KEVIN HARVICK
Atlanta Advance
No. 4 Busch Light #Break4Busch Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 5 of 36)

● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 19

● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia

● Layout: 1.54-mile oval

● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles

● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps

● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Want to make the commercial breaks during FOX’s broadcast of the Ambetter Health 400 NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway work for you? So does Busch Light. The coldest and smoothest light lager is providing race fans with the chance to win some cool prizes during commercial breaks. Just follow @BuschBeer on Twitter, turn on notifications, and tweet #Break4Busch and #Sweepstakes every time there’s a commercial break for your chance to win a vintage cooler, a year’s worth of beer, and a Kevin Harvick-autographed replica Busch Light racing helmet. FOX’s coverage of the race begins at 3 p.m. EDT.

● Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light #Break4Busch Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), comes into Atlanta on a three-race streak of top-10 finishes. It began with a fifth-place drive Feb. 26 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, before a ninth-place run March 5 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and continued last Sunday with a another fifth-place finish at Phoenix Raceway. Harvick’s worst result this year is 12th, earned in the season-opening Daytona 500. His average finish of 7.8 four races into the 2023 season has Harvick second in the championship standings, just three points behind leader Alex Bowman.

● The Atlanta of today is not the Atlanta Harvick and most of his counterparts grew up knowing. The 1.54-mile oval was reconfigured after the final race of the 2021 season. The banking was increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and the track was narrowed from 55-feet wide to 40-feet wide, and it was all covered in fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to recreate the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. NASCAR Cup Series drivers competed on the new layout for the first time last March, where Harvick led 11 laps before finishing 21st. In the series’ return visit to the track in July, Harvick finished 12th.

● Sunday’s Ambetter 400 will mark Harvick’s 35th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Atlanta – the most of any active driver – but only his third on the new configuration. In his 32 starts on the old layout, Harvick led the way with a series-high nine top-fives, 16 top-10s (tied with Kurt Busch), 1,348 laps led and 10,127 laps completed. Who is the all-time leader at Atlanta? That’s none other than Richard Petty. They call him “The King” for a reason: 65 career Cup Series starts at Atlanta with six wins, 22 top-fives, 33 top-10s and 1,827 laps led with 17,513 laps completed.

● Harvick’s first NASCAR Cup Series win at Atlanta was the first of his career, and it came 22 years ago on March 11, 2001. The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 was just Harvick’s third race in a Cup Series car. He started fifth in the 325-lap contest and led twice for 18 laps, including the final six. But Harvick had to earn the win on the final lap and hold off a then three-time champion in Jeff Gordon. Harvick succeeded, outdueling the eventual 2001 series champion to take the win by a scant .006 of a second margin of victory – the seventh-closest finish in NASCAR history.

● Of course, the backstory to that first win is significant. Harvick wasn’t just driving any racecar when he won at Atlanta. He was driving the racecar that less than a month earlier had been piloted by the sport’s titan, Dale Earnhardt. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion died on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Team owner Richard Childress tabbed Harvick, who was racing for him in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, to pull double-duty and take over Earnhardt’s Cup ride. The No. 3, made iconic by Earnhardt, was changed to the No. 29 and Harvick made his Cup Series debut Feb. 25 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. Harvick started 36th that Sunday at Rockingham, but rain washed over the 1.017-mile oval just 51 laps into the 393-lap race. The race resumed at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, whereupon Harvick drove to a solid 14th-place finish. He then traveled to Las Vegas on Tuesday, married his wife, DeLana, on Wednesday, and was back in a racecar on Friday, competing in both the Xfinity Series and Cup Series events at Las Vegas. After finishing eighth on Sunday to score his first career top-10 in the Cup Series, Harvick headed to Atlanta where the first of his 60 career Cup Series wins was secured.

● Harvick’s two other NASCAR Cup Series wins at Atlanta came with SHR. In February 2018, Harvick won the Folds of Honor 500. He led eight times for a race-high 181 laps on his way to defeating runner-up Brad Keselowski by an impressive 2.690 seconds. Harvick’s most recent Atlanta victory came in February 2020 in the Folds of Honor 500. Harvick again led the most laps, pacing the field four times for 151 laps en route to an even greater margin of victory – 3.527 seconds over Kyle Busch.

