it’s been kind of different for me because normally it’s a deal where it’s hot and cold, where one guy is more amped up all the time and the other guy is really relaxed, where me and Johnny are both pretty relaxed all the time. I think, as we’ve continued to learn more about each other, we’ve only gotten better. Last year was tough with no practice and no qualifying. He was trying to figure out what I was even asking for sometimes. He hasn’t worked with any Sprint car guys before, and just our lingo and what we look for is different. I felt like toward the end of last season we really started to click as far as what I liked in the racecar, and this year we’ve done a phenomenal job of doing the same. I think our success on the racetrack has honestly come from having practice and having qualifying and all these things. Last year, we were always trying to catch up and it just made it a real struggle to where, by the end of the race, I always felt like our car drove really good and we were one of the faster cars, but we were just buried from a track position standpoint. We were already a lap down from the beginning of the race, so us being able to have practice and get our car driving really good and then go qualify and be able to start up front has been really good for our team.”

Aric Almirola 30/1 to win at Richmond

 

ARIC ALMIROLA Richmond Advance  No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 3 ● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway ● Layout: .75-mile oval ● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  Aric Almirola is the only driver in the NASCAR Cup Series who has finished on the lead lap in every race this season.   ●  Almirola’s average finish of 11.7 through the first six races places him second among all drivers this season. It’s his best average finish through six races in 10 fulltime Cup Series seasons.   ●  Almirola is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to finish in the top-10 in this year’s opening three races. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, sixth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and sixth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Almirola’s top-10 streak ended with a 12th-place finish at Phoenix Raceway despite running inside the top-10 throughout the race.   ●  History at Richmond: In 19 starts, Almirola has earned seven top-10 finishes, two top-fives, and has led one lap on the .75-mile Richmond oval.    ●  Last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Almirola earned six stage points and finished 19th.   ●  Points: Almirola arrives at Richmond eighth in the driver standings with 168 points, 40 out of first.   ●  Almirola’s career: In 394 NASCAR Cup Series starts, Almirola has earned three wins, 27 top-five finishes, 87 top-10s, three poles, and has led 899 laps.   ●  Richmond is a home race for Smithfield Foods, whose headquarters are located just 80 miles southeast of the track. Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Its 63,000 team members are dedicated to producing “Good food. Responsibly.®” Smithfield is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies. The company has pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including its industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across its entire U.S. value chain by 2030. Smithfield believes in the power of protein to end food insecurity and has donated hundreds of millions of food servings to local communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield®, Eckrich® and Nathan’s Famous®, among many others. For more information, visit www.SmithfieldFoods.com, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.   ●  One More Time: On Jan. 10, Almirola released a video on his YouTube channel announcing his retirement from fulltime NASCAR Cup Series racing after the 2022 season to spend more time with his family. This year marks Almirola’s 11th fulltime Cup Series season. The official press release can be viewed here.   ●  Beyond the 10 YouTube Series: In 2022, Almirola is once again sharing his life beyond the No. 10 Smithfield Ford with season three of his award-winning YouTube series. Fans and media can subscribe on YouTube to see Almirola’s personality on and off the track. Episodes have already featured life as a dad, a husband and an athlete, and it gives fans a unique perspective on what goes on in the life of a professional NASCAR driver. Fans can also follow Almirola’s social media channels: @Aric_Almirola on Twitter and Instagram, and @AricAlmirola on Facebook.

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What can you say about your team’s success and consistency this year?  “The main thing is that this 10 team does not give up. Every race this season has had its ups and downs and we have made the most out of the day we are given. We’re the only team in the series right now that has stayed on the lead lap and it shows. Last weekend, we cut a tire and went back to 34th with six laps to go – then we had another tire issue. We pitted twice from 34th and still ended up with a top-20. No matter the circumstance, we race for one more spot until the checkered flag waves and I think our position in the points has shown that. Our time will come.”    This weekend is Richmond and next weekend is Martinsville, and you have had success at both and proven to show consistency at shorter tracks. How confident are you that you can secure your spot in the playoffs with a win at either of those tracks?  “With the way things are going, I’ve never had more confidence. This new car levels the playing field and puts it on the drivers to perform. We always run well at Richmond and Martinsville – even when we don’t have the best setup, so I’m really looking forward to it. Unlike last year, we’re in a great points position and we get to qualify, so we’re not backed into a points hole and can race without as much pressure as we did last year. When I got out of the car on Sunday at COTA, Drew (Blickensderfer) said, ‘Next weekend is going to be a good one,’ so the whole team is confident heading into the weekend.”   What kind of challenge does a short track like Richmond bring?  “I would say Richmond is one of the most challenging racetracks we go to for managing your tires throughout the run. The first 10, 15 or 20 laps of the run can make you feel like Superman roaring through the field, but you will pay a major penalty for that by lap 40. It makes it fun because, when we show up at Richmond, it really is about managing tire fall-off and making sure your car stays consistent throughout the run as the tires fall off.”   What’s it like to race at Richmond?  “Richmond is an awesome track to race at. It’s also pretty close to Smithfield, Virginia, so it’s a hometown race for Smithfield. It’s just a lot of fun to go there and race. In the fall, it’s racing at its finest, beating and banging. And the track has very little grip and the tires wear out, so it’s a really fun racetrack.”

