STEWART-HAAS RACING
AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400
Date: April 14, 2024
Event: AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 (Round 9 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/85 laps/102 laps)
Note: Race extended nine laps past its scheduled 267-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
SHR Finish:
● Chase Briscoe (Started 5th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 26th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
● Noah Gragson (Started 21st, Finished 18th / Running, completed 276 of 276 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 25th, Finished 36th / Accident, completed 136 of 276 laps)
SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (12th with 231 points, 105 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (24th with 137 points, 199 out of first)
● Josh Berry (27th with 130 points, 206 out of first)
● Noah Gragson (29th with 122 points, 214 out of first)
SHR Notes:
● Briscoe earned his fourth top-10 of the season and his third top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas.
● This was Briscoe’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was ninth, earned March 10 at Phoenix Raceway.
● This was Briscoe’s second straight top-10. He finished 10th last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
● This was Briscoe’s fourth straight top-15 at Texas and his third straight top-10 at the 1.5-mile oval. In his past four NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas, Briscoe has finished 15th, fifth, 10th and sixth.
● Briscoe finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.
● Preece earned his third top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in eight career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas.
● Preece’s 12th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Texas – 18th, earned in October 2020.
● This was Gragson’s third straight top-20. He finished 12th March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and 20th last Sunday at Martinsville.
● Gragson’s 18th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Texas – 21st, earned in September 2022.
Race Notes:
● Chase Elliott won the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 to score his 19th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Texas.
● There were 16 caution periods for a total of 72 laps.
● All but seven drivers finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Larson remains the championship leader after Texas with an 18-point advantage over second-place Martin Truex Jr.
Sound Bites:
“Our car was really good. We were able to finish fifth in both stages and we’d done everything perfect up until the point of the spin. We were going to be the race leader. The 23 (Bubba Wallace) was on way older tires. We both went into turn one so hard and then the 21 (Harrison Burton) took us three-wide and we both just kind of wrecked. We got lucky at the end with the cautions. Our Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang was really, really good today. Way better than sixth place. I feel like I keep saying the same thing, but man, it’s frustrating where we finish because we’re way better speed-wise. Overall, just a really solid day and a really solid points day. I feel like our win is right around the corner.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“Ultimately, I wish the cautions would’ve worked out a little different. Once we had the 8 (Kyle Busch) and 22 (Joey Logano) cars behind us, it was a struggle to keep from being put three-wide. Having as old of tires as we did, I was just trying to protect my position. When I restarted on the outside that last time, it was just too much to handle and we dropped out of the top-10.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“It felt like we had a good car. We were going to cycle fifth, sixth or seventh during that one round of green-flag pit stops and just got stuck a lap down with the caution that came out. That happened a couple of times, so we had to fight and come from the back a couple of times today with those scenarios. Overall, we had a top-10 run going all day and just didn’t come home with it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“We were going to run fine. We were almost in the top-10. I felt like the car was pretty good. Rodney (Childers, crew chief) made good calls there on the strategy to keep tires on it. The first time I felt like we got stacked on the bottom a little bit and when the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) moved down, either he barely clipped me or just the air off his car was the problem. It was super close. Honestly, I think we made a little bit of contact and it just got me loose and out of control. The second time I was just out there riding around and I was just out there loose and trying to hang on to it and wrecked again.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Miner Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the GEICO 500 on Sunday, April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