● Harvick is also incredibly good at Atlanta outside of the NASCAR Cup Series. He has five Xfinity Series wins at the track, including four in his last six starts at the 1.54-mile oval, the most recent of which ended in victory – February 2018 when he walloped the field, leading four times for a race-high 141 laps and cruising to the win with a 4.183-second margin over second-place Joey Logano. In 17 career Xfinity Series start at Atlanta, Harvick has 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s with 973 laps led. And in his two NASCAR Truck Series starts at Atlanta, Harvick has a win and a second-place finish. He finished second in his Truck Series debut at Atlanta in March 2009, where he led four times for a race-high 68 laps before coming up .122 of a second short of beating Kyle Busch for the win. But in Harvick’s Truck Series return to Atlanta in March 2010, he dominated by leading twice for a race-high 100 laps and this time besting runner-up Kyle Busch by 1.308 seconds.

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light #Break4Busch Ford Mustang

There were a lot of unknowns when the NASACAR Cup Series raced at Atlanta this time last year. After two races on the reconfigured layout in March and July, respectively, what are your thoughts for your return visit this weekend?

“It’s just a superspeedway race on a mile-and-a-half racetrack. Things just happen a lot faster, so the decisions have to happen faster, the cars move around a lot more, the corners come up a lot quicker. A lot more seat-of-your-pants, just, ‘Go here, go there, do this, do that.’ And I think that the way the lines formed and moved and everything happened, you just had to get used to a different style of race than we’ve had before.”

Did the new Atlanta perform like Daytona and Talladega, or was the Atlanta race its own animal?

“It’s got some characteristics of superspeedway racing in the way that you wind up in a pack and you’re holding it wide open. But the way that the bumps and things are there, and the way you have to go into the corner, and the way the race developed, there wasn’t near as much pushing and shoving as there is at Daytona and Talladega.”

The first of your 60 career NASCAR Cup Series wins came at Atlanta 22 years ago. How did that race weekend unfold for you?

“We went in and, really for the whole weekend, we were competitive throughout each practice. Atlanta is always one of those places where you just want to keep yourself on the lead lap, and as the race went on, we wound up in a position there at the end of the race where it was myself, Jerry Nadeau, Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon and I believe fifth place was Dale Jarrett. And we just had a heck of a race for the last 25 laps and I think I took the lead three-wide down the front straightaway, which was probably like taboo at the time – racing etiquette was much different. I took the lead and Jeff Gordon had, by far, the fastest car on that particular day, but he somehow wound up a lap down and had to come from the back of the field. I don’t remember much about that particular day other than mixing it up like that, and the only reason I remember is because I’ve seen it so many times. Really, the only things that I remember about that particular day, because there was so much going on in life, in general, at that particular point, you didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. I just got married and there were so many things happening that you were emotionally confused. For me, the things that I remember were coming to the white flag, and the people on the backstretch had climbed up on the fence and I remember coming back the last lap and having to decide top or bottom, and I chose the top and wound up about losing the race because I underdrove the car. But that’s really the only thing that I remember other than, after my burnouts, it was the only race that I remember where the crowd was so loud that you could hear the people screaming and hollering over the engine of the car, and I think that was because everybody was just emotionally confused and people were screaming and they didn’t know whether they should scream because they were happy or sad. It was one of those moments that everybody didn’t expect to be in and there we were. I do remember driving around the track backward and just the people screaming and hollering and hanging on the fence.”

How did that first win at Atlanta change your career?

“Well, everybody kind of already knew your name at that particular point, and I always tell people that things happened backward in my career. They all knew my name first, and then you had to figure out how to earn who you were from that point forward, and then you had to walk everything back in order to be yourself. Everybody knew your name because of Dale’s passing and getting in his car, and then winning the race – that was kind of the moment that solidified the fact that you could do it. And at that point, you did it on the biggest stage because outside of Dale Jr., you had the biggest spotlight shining on you driving that particular car. It was a lot to deal with. Definitely wasn’t ready for all that. Obviously, it solidified the fact that you could drive the car, but dealing with all the things that came after that were difficult because I was 25 and we were just married, and driving home with people standing in your yard, cars parked on your street and everybody knowing where you live, and having to deal with all that was something that we weren’t really ready for.”