Kevin Harvick is 15/1 to win at Richmond

 

KEVIN HARVICK Richmond Advance No. 4 Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 3 ●  Location:  Richmond (Va.) Raceway ●  Layout:  .75-mile oval ●  Laps/Miles:  400 laps/300 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps ●  TV/Radio:  FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  Mobil 1 is the world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand, and the NASCAR Cup Series event this weekend at Richmond (Va.) Raceway marks the debut of its latest product enhancements to the motor oil family: Triple Action Formula and Triple Action Formula+. The “Triple Action” is Performance, Protection, Cleanliness, and Triple Action Formula+ has the additional benefit of maximizing engine efficiency. Both are featured on the No. 4 Ford Mustang of driver Kevin Harvick at Richmond. Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula allows drivers to go 10,000 miles (or one year) between oil changes, and Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula+ gives drivers even more mileage between oil changes – 20,000 miles (or one year). Both help extend engine life – even in severe conditions while increasing engine efficiency – but Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula+ delivers 20 times higher engine protection. These innovations that are now available for consumers have origins in racing, specifically from the rumbling V8 inside Harvick’s No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang.   ●  Harvick has made 760 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, with 123 of those starts coming on short tracks. And of his 58 Cup Series wins, seven have been at short tracks, with Richmond accounting for three of those victories. Harvick scored his first Richmond win in September 2006, his second in September 2011 and his third in April 2013.   ●  Harvick joined Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014 and has since recorded 35 of his 58 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. However, none of them have been at Richmond. But Harvick has remained stout at the .75-mile oval. In his last 15 starts at Richmond as a member of SHR, Harvick has two runner-up finishes, eight top-fives and 11 top-10s. He has only one finish outside of the top-15.    ●  Harvick leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in top-10s at Richmond. The driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula Ford Mustang has 27 top-10s in 41 career starts (65.8 percent). Next best is Kyle Busch with 25 top-10s.   ●  Harvick has led 15,794 total laps in his NASCAR Cup Series career, with 1,180 of those laps coming at Richmond.   ●  The Richmond 400 will mark Harvick’s 42nd NASCAR Cup Series start at the Virginia short track. His first start at Richmond came on May 5, 2001. That race was won by SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, who beat then three-time champion Jeff Gordon by .372 of a second. Harvick finished 17th in what was his 10th career Cup Series start. Ten of the 43 drivers in that race have since been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame – Stewart, Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Ron Hornaday Jr., Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte.   ●  Harvick is the winningest NASCAR Xfinity Series driver at Richmond with seven victories. Kyle Busch is next best with six wins. Harvick finished among the top-10 in all but six of his 21 career Xfinity Series starts at Richmond.

