Aric Almirola Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service In a battle of two of stock car racing’s titans, Kevin Harvick swapped the lead with Kyle Busch and held off the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion over an intense string of closing laps to win Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Harvick picked up his ninth victory of the season, his second of the Round of 16 in the Playoffs and his third at Bristol. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford finished .310 seconds ahead ofRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Thunder Valley this weekend for the annual Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, a showdown under the lights on the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” that is sure to leave sheet metal twisted and tempers flaring once these drivers get done battling for 500 laps. Racing at Bristol is always intense, but when the lights go down for the night race, the intensity gets cranked to 11. The aggressiveness that the drivers will show on the high-banked bullringRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Two races down, one to go. With the conclusion of Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond, the first round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is nearly complete, with Bristol Motor Speedway and the first elimination race looming large next weekend for those drivers who have yet to lock themselves into the next round. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin are safe from whatever carnage may lie ahead at the Last Great Colusseum as the Playoff field is cut from 16 to 12.Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Brad Keselowski made good on a confident Babe Ruth-like prediction earlier this week when he said he expected to dominate and win Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 Playoff race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. Dominate, he did. After leading a race best 192 of the 400 laps at the three-quarter mile track, Keselowski scored an impressive 2.568-second victory over Martin Truex Jr. to guarantee his position in the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. It’s Keselowski’s fourth win of the season inRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Race No. 2 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs is here as the championship contenders get set to take on the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway. After a barn burner in last weekend’s Southern 500 at Darlington to kick off the first round of the Playoffs, the traveling circus moves north to Virginia for its first visit to Richmond this season after the first race, originally scheduled for this spring, was moved elsewhere due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this year’s raceRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Pending who you ask among the NASCAR Cup Series playoff contenders, they’ll likely say Aric Almirola is the true dark horse contender for this year’s 10-race championship odyssey. Who can blame them as Almirola has had a career year with a career-high five top-fives and 14 top-10s in just the regular season alone. Due to him being more consistency than last season, it was good enough for both Stewart-Haas Racing and long time sponsor Smithfield re-upping their deals for next season on Tuesday. Almirola said thatRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Stewart-Haas Racing will have all four of its cars competing for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, occupying 25% of the post-season grid. That hasn’t stopped Vice President of Competition Greg Zipadelli from discussing about the team’s future. During Monday morning’s video conference, two highly touted drivers were brought up to “Zippy” as to whether or not he’d be interested of having them in the Ford camp. Those being Xfinity Series star Chase Briscoe and the currently suspended Cup racer Kyle Larson. Even if its current lineupRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service There was no drama in Kevin Harvick’s victory in the Drydene 311 at Dover International Speedway, an old-fashioned thrashing in the back end of a Saturday/Sunday NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader. There was more than enough suspense, however, in the battle between Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and William Byron for the final position in the Cup Playoffs. After winning the first stage at the high-banked concrete Monster Mile, Harvick had already clinched the regular-season Cup championship and the 15-Playoff-point bonus that goes with it,Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Kevin Harvick’s victory in Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway gave the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford team a weekend race sweep and a whole lot of momentum as the NASCAR Cup Series closes out its regular season schedule at the end of this month. Harvick’s win is a series-best sixth of the season and 55th of his career – placing the 44-year old Californian 10th on the NASCAR Cup Series all-time wins list tied with NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service With two wins in his pocket heading into Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski was already in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but it was this third win of 2020 that came in the sort of dominating style the championship contender hoped would show his team’s readiness to challenge for the season title. Keselowski, 36, led a race best 184 of the 301 laps around the “Magic Mile” and held off runner-up Denny Hamlin by 1.647-seconds to hoistRead More