Did you feel the magnitude of that win right away, or is it something that time has amplified?

“You look back on it now and you realize the magnitude of all those guys walking out to pit road to congratulate you, and really they understood, or had a better sense of the situation, than I probably did. To get that kind of congratulations from a whole pit road of people is something that shows you the magnitude of the situation. When you look back on it now and you realize what that could have meant in the other direction for your career, it could’ve been catastrophic. But it really was something that, at that moment, kept RCR (Richard Childress Racing) going in the right direction and started to rebuild the process of what it was going to look like over the next decade. You look back on it now, and that was really the start of understanding what your career was going to look like for a while. Now, I look back on it and there are a lot of decisions that I could’ve made a lot better, but it was really a difficult situation that you didn’t even know you were in until you were way done with it.”

Now here you are in your final NASCAR season, still at the top of your game, but knowing that you’ll retire at the end of the year. How did you come to the decision that it was time to call time?

“For me, it was a number of things. Having to make decisions between going to watch my kids do things, and doing things that I had to do. I was looking for more flexibility in my schedule to do the things that I need to do with my kids. I’ve had a great run of 23 years in the Cup Series of success amongst a great group of people everywhere that I’ve been. I still have plans to be involved in the sport in many ways, but I want to get out of that competitive mindset because, for me, I’m absorbed with everything that comes with putting the car on the racetrack from start to finish.”

How much fun is it watching your kids grow up and follow in your footsteps, with son Keelan racing go-karts internationally and daughter Piper also getting into karting?

“I want them to be happy. That’s the real goal. For Keelan, racing has grabbed his attention. And for me, it’s easier to plan things and do things and teach things than a normal stick-and-ball sport. We’ll go through the same process with Piper as she comes along and starts to figure out what she wants to do and where she wants to go and how she wants to do it, and we’ll support that in any way possible as we did with Keelan.”

No. 4 Busch Light #Break4Busch Team Roster

ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY NOTES

Saturday, March 18 – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, 2 p.m. ET (FS1)
Saturday, March 18 – NASCAR Xfinity Series, 5 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, March 19 – NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)

NASCAR returns from its West Coast swing for the first of two visits to Atlanta Motor Speedway as all three top series hit the 1.5-mile track this weekend. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck and NASCAR Xfinity Series will be part of a doubleheader on Saturday with the NASCAR Cup Series taking center stage on Sunday afternoon.

HARVICK LEADS WEST COAST SWING

Even though he didn’t come away with a victory, Kevin Harvick showed his trademark consistency during the recently concluded West Coast swing. After leading 36 laps during the late stages of Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway and running away from the field, an ill-timed caution with nine circuits remaining changed the race’s complexion. The final result for Harvick was a fifth-place finish and completed a three-race stretch as one of only two drivers (Alex Bowman) to post top-10 finishes in each event. Harvick, who was fifth at Auto Club Speedway and ninth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, is second in the point standings.

FOUR FOR FORD

For the fourth consecutive week a different driver has led the way for Ford after Ryan Blaney was the manufacturer’s top finisher at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday in second place. Joey Logano topped the Blue Oval in the season-opening Daytona 500 with a runner-up effort while Kevin Harvick was fifth at Auto Club Speedway and Austin Cindric sixth in Las Vegas.

KESELOWSKI GETS FIRST CUP WIN FOR MUSTANG

Brad Keselowski gave Mustang its first NASCAR Cup Series victory as he held off Martin Truex Jr. at the finish line to win the Folds of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2019. Keselowski, who was battling an illness all weekend and had Austin Cindric standing by in case he needed relief, led the final 33 laps to post his 28th career victory. In all, Ford led 177 of the 325 laps and won for the third straight year at the 1.5-mile track.