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula Ford Mustang

You’ve now sampled the NextGen car on every style of racetrack. Is there a certain genre of track where it performs best, or has it proven to be a pretty steady commodity no matter what kind of track you’re racing on? “I think it’s been pretty steady. The road courses are still going to be the best track because it’s the thing that suits this car the most. For us, it’s just learning the nuances of the car and how much to adjust it, how much you need in the car. We’re still working on that. The cars have run fine at every race, we’ve just had so many things go on. Everybody’s doing a good job. I think the cars have done a pretty good job at every track we’ve taken them to.”   You had a good, solid weekend three races ago at Phoenix with a sixth-place finish. With that track being relatively flat and only a mile in length, can what you learned there be applied to Richmond? “Richmond is quite a bit different just because of the grip level and the tire wear and everything that comes with that. But I think the evolution of the process – the trims, the things that have been consistent through all the races that the guys are starting to grab and starting to navigate toward – it’s meant that we’re not talking about last year’s car at all. It’s all about the trends of this year and the things that have happened this year. You look at the tendencies of Richmond in the past and you try to adapt to what has worked with this new car.”   Coming into this season, it seemed that every weekend would be an R&D session where there’s constant learning and evolution of the NextGen car. Have you found that to be the case? “Really, the car has evolved very little. But I think the teams and the drivers, especially those of us who have done this for so long and have had pretty similar tendencies for 20-something years where we’ve adapted to different driving styles and different adjustments and different tendencies, there’s still a lot that goes into changing your thought processes and being able to do what you want to do with this car. But I think our team has been pretty open minded to stuff and I really think the whole garage, and especially us, we’re learning as we go every week as to what the car is like.”   Have you had to break old habits as you learn the NextGen car? “For sure. I haven’t completely broken them yet, because all the, ‘Don’t overdrive the entry into the corner,’ all that stuff, is pretty much gone, especially when it comes to qualifying. You can be pretty aggressive with the car getting into the corner, and that’s just not the way that I’ve approached it for a long time. We knew just coming into this year that there were going to be a lot of things to adapt to in order to get to where we needed to be. Even now, it’s still not second nature, even when you shift and the way that it feels, and just having that confidence level of going on the racetrack and laying it all out there. Every lap, there’s a confidence level that comes with the security of the car and the things it does. And that’s the same when we go to make adjustments. Are you confident in that, ‘I need to make a big adjustment?’ Well, what is a big adjustment? How much is a big adjustment? Is it a percent on the aero side? Is it a half of a percent on the wedge? What is a big adjustment?”   With Stewart-Haas Racing being a multicar team, how important has sharing information among all four teams been in getting up to speed with the NextGen car? “It’s actually pretty standard in today’s world. There’s a database and a live feed between the engineers, so it’s all out there. As the changes go on in the garage, the other teams can see it. We have people back at the shop making sure that everybody stays on track and is aware of what the other teams are doing. There’s a lot of information out there, but sometimes when you’re at the racetrack, you need all the people around you to hone in on all the things that are important and making the car tick on that particular weekend. A lot of times, it’ll be something that somebody else is doing on a different team, or someone who’s driving on the racetrack with your own cars, and that’s comparing apples to apples. So if somebody hits on a shock or a spring or a camber setting on your own team, those are easy things to apply to your car so you can move forward in practice a little bit quicker. The more that everybody can hit on and try, the better, because if you’re all trying the same thing, you might as well have just one car. Everybody goes down a different path and tries to pick and choose those pieces that help everybody, and that’s what’s important.”   Over the years, do you feel your interest in what you’re driving and learning about the car has been a key to your success? “I think that’s part of the reason why I’ve been somewhat successful because of the fact that I know what I want in the car, and I think that I’m relatively good at explaining what I want in the car. The team believes in the direction that I tell them to go, and they’re good at finding things that help solve problems. For years, that’s something we’ve just been able to figure out – the communication with what you’re feeling in the car and how we fix it, what fixes it, what pushes the hot buttons to help fix the problems in certain areas of the corner. Being able to analyze those things is ultra-important just in order to help the direction of where the car is going, where the development is going, and being able to also stand up and say, ‘Hey, I probably led us down a bad road,’ before you get 10 roads down the street. If you get one or two roads down the street and back up, it’s important to be able to do that, and that’s been important as we develop this car.”

COTA NASCAR Betting Preview: 2022 Echopark Texas Grand Prix

We get the first of six road races on the NASCAR Cup schedule this week at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) 3.426-mile, 20-turn layout in Austin, Texas. The drivers will be turning both left and right for 68 laps and they’ll also be downshifting on this world-class circuit.

Sunday’s EchoPark Texas Grand Prix will be NASCAR’s second visit to COTA, and the first one last season left most of us wanting more, or no rain. The drivers raced on a wet track and most all had vision issues that caused a few wrecks. Sunday’s weather calls for sunny skies, 87 degrees, 13 mph wind, and no precipitation.

ECHOPARK TEXAS GRAND PRIX PICKS & PREDICTIONS

Chase Elliott won last season's COTA race because that’s what he does and it’s why BetMGM has him as the 3-to-1 favorite and Caesars sportsbooks have him +225. Elliott is the King of the road courses because he has won seven of the last 15 races on them since 2018.

