‘The Lady in Black’ plays hosts to the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend for the first race of the 2021 NASCAR Playoffs. Jack Roush has 20 wins all-time at the South Carolina track, including five in the Cup Series. Most recently, his Fords finished ninth and tenth earlier this season.

Cook Out Southern 500
Sunday, Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. ET
NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

· Ryan Newman, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Bologna Ford Mustang
· Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Performance Ford Mustang

Daytona Recap, Darlington Preview

· Newman employed his usual Superspeedway strategy of laying back early to avoid all of the incidents, before making a late surge and avoiding the last-lap chaos to finish fourth last weekend in Daytona. He was officially credited with third following the disqualification of the No. 17.

· Buescher, on the other hand, put his Fifth Third machine in the mix with aggressive moves late to ultimately lead a handful of laps in the closing laps and take the final NASCAR Overtime restart in first. He crossed the line second behind Ryan Blaney, but NASCAR disqualified his car later in which he was relegated to 40th.

· Oscar Mayer is back on Newman’s No. 6 Ford this weekend at Darlington, and this time will sport a can’t-miss scheme highlighting Bologna.

· Buescher will carry the bright colors of Roush Performance, a scheme he first debuted a season ago and also ran this spring at Phoenix.

Darlington Two-Step

Roush Fenway has twice won consecutive NCS races at Darlington, including a season sweep in 1999 with former driver and current NBC commentator Jeff Burton. Roush Fenway also earned victories in consecutive seasons at the egg-shaped oval in 2005 and 2006 with Biffle.

Tale of the Tape

In 252 all-time NASCAR starts at ‘The Lady in Black,’ Jack Roush’s Fords have 20 wins, 69 top-five and 118 top-10 finishes, along with 20 poles. Over the years RFR has led 4,500+ laps across the Cup, Xfinity and Truck series, with more than 88,000 miles logged at the 1.366-mile track. In NCS action alone, RFR has finished top-10 in 43 percent (71-of-166) of the races with 35 top-five results and five wins.

Kickin’ It Old School

Legendary Roush Fenway drivers Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Greg Biffle are responsible for the five Cup wins for Jack Roush at Darlington. Martin earned Roush’s first Cup win back in 1993 after leading 178 laps. Burton swept the 1999 events as the dominant car, and Biffle earned the two most recent victories in 2005 and 2006.

Most All-Time

It’s no secret that when Roush has dominated in the Xfinity Series at Darlington. In 79 starts, the organization has 15 wins, 33 top-five and 44 top-10s. Mark Martin is responsible for eight of the victories, second-most for him among any track, after winning five of the first seven races at the track for Roush from 1993-96. He also went on to win in 1999 and swept again in 2000. Jeff Burton got in on the fun with wins in 1997, 2001 and 2002, while Biffle earned a win in 2004. Most recently, Kenseth drove to victory lane in 2005 and 2009.

Roush Fenway Darlington Wins

1993-2 Martin Cup
1999-1 Burton Cup
1999-2 Burton Cup
2005 Biffle Cup
2006 Biffle Cup
1993-2 Martin NXS
1994-1 Martin NXS