HARVICK SWEEPS

Kevin Harvick led eight times for a race-high 181 laps in winning the Folds of Honor 500 in 2018 and completing a sweep of the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY races. After winning all three stages the day before in his Ford Mustang, Harvick took the first stage in the Cup race and then led the final 25 laps to post his 38th career victory and third with Ford. Brad Keselowski finished second and Clint Bowyer third to give Ford a 1-2-3 sweep. Ford dominated from start to finish as four drivers combined to lead 272-of-325 laps. Harvick became the first Ford driver to sweep a Cup/XFINITY weekend since Joey Logano did it in 2015 at Watkins Glen International.

SNOW DAYS

Morgan Shepherd captured Ford’s 400th series victory in 1993 when snow delayed the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 for nearly a week. The original race date was Sunday, March 14, 1992, but a blizzard that would eventually be called the ‘Storm of the Century’ pounded the Atlanta area with 6-8 inches of snow. An estimated 82,000 fans came back the following Saturday, where they were greeted by souvenir rigs with t-shirts proclaiming ‘I Survived the Atlanta Blizzard 500.’ When the race started, Mark Martin had the dominant car as he led 140 of the first 225 laps, but engine problems put him out of the running and Shepherd took advantage as he stretched his fuel mileage to the finish, leading the final 12 laps and winning by a whopping 23.50 seconds. The win for Shepherd, who was 51 at the time, was his fourth and final victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

SWEEP DREAMS

Marvin Panch was the first driver to sweep both AMS races in a single season when he did it in 1965 with the Wood Brothers. Georgia native Bill Elliott posted a pair of season sweeps (1985 and 1992) and won five times overall while Carl Edwards registered the first win of his career at the speedway in 2005 and matched it later that fall.

LORENZEN LAPS THE FIELD

Ford went to victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the first time in 1961 when NASCAR Hall of Famer Fred Lorenzen captured the Festival 250 on July 9 while driving for Holman-Moody. He did it in dominating fashion as well by lapping the field. Lorenzen, who led 52 laps on the day, beat runner-up Bob Welborn by one lap in his 1961 Ford. Richard Petty finished third that afternoon, but was three laps down. That victory served as a springboard for Lorenzen’s future success at AMS, which included becoming the first driver to win the Atlanta 500 three straight years (1962-63-64).

HERBST CONTINUES TOP 10 STREAK

Riley Herbst kept his season-opening Top 10 streak intact last weekend with a fourth-place finish at Phoenix Raceway. That marked his best run of the year, following an eighth-place effort in Las Vegas, seventh-place run in Fontana and sixth-place showing in Daytona. If you go back to the end of the 2022 season, Herbst now has seven straight Top 10 finishes and comes into Saturday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway fifth in the point standings.

FOUR IN TOP FIVE

It’s only been two races for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, but Ford currently dominates the standings with four F-150 drivers holding down spots in the Top 5. Zane Smith, who took the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, leads the series by two points over second-place Ty Majeski – the first of three ThorSport drivers in the Top 5. Teammates Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes are fourth and fifth, respectively. Crafton is the only current driver on the Ford roster with a series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway with that coming in 2015.

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Fr8Auctions.com Ford Team

Atlanta Motor Speedway Competition Notes

TEAM AND RACE NOTES:

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Ford Mustang team are back east this weekend at the Atlanta Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Ambetter Health 400.

Fr8Auctions.com will again make their return as the primary partner for McDowell and the No. 34 crew. This is the eighth consecutive season the Atlanta, Georgia-based asset recovery business has been with Front Row Motorsports (FRM). They are one of the longest-tenured and loyal partners to FRM and now McDowell.

McDowell will qualify at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. Sunday’s 400-mile race will be televised live on FOX at 3:00 p.m. ET.

COMPETITION NOTES:

McDowell and the No. 34 Fr8Auctions.com team will travel to the Atlanta Motor Speedway ready to race. The teams will have no practice before qualifying and racing on the now superspeedway-style track.