He’s the best road racer driving with the best team (Hendrick Motorsports) giving him the best cars. There were seven road races last season, a big chunk of the overall schedule, so Hendrick put more emphasis on their road racing program. They won five of the seven road courses races in 2021.
Elliott is going to be tough to beat and certainly deserves to be the favorite, but the one factor we have to consider first is how the new car will perform on a road course. Is everyone still equal with the same parts and equipment? Is the Hendrick road course edge gone with the new car?

It’s something to dive deep into and figure out a betting game plan.

Chase Elliott has failed to see a Top 10 result in two straight races after seeing a Top 10 result the race prior. (AP)

Aric Almirola had a great take on the new car at the road courses.

“Well, this car is absolutely designed more for a road-course race type situation,” he said. “It’s a more symmetrical car. Our cars used to be offset, and they were more designed to go just left-hand only, so it was more of a big deal to swap over to go road racing. Now, these cars are more symmetrical. So because of that, it is more specifically designed to go left and right, which suits it very well for road racing. The car is a very capable car. It handles well, it brakes very well. It’s got much bigger brakes than what we used to have on the old car, so it stops way better and the brake zones are way more compressed. It is a little bit more thrilling of a car to drive on the road courses.” 

Almirola is listed at 150-to-1 odds to win showing that the roads haven’t been his best tracks, but this season he’s the only driver to finish on the lead lap of all five races.

ECHOPARK TEXAS GRAND PRIX BETTING ANALYSIS

Five races, five different winners, and three of them are Hendrick drivers. An Elliott win would be the sixth different driver to win. But so would a Joey Logano win (24/1), or Ryan Blaney (18/1), or maybe one of the young guns like Ross Chastain (40/1) or Tyler Reddick (40/1).

In this climate where almost any driver in the field can win, it makes me daydream about hitting a bet at 20-to-1 or higher. The new car makes the dream more possible than ever. I still talk about my best NASCAR win being Jerry Nadeau’s win at Atlanta, driving a Hendrick car, and catching 50-to-1 odds. That was the year 2000. I need new stories.

This parity stuff has me thinking anyone can win so spread the wagers out and hope to catch some luck. I’ve been stuck in this top-heavy NASCAR Cup betting scene where I’m happy when I can manage to cash a double-digit odds ticket. Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick collectively won 17 of the 36 races in 2020 and I think I bet them every week too. Kyle Larson won 10 races last season, including his first three road course wins.

In the NextGen era, I can talk seriously about a rookie winning a race. Austin Cindric already won the Daytona 500, but his entire career in racing started on road courses. Of his 13 Xfinity Series wins, five of them came on road courses. He’s going to find the front at some point. Caesars sportsbooks have him listed at 15-to-1 odds to win.

ECHOPARK TEXAS GRAND PRIX BETTING RESOURCES

• Date: Sunday, March 27, 2022
• TV-Time: FOX, 3:30 p.m. ET
• Venue: Circuit of the Americas
• Location: Austin, Texas
• Distance: 231 miles
• Laps: 68

Hey Kevin Harvick, what kind of prep work needs to be done for you to be comfortable on a huge 20-turn layout?

“My big thing is just memorizing what’s next on the racetrack,” Harvick said. “You’re never going to get a good feel for the elevation, but I think the Ford simulator gives the best sense of how our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang will perform at COTA. You’re able to sit in your own seat and have your own steering wheel and you’re just in a more realistic surrounding. In iRacing, I spent a lot of time in the V8 Supercar just making laps and trying to make sure I knew the direction of the corners before I got to the simulator so I understood what I was getting into.”

Harvick has been very competitive on the roads in most of his 49 Cup starts on them, winning twice and averaging a 13.7 finish. Caesars has him at 40-to-1 odds to win which was just the bait I needed to take a shot with the veteran who last won any race in 2020.

ECHOPARK TEXAS GRAND PRIX CONTENDERS

Here’s a couple of other drivers I have bet this week before Saturday’s 10 am ET practice:

Ross Chastain (40/1) - This is very generous of Caesars to offer such juicy odds with such a capable driver coupled with it being the new car. Sure, he’s never won in Cup, but he is racing up front for the win almost weekly. I can just feel it. He was fourth at COTA last season and seventh at both Sonoma and Road America.

