Stewart-Haas Racing: Richmond 400

Race Winner:  Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Winner:  Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner:  Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

 

SHR Race Finish:            

● Kevin Harvick (Started 7th, Finished 2nd / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)

● Chase Briscoe (Started 4th, Finished 11th / Running, completed 400 of 400 laps)  

● Aric Almirola (Started 10th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 398 of 400 laps)

● Cole Custer (Started 12th, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 398 of 400 laps)

 

SHR Points:

● Kevin Harvick (8th with 193 points, 48 out of first)

● Chase Briscoe (9th with 192 points, 49 out of first)

● Aric Almirola (11th with 184 points, 57 out of first)

● Cole Custer (26th with 105 points, 136 out of first)

 

SHR Notes:        

● Harvick earned his first top-five and third top-10 of the season with his second-place finish in the Richmond 400. It was his 16th top-five and 28th top-10 in 42 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond.

● This was Harvick’s best finish so far this season. His previous best was a sixth-place drive March 13 at Phoenix Raceway.

● Harvick’s 28 top-10s at Richmond are the most among active drivers.

● This was Harvick’s second straight top-10 at Richmond. He finished eighth in the series’ prior visit to the track last September.

● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only one finish outside the top-15 at Richmond.

● Harvick finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn a bonus point and seventh in Stage 2 to earn four more bonus points.

● Briscoe earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond.

● Briscoe’s 11th-place finish bettered his previous best result at Richmond – 16th, earned last September.

 

Race Notes:       

● Denny Hamlin won the Richmond 400 to score his 47th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Richmond. His margin over Harvick was .552 of a second.

● There were five caution periods for a total of 35 laps.

● Only 16 of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

● Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott leave Richmond tied for the championship lead with a 19-point advantage over third-place Martin Truex Jr.

 

Sound Bites:

 

“Just proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula Ford Mustang for staying there and having a great strategy and doing everything they did all day. We kept chipping away at it and they had the right strategy to win the race and just wound up one short. We finally had a day where nothing went wrong. Cars have been fast. Had a shot there at the end. I wanted to be close enough with the white (flag) to just take a swipe at him (Denny Hamlin). The lapped cars there kind of got in the way and I lost a little bit of ground. Still a great day for us. Just hopefully a little momentum in a positive direction.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Triple Action Formula Ford Mustang

 

“We obviously had a really good starting position, but in the beginning we fought a lot of balance issues and I think we fell all the way to 28th from fifth. It wasn’t looking the greatest, but we just continued to get our car better. That’s definitely the farthest off we’ve been all year and to still be able to finish 11th is a good day. We got lucky and got a quick caution and were able to get the lucky dog, and from there our car was actually driving pretty good and was able to drive up in the top-five at one point. We just tried the gamble strategy with the win already and it didn’t work out. To finish 11th, we probably could’ve run a little bit better if our tires had held on a little bit more, but after being 25th at one point and a lap down with about 200 to go, we’ll definitely take it.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

 

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 on Saturday, April 9 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

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