McDowell has been making the most of his simulator time, and discussing with Peterson and his engineers on how they should approach the race.

CREW CHIEF TRAVIS PETERSON:

“For sure, we’re ready to take on Atlanta. Michael (McDowell) has been putting in a ton of work getting ready for this race, especially since there won’t be practice. Him and I have been working with one another on the best strategy to approach this weekend with.

“You must stay aggressive. Michael and I both like that approach. We want to race up front and not hang back. It’s worked for both of us more than it has not.”

DRIVER MICHAEL MCDOWELL:

“I’ve always believed being up front is best in these races. We just need to have a great handling Fr8Auction.com Ford Mustang, because you need to be able to make moves. You have to use the entire track because it’s so narrow now. Both racing grooves, you must be fast and handle well in both. And that’s what we’ve been working on before Sunday.”

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series team from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

Todd Gilliland and the No. 38 Gary Martin Hays & Associates Ford Team

Atlanta Motor Speedway Competition Notes

TEAM AND RACE NOTES:

This weekend, Todd Gilliland and the No. 38 Gary Martin Hays and Associates Ford team will tackle the new Atlanta Motor Speedway. Gary Martin Hays & Associates will make their NASCAR Cup Series debut aboard the No. 38 Ford Mustang.

Teams will not practice before qualifying and racing on Saturday and Sunday. The Atlanta Motor Speedway now races like a superspeedway with drafting a premium to win.

Gilliland will qualify at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday. Sunday’s race will be televised live on FOX at 3:00 p.m. ET.

COMPETITION NOTES:

Gilliland is coming to Atlanta after turning heads with his drafting expertise both last season at Daytona and Talladega, and most recently leading the Daytona Duels this February. He made a thrilling save late in the race when bumped out of the lead and potential win.

Gilliland should be considered a contender in Sunday’s race and is ready to leave no doubt about his intentions win.

CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY:

“We have to approach this weekend a little different from others. This is still a new experience for us with this track and we have to rely on our Ford tools to setup the car.

“But we know we have the driver who can get it done. Todd has learned and adopted so quickly to pack and draft racing. It is impressive. We have total confidence he’s going to contend on Sunday to win this race.”

DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:

“It is going to be tough not having any practice laps, but I am always up for a good challenge. Ryan (Bergenty) and the rest of the No. 38 team always build awesome speedway cars. I love this racing, too. It’s stressful and hard, but at the same time I think it’s fun. And I do think we will be racing up front on Sunday.”

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series team from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

ARIC ALMIROLA
Atlanta Race Advance
No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 5 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 19
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.54-mile Oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stages 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Before last year’s racing took place, the 1.5-mile oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway was repaved and reconfigured. The banking in the corners was increased from 24 to 28 degrees, and the track width was reconfigured to vary from 55 to 40 feet. Racing on the intermediate oval now is more akin to that on the big tracks at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and its sister track Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Almirola finished 22nd after leading six laps at Atlanta on March 20, 2022, and returned July 10 to post an eighth-place finish.

● Overcoming adversity is a staple of Almirola’s career. While the start to the 2023 season has not been what the No. 10 Smithfield Ford team is capable of due largely to bad luck and mechanical issues, Almirola has always seemed to find his way back on top. In 2021, The No. 10 team was in the same points position through four races as this year, but Almirola still made the playoffs for his fourth consecutive year at Stewart-Haas Racing. He strives in the underdog position.

● Almirola has a solid record at superspeedways with two wins, six top-fives, 12 top-10s and 84 laps led. In June 2020, he scored his eighth-consecutive top-10 at Talladega to tie the track record for most consecutive top-10s – a mark first set by Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr., from April 2001 to October 2004.

● Last weekend at Phoenix, Almirola raced his way from 31st to 16th before his right-front wheel broke under green-flag conditions, causing the No. 10 driver to make contact with the wall and putting him five laps down.

● Almirola had a strong start in the first two outings of the season by winning his heat race and starting on the pole during the non-points Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Then, in the points-paying season opener at Daytona, the 38-year-old veteran won his Duel qualifying race and led 16 laps Daytona 500 – the most laps he’s led at Daytona in 23 starts.

