Stewart-Haas Racing: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix from COTA

Race Winner:  Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Winner:  Daniel Suárez of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 2 Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

 

SHR Race Finish:            

●  Kevin Harvick (Started 18th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 69 of 69 laps)

●  Aric Almirola (Started 25th, Finished 19th / Running, completed 69 of 69 laps)

●  Cole Custer (Started 3rd, Finished 23rd / Running, completed 69 of 69 laps)

●  Chase Briscoe (Started 14th, Finished 30th / Running, completed 69 of 69 laps)  

 

SHR Points:

●  Aric Almirola (8th with 168 points, 40 out of first)

●  Chase Briscoe (9th with 166 points, 42 out of first)

●  Kevin Harvick (14th with 153 points, 55 out of first)

●  Cole Custer (28th with 90 points, 118 out of first)

 

SHR Notes:        

●  This was Harvick’s fourth finish of 12th or better this year. His season-best finish is sixth, earned March 13 at Phoenix Raceway.

●  Harvick’s 11th-place finish bettered his previous best result at COTA – 37th, earned in the inaugural race last May.

●  Almirola’s 19th-place finish bettered his previous best result at COTA – 26th.

●  Almirola finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.

●  Almirola is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to finish on the lead lap in every race this season.

●  Custer’s 23rd-place finish bettered his previous best result at COTA – 36th.

●  Briscoe finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.

●  Briscoe led once for two laps – his first laps led at COTA.

 

Race Notes:       

●  Ross Chastain won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to score his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory. His margin over second-place Alex Bowman was 1.331 seconds. Chastain is the sixth different race winner in the six races run this season.

●  There were nine caution periods for a total of 13 laps.

●  All but seven of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Chase Elliott remains the championship leader after COTA with a 13-point advantage over second-place Ryan Blaney.

 

Sound Bites:

 

“We had speed, so that was good. I wish we had ended up better with One Cure on the car and all the donations and everything. It’s just frustrating – everything about it in the second half of the race. We got spun and we should’ve ended up way better, but it was definitely good for us to have speed coming here and that will bode well for the other road-course races.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 One Cure Ford Mustang

 

“We were able to keep making the car better through the race and at the end there it felt like we had a chance. The 1 (Ross Chastain) kind of ran me off and I was trying to get back to him and made a mistake and let the 16 (AJ Allmendinger) by. Then I locked the left-front (tire) up on a restart and from there every restart after we were just trying to hold on and we blew the right front (tire) on the last restart. We had another really fast Mahindra Tractors Mustang, which is encouraging. We had the speed and we were able to run up front again. We just need to put it all together. That has been the story all year long. If we can put the whole thing together, we are really tough. That is what we did in Phoenix and we just need to continue doing that.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

 

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, April 3 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

SHR PR