Tyler Reddick (40/1) - The last time I saw him on a road course, it was October at the Charlotte Roval and he finished second. He led laps in two of his previous three road courses. He’s getting better on them and he’s looked great in the new car so far. 

Chase Briscoe (20/1) - Now with all his confidence after winning at Phoenix, we might see the aggressive road racer that won twice on road courses in the Xfinity Series in 2020. Last season he was sixth at Road America and COTA. 

“I think it’ll definitely be different than what we saw last year,” Briscoe said of COTA. “I mean, last year’s race will look way different than this year’s race with the weather. It was a different style of racing when it was that wet, but from a driver’s standpoint it’s a lot of fun, just the visibility is obviously tough. And then, from a fan’s standpoint, it’s tough to see what’s going on and a little more miserable than if it was a really nice day. I think this car on the road courses is where it’s really going to shine and, truthfully, on the oval stuff, it’s been a lot better than what people expected. 

READ MORE HERE.........TOP-5 FINISH PREDICTION ON VEGASINSIDER.COM

Kevin Harvick is 40/1 to win at COTA

 

KEVIN HARVICK COTA Advance No. 4 GEARWRENCH® Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

●  Event:  EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36) ●  Time/Date:  3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 27 ●  Location:  Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas ●  Layout:  3.426-mile, 20-turn road course ●  Laps/Miles:  68 laps/231.88 miles ●  Stage Lengths:  Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps ●  TV/Radio:  FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

●  GEARWRENCH®, a premier hand tool brand from Apex Tool Group, makes its debut as a primary partner on the No. 4 Ford Mustang of Stewart-Haas Racing and driver Kevin Harvick this weekend at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. GEARWRENCH is the No. 1 worldwide professional-grade mechanics’ hand tool brand, offering products that are designed and manufactured to meet the requirements of pros, mechanics and auto techs making a living with their tools. GEARWRENCH understands the problems mechanics face every day and provides tools that increase productivity through speed, strength and access. Since the launch of the original five-degree ratcheting wrench, the GEARWRENCH brand has led the industry with breakthroughs in pass-thru ratchets, sockets, screw/nut drivers, pliers, extraction tools and specialty tools. Learn more at GEARWRENCH.com.   ●  Featured on the decklid of Harvick’s No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang during the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix NASCAR Cup Series race at COTA is Bolt Biter™, a line of extraction tools from GEARWRENCH that has quickly become a major force in the extraction tool category through its innovative design and unmatched durability. Bolt Biter reliably removes corroded, rusted, rounded and frozen fasteners, keeping fastener extraction problems from slowing pros, mechanics and auto techs down. The line includes unique products specific to removing a wide range of fasteners including sockets, standard nuts, lugnuts, screws and more. For full details, visit GEARWRENCH.com/extraction-tools.   ●  This weekend marks NASCAR’s second appearance at COTA. The 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course was constructed in 2011 and has been America’s home to Formula One since the global motorsports series returned to America with the 2012 United States Grand Prix. The United States Grand Prix dates back to 1950 when the Indianapolis 500 counted as a round of the world championship. Eleven times from 1950 to 1960, points scored at Indy were added to a Formula One driver’s season tally, and in 1959 America hosted two Formula One races when in addition to Indianapolis, the United States Grand Prix was held at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway. It served as the ninth and final round of the 1959 season. In 1960, Formula One moved to Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway before finally settling down for a 20-year tenure at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International from 1961 to 1980. From 1976 to 1980, Watkins Glen was joined by Long Beach, California, on the Formula One schedule, with the United States Grand Prix West taking place until 1983. After Watkins Glen fell off the calendar, Las Vegas took its place for two seasons (1981-1982) with the Caesars Palace Grand Prix being held on its hotel parking lot. In 1982, America hosted three Formula One races when in addition to Long Beach and Las Vegas, Detroit was added to the schedule. Detroit hosted Formula One on a bumpy street circuit for seven years, with its last grand prix coming in 1988. Dallas made a one-race appearance in 1984 when Fair Park was converted to a Formula One circuit for the Dallas Grand Prix. Phoenix was next up for Formula One from 1989 to 1991 before a nine-year absence of the sport from America’s shores. But then Indianapolis Motor Speedway built a road course within the confines of the historic 2.5-mile oval and Formula One returned with the United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis from 2000 to 2007. Sadly, Formula One in America fell off the calendar again. It wasn’t until COTA was constructed, becoming the first purpose-built Formula One facility in the United States, that Formula One was able to return to America.   ●  Contrast best describes a lap around COTA. High speed and rapid changes of direction comprise the layout between turns two and 10, with this first sector akin to the Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel complex at the famed Silverstone Circuit in England. The end of the lap from turn 12 through turn 20 before hitting the frontstretch features low-speed combinations. The long backstraight, however, is where drivers want to retain as much speed as possible to either attack or defend through the tight turn 12. This corner, along with the uphill run to turn one and the hairpin in turn 11, provide good passing opportunities.   ●  Harvick has made a total of 49 NASCAR Cup Series starts on road courses. He has 20 starts at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, 20 at Watkins Glen, four at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, two on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and one apiece at COTA, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He has scored two wins – Watkins Glen in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017 – along with 10 top-fives and 24 top-10s with 195 laps led.   ●  Harvick has two starts at COTA – one in the NASCAR Cup Series and one in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – and both came last year in NASCAR’s inaugural visit to the track. Harvick finished a strong fourth in the Xfinity Series race before suffering a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the Cup Series race due to an accident 19 laps into the 54-lap race, which was shortened 14 laps from its scheduled 68-lap distance due to heavy rain.   ●  When Harvick scored his first road-course victory at Watkins Glen in 2006, he had to beat his current team owner to do it. Tony Stewart – the “Stewart” in Stewart-Haas Racing – had won the past two NASCAR Cup Series races at the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course and was poised to capture a third straight win as he was leading Harvick with four laps to go in the 90-lap race. But Harvick, who had already led once for 24 laps, passed Stewart on lap 87 as the two drag-raced down the frontstretch and into turn one. Harvick held onto the lead despite Stewart in his rearview mirror, earning a margin of victory of .892 of a second.   ●  Harvick’s second career road-course win also had a connection to Stewart. When Harvick won at Sonoma in 2017, he gave Stewart-Haas Racing its second straight victory at the 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course. The winner in 2016? None other than Stewart. It ended up being his 49th and final NASCAR Cup Series victory as Stewart retired from NASCAR racing at the conclusion of the season.   ●  Harvick’s last road-course win was his first in a Ford. When Harvick won at Sonoma in 2017, he became the 83rd different driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race behind the wheel of a Ford. Harvick has now won 23 Cup Series races with Ford, which makes him one of only 13 drivers to win 20 or more races with the manufacturer. He is currently tied with Rusty Wallace and Carl Edwards for 11th on the all-time Ford win list.   ●  Harvick has four road-course wins outside of the NASCAR Cup Series. Two came in the NASCAR Xfinity Series – Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 and Watkins Glen in 2007 – and two were in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – Sonoma in 1998 and Sonoma in 2017. Harvick’s K&N Series win at Sonoma in 1998 was three years before his Cup Series debut on Feb. 26, 2001 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang

Last year’s race at COTA was your first at the track. How did you prepare to race on a track you had never been to before? “My big thing is just memorizing what’s next on the racetrack. You’re never going to get a good feel for the elevation, but I think the Ford simulator gives the best sense of how our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang will perform at COTA. You’re able to sit in your own seat and have your own steering wheel and you’re just in a more realistic surrounding. In iRacing, I spent a lot of time in the V8 Supercar just making laps and trying to make sure I knew the direction of the corners before I got to the simulator so I understood what I was getting into.”   When it comes to road-course racing, do you feel that more of the race is in your hands? “You do have more in your hands, for sure, especially when it comes to shifting and all the different things that could happen. But strategy and track position are a big part of that element too. It’s just like anything else, you’ve got to have the whole piece of the puzzle to put it all together.”   There are now six road-course races on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule compared to just two a few years ago. Do you feel that’s good for the sport? “I think the additions of all of these road courses has been great for the sport. Road racing is the way to expand the sport because there are so many great road courses around the world.”   How do you approach these road-course weekends? “There’s just a lot more time that goes into a road-race week. You have to spend a lot of time in the simulator. You have to spend a lot of time with your previous notes and make sure you have the shift points and all the things that you remember as far as curbs you need to hit and things you don’t need to hit, where you need to be on the racetrack, tire falloff. You have to have everything memorized before you get there so that the first few laps are valuable because you’re still going to be learning the real-life tolerances of the grip level. And you’re going to have to blend that into also trying to do it in a short amount of time and get something out of those practices to give some feedback about the cars. It’s a different preparation week for the road courses than it is anything else.”   Has the diversity of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, combined with the NextGen car, made NASCAR the most prominent motorsports property in the United States? “I think it’s the most relevant motorsport in our country, and I think this year is a huge reminder of that just in the relevance of the way that the car looks to the street car. You can look at everything that’s involved, and you see the sponsors and the big shops and everything that goes with that, but for the most part I would tell you that the drivers and the crew members are very blue collar, very relevant to the common person in our country. So I think that seeing normal people doing pretty exciting things and being able to do what we do, people can relate to the drivers and the team members because they all came from somewhere that was pretty normal. I think it’s just very relatable from being able to watch it on TV or go to the racetrack, and it’s been here for more than 70 years. It’s just become a generational thing because of families watching. In the end, I think the competitors are very relatable to the common person.”   NASCAR is filled with racers – people who are working at the pinnacle of the sport after starting at the grassroots level. Does it takes a racer’s mentality to make it to this level and then stay there? “NASCAR is the pinnacle of motorsports in our country, just because of the fact that whether you raced at a local short track, worked on a car, drove a car, your goal was to wind up in NASCAR and be at the top level at some particular point. We see people come from all forms of racing and try to be a part of it. It’s just where everybody wants to be. No matter how you get here, where you came from or what you worked on or drove, NASCAR is really the top level of racing in our country.”   COTA is a race weekend that features all three of NASCAR’s top national touring series – Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck. How important is it for the drivers in the Xfinity and Truck Series to be racing on the same weekend at the same track where the Cup Series is racing? “It’s important to have these training grounds at the same facilities, with a lot of the same officials, and to be able to see what’s happening during practice and how teams function. It all happens at such a young age for a lot of the drivers who come up, now. You have to be able to see the professionalism of what’s happening and how it functions, the marketing side of what happens. There’s a lot more to it than just jumping into the racecar. And you see the huge production of the race weekends, and coming to your first Truck race, and coming on a Truck weekend and being able to see the facilities that you get to race in, it’s an eye-opening experience. But you have to have somewhere that you can do that. The good news is, in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, you can see all that, and there are a lot of things you can check off the list in the Xfinity and Truck Series before you get to Cup.”

Chase Briscoe is 20/1 to win at COTA

 

CHASE BRISCOE COTA Advance No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36) ● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 27 ● Location: Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas ● Layout: 3.426-mile, 20-turn road course ● Laps/Miles: 68 laps/231.88 miles ● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 15 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 38 laps ● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) head to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, for the sixth stop on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. The 27-year-old driver is fresh off a frustrating 15th-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Briscoe started on the pole and led five of the first six laps of the race before getting hung out of the pack and falling toward the back of the field. The No. 14 team worked its way back into the top-five before Briscoe and Ford Performance teammate Ryan Blaney got loose while making a run for the lead and made contact with the outside wall on the final lap.   ● With five races complete, Briscoe currently holds a spot in the 16-driver playoff field by virtue of his win two weekends ago at Phoenix Raceway. He has two top-five finishes and sits third in points, 15 behind leader Chase Elliott.   ● In last year’s inaugural event at COTA, Briscoe earned his first Cup Series top-10, finishing sixth after starting 27th. He went on to earn two additional top-10s, both coming at road course events – sixth at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and ninth at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. When the Cup Series took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in August, Briscoe qualified second and led 12 laps, nearly earning his first Cup Series victory before going off track with two laps to go and incurring a penalty that ended his bid.   ● In addition to his top-10 performances in the Cup Series, two of Briscoe’s biggest wins in the NASCAR Xfinity Series came on road courses. His first win, earned on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval in 2018, has been credited as the win that saved his career. In 2020, when the Xfinity Series debuted its stock cars on the Indianapolis road course, Briscoe led a race-high 30 of 62 laps to capture a dominating win in front of his hometown crowd.   ● This Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix serves as a home race for Mahindra Tractors, a brand of Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America. Part of Mahindra Group’s Automotive and Farm Sector, Mahindra Ag North America is the No. 1-selling farm tractor company in the world, based on volumes across all company brands. Mahindra farm equipment is engineered to be easy to operate by first-time tractor or side-by-side owners, and heavy duty to tackle the tough jobs of rural living, farming and ranching. Steel-framed Mahindra tractors and side-by-sides are ideal for customers who demand performance, reliability and comfort at a great value. Mahindra dealers are independent, family-owned businesses located throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How are things behind the scenes with your new sponsors?  “It’s been really cool. I’ve been super fortunate my entire career. I’ve had really good relationships with all of the sponsors I’ve had and they are all incredible people. We’ve been able to build a lot of really cool things, but Mahindra Tractors is different in that it’s really the first time I’ve been aligned, with the exception of maybe one or two times, with an actual consumer brand. You look at HighPoint.com, for example, it’s not as much of a consumer play. It’s more of a B2B thing, whereas Mahindra is trying to sell tractors to fans and that’s something that I haven’t really had at the higher levels of NASCAR. It’s been cool to see the approach and what they’re trying to do to correlate that over to tractor sales, and it’s been a lot of fun. Anytime you can bring a new partner into the sport, it’s special, and to be able to do it in a way that we’ve been able to do it and make a big splash, it’s all because of them. They are obviously investing a lot, not only with the race team but with our broadcast partners and things like that. Not only are they seeing the success in all of this, but it’s also helping my brand to let people see my personality in these commercials and some of the other things we’re working on. We’re not done, yet. It’s just been a lot of fun for me to see how enthusiastic they are about this race team and it’s been a lot of fun.”   What are your thoughts about COTA based on last year’s race? “From the racetrack standpoint, I feel like I’m kind of going there for the first time, just because last year I don’t think I ever ran a single lap in the dry. I think we practiced, qualified, everything in the wet, so it’s going to be like learning a whole new racetrack this week. I know from a facility standpoint it’s pretty remarkable. It’s super cool to go out there. Even last year in the rain, there were a ton of fans out there, so I’m excited to see what it looks like this year. I didn’t get to do a ton of exploring in the city last year, but I know Austin is a really cool town. I’m going to try to do a little bit more this year while we’re there, just because we’re there a little bit longer than usual. I’m super excited to get back. I’m really excited, truthfully, just to get this Next Gen car on a road course. Based on some of the testing we did on the (Charlotte) Roval, they’re a blast to run on the road course. I’m curious to see what the racing will be like. I think it will definitely change the landscape of these road-course races. I think you’re going to see a lot more guys that are competitive than in years past because you can drive this car so much harder. It does a lot of things a lot better than the old car, so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out and plays out. It looks like the weather is going to be really good and it should be a great show.”   What can we expect this weekend on a dry track, in comparison? “I think it’ll definitely be different than what we saw last year. I mean, last year’s race will look way different than this year’s race with the weather. It was a different style of racing when it was that wet, but from a driver’s standpoint it’s a lot of fun, just the visibility is obviously tough. And then, from a fan’s standpoint, it’s tough to see what’s going on and a little more miserable than if it was a really nice day. I think this car on the road courses is where it’s really going to shine and, truthfully, on the oval stuff, it’s been a lot better than what people expected. I think the road course is probably going to blow it out of the park. It’s a really well-built racecar, especially for road-course racing. It’s going to be interesting to see with 40 of us out there going for it versus just a test session where only a couple of guys are on track, but I think COTA is a really good racetrack to unveil this thing on a road course and I’ve been really excited to get there, so I’m looking forward to it.”   You’ve had a chance to work with Joey Hand in preparation for the road-course races on the schedule. How has he helped you with your road-course development? “It’s been huge. Joey is obviously an extremely good road-course racer. He has a little bit of a dirt background, so he can kind of relate to what I go through, but it’s been huge. Anytime you can have somebody come from a different discipline and different style driving cars and give input, it’s huge. We’ve seen that with other manufacturers kind of doing the same thing and, for me, I like criticism. I like people telling me what I’m doing wrong, and he literally just gave me a whole sheet of different things I could try. And I think the good thing about being at the simulator and having Joey there is just the fact that you can run laps, he can see it and come out and say, ‘Hey, try this, this and this,’ and you can apply it. You don’t have to wait until the weekend to try things. I know last year I was definitely able to find speed in places that he was telling me to try based on what we did in the simulator. Now we have to race against him. I’ve been telling him that I think he’s going to be really, really good this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see how those guys run. This thing, in a sense, is a lot like a sportscar, which is what he’s used to, so I’m excited to see him run this weekend and think he’ll be one of the guys to beat.”