● Driver Points: Almirola arrives at Atlanta 26th in the driver standings with 56 points.

● Almirola’s career: In 428 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, Almirola has three wins, 28 top-five finishes, 91 top-10s, three poles, and has led 990 laps.

● Fans will see the iconic white, black, and gold Smithfield Foods scheme adorn Almirola’s Ford Mustang this weekend. Smithfield has been a sponsor of Almirola’s for the entirety of his fulltime NASCAR Cup Series career – making it one of the longest-lasting partnerships in NASCAR. Smithfield is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Its 63,000 team members are dedicated to producing “Good food. Responsibly.®” Smithfield is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies. The company has pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including its industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across its entire U.S. value chain by 2030. Smithfield believes in the power of protein to end food insecurity and has donated hundreds of millions of food servings to local communities.

● Beyond the 10 YouTube Series: In 2023, Almirola is continuing to share his life beyond the No. 10 Ford with season five of his award-winning YouTube series. Fans and media can subscribe on YouTube to see Almirola’s personality on and off the track. Episodes have already featured life as a dad, a husband and an athlete, and the show gives fans a unique perspective on what goes on in the life of a professional NASCAR driver. Fans can also follow Almirola’s social media channels: @Aric_Almirola on Twitter and Instagram, and @AricAlmirola on Facebook.

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Despite winning your Duel qualifying race at Daytona, the No. 10 team has had a difficult start to the season. How is your mindset moving forward?

“We have had some of the worst luck to start a season, but we have found speed. The West Coast swing was not for us this year. We had good speed at Fontana before we were collected in a wreck with nowhere to go. Vegas was a top-15 run, and last weekend at Phoenix was by far the fastest car we have had this year. We passed a lot of cars at Phoenix and we easily had a top-six car. If we didn’t have that issue with the wheel, we would have been a contender in the top-five there at the end. I know it. I know this 10 team can find winning speed. Things just have not gone our way, but it’s a long season. I’m ready to hit reset and forget about the start we’ve had. You can’t dwell on it because it’s in the past. We’re going to have really good days and there are always bad days, so we’re going to aim to capitalize on those good days. In 2021, we had an even worse start to the season and we went out and made the playoffs. Last year, we had the most consecutive top-10s in the series to start the season, but we didn’t make the playoffs. You just have to take it one race at a time. One weekend can get you back on track and I hope it starts in Atlanta.”

What are your expectations for the No. 10 Smithfield team at Atlanta this weekend?

“We led some laps in our first start at the new configuration and had a really fast car. We had another fast car in July, too, so I like our chances at Atlanta if we can stay out of trouble and run a clean race. Ideally, we can get up front and have a really good points day to get ourselves out of this hole. Atlanta is a place we can do that, so we’re hoping to bounce back this weekend.”

Is Atlanta just as much of a wild-card race as Daytona and Talladega, now?

“I would say so. It definitely races like a superspeedway, more than I thought it would. It’s definitely a wild-card race. You have guys up front that aren’t normally up front, but you still have to have a fast car and good handling to have a shot at it.”

No. 10 Smithfield Ford Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Aric Almirola

Hometown: Tampa, Florida

Crew Chief: Drew Blickensderfer
Hometown: Decatur, Illinois

Car Chief: Jerry Cook
Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engineer: Davin Restivo
Hometown: Asheboro, North Carolina

Engineer: James Kimbrough
Hometown: Pensacola, Florida

Spotter: Joel Edmonds
Hometown: Dobson, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder
Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Trevor White
Hometown: Arlington, Texas

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard
Hometown: King, North Carolina

Jack Man: Sean Cotton
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener
Hometown: Fortuna, California

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Chris Trickett
Hometown: Grafton, West Virginia

Mechanic: Jacob Cooksey
Hometown: Westbrookville, New York

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller
Hometown: Monroe, New York

Tire Specialist: Russel Simpson
Hometown: Medford, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: Steven Casper
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Matt Murphy
Hometown: Augusta, Georgia

Martin Truex Jr.
Atlanta Advance
No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD for Joe Gibbs Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Ambetter Health 400 (Round 5 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 19
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.5-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Truex and the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry team for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) set the tone for the season right out of the gate by winning the 150-lap feature in the non-points Clash at the Coliseum on Feb. 5 in Los Angeles. Truex won his heat race, then went on to lead the final 25 laps of the feature en route to the victory.

● Looking for No. 1: Truex is still seeking his first Atlanta win. Among his 26 Cup Series starts at Atlanta, Truex has finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th in a Cup Series race during his career at the 1.5-mile oval.

● Prior to the 2022 season, the 1.5-mile Atlanta oval was repaved, its banking in the turns increased from 24 to 28 degrees, and the track reconfigured to vary from 40 to 55 feet. The frontstretch width is now 52 feet while the backstretch and turns are set at 42 and 40 feet wide, respectively. With the repave and reconfiguration, the racing at Atlanta was drastically changed and now more resembles racing at the superspeedways at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

● Truex has six top-five finishes and 13 top-10s and has led a total of 383 laps in 26 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta. Truex’s average Atlanta finish is 15.0. In his last 13 races at Atlanta – 11 on the old surface and two after the repave and banking reconfiguration, Truex has scored six top-fives and 11 top-10s there.

● Ahead at this Stage: Truex leads the NASCAR Cup Series with 56 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, as well. While Truex came close to winning a stage at the season-opening Daytona 500, he does not have a stage win so far this year.

● With his 17th-place finish at Phoenix last weekend, Truex heads to Atlanta 10th in the standings with 122 points, 32 out of the lead.

Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD

With the repaving and reconfiguration of the Atlanta oval before last season, would you qualify it as a speedway race, and what are the new challenges there because of those changes?

“It’s definitely a speedway race, no question about it. Last spring, we led some laps and we were leading there and had a late caution and restarted on the front row. We got a good shove down into (turn) one and (turn) two, and (Corey) Lajoie was leading the inside lane and got up inside of me, and Chase Elliott was stuck up in the middle of us and got us three wide and got into me and shoved me up the hill and got me out of line, and that was it. Sort of what happens at those types of places – you can be in the best spot possible, but you have to count on other guys to help you and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. All I can do is hope we are in the same position this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Camry TRD and maybe things will work out a little bit better in our favor and we can bring home the win.”

How much has superspeedway-style racing changed with the NextGen cars?

“Certainly, I count Atlanta among the speedways now, but I would say that the superspeedways haven’t changed as much as the other tracks with this car. Just the way you can bump draft with this car and the way it drafts is completely different than the previous-generation car. I think right now there are a lot more options as far as how lanes work. Used to be that you would never want anyone on your outside, and now you can pass guys on the bottom a bit easier. So it creates opportunities on the speedways, but you also have to be really aggressive.”

After several races with the new, longer restart zone, how have restarts changed?

“We saw it cause some issues at Fontana, but in Vegas and Phoenix everything was just fine. They tell us not to lay back on restarts all the time, and a lot of guys get away with still doing that. As long as we can all stay closed up, it’s not going to be a problem. It gives the leader an advantage, which is what it should be.”

No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
Hometown: Mayetta, New Jersey

Crew Chief: James Small
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Car Chief: Chris Jones
Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Engineer: Nick Burton
Hometown: Arvada, California

Engineer: Jeff Curtis
Hometown: Fairfax Station, Virginia

Spotter: Drew Herring
Hometown: Benson, North Carolina

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Ryan Martin
Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Virgina

Mechanic: Todd Carmichael
Hometown: Redding, California

Interior/Tire Specialist: Tommy DiBlasi
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engine Tuner: Gregg Huls
Hometown: Beatrice, Nebraska

Transporter Driver: Kyle Bazzell
Hometown: Fairbury, Illinois

Transporter Driver: Eddie DeGroot
Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Over-The-Wall Crew Members

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Jackman: Kellen Mills
Hometown: Mesa, Arizona

Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey
Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina

Front Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham
Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Danny Olszowy
Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky