Stewart-Haas Racing Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Clint Bowyer’s career resurgence in 2017 took another step forward on Monday as the Emporia, Kansas native was able to leave Monday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway with a second place finish, his best finish since a third place result at Auto Club Speedway last month. Bowyer started the day in ninth place, but was unable to finish inside the top-10 in either the first or second stage as he battled handling issues that had him hanging onto the lead lap. On lapRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After seven races have been completed in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, there are definitely some teams that have stepped up their performance from last season, while others have stumbled out of the gate thus far in the season. As the series takes their first off-weekend of the year before embarking on a marathon run into late August, we’ll take a look at performance of the top teams in NASCAR’s premier division up to this point and how they rank amongst their peersRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Writer FORT WORTH, Texas — It had been a rocky start to the season for NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year contender Cole Custer. Through the first five races of 2017, the 19-year-old driver had already crashed out twice (Daytona and Fontana), and had finished 21st-or-worse in three races. In Saturday’s My Bariatric Solutions 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, Custer flipped the script and had one of the best races of his brief Xfinity Series career. Custer rolled from the grid in the sixth position toRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor It may have taken him nearly two years, but Clint Bowyer finally made it back into the top-five at the end of a race after finishing third in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Bowyer had not finished in the top-five since finishing fifth at the 2015 Bristol night race, a drought of 52 races, but with Stewart-Haas power behind him, Bowyer is definitely back to having fun behind the wheel again. “It was just a good weekend,” said Bowyer.  “I appreciate everybody’sRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Days after NASCAR decided against penalizing Austin Dillon for his run-in with Cole Custer at Phoenix, penalties were still a hot topic when the drivers arrived at Auto Club Speedway and Danica Patrick, who has felt the wrath of NASCAR in the past, weighed in on the penalties, or lack thereof, from the sanctioning body. In 2015, Patrick was fined $25,000 and penalized 25 points for wrecking David Gilliland under caution at Martinsville and just last year earned a behavioral penalty from NASCAR for leavingRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor Following the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix, penalties were expected to come down from NASCAR for post-race inspection issues and on Wednesday afternoon, the sanctioning body laid out the penalties that they had handed down to the teams involved. Brad Keselowski had finished fifth at Phoenix, but after the race, his No. 2 team did not pass weights and measures, failing the post-race rear wheel steer on the Laser Inspection Station. As a result, Keselowski’s finish will be encumbered and crew chiefRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was definitely the first trying race for Stewart-Haas Racing since their offseason transition from Chevrolet to Ford. Kevin Harvick, who came into the race as the point leader, had his day come to a crashing halt on lap 69 when his right front tire exploded just after he crossed the start finish line in the sixth position. Harvick, who had never recorded a DNF at Las Vegas before Sunday, would be credited with a 38th-place finish. DaytonaRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer Heading into the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Cole Custer is riding on some momentum after earning his first Top 10 finish of the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series season last weekend. Custer also finished inside the Top 10 at the end of each stage at Atlanta, and he was one of only four Xfinity Series regulars to do so. Custer has one previous start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway which came last season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He startedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service HAMPTON, Ga. – Thanks to the unintentional generosity of the dominant driver in Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, opportunistic Brad Keselowski won the second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Kevin Harvick led 292 of the 325 laps at the 1.54-mile track, but a pit road speeding penalty under caution on Lap 311 sent him to the back of the field for the final restart. That gave Keselowski the chance he needed, and on Lap 319 he surged past KyleRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor There is bad luck and then there is Kevin Harvick’s luck at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Heading into Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Harvick had been the dominant car in the three previous races at the track, leading the most laps in each of those events, but failing to capture the victory at the end of the day for various reasons, whether it be a bad restart, a bad pit stop, or something else. On Sunday, Harvick once again found himself in the catbird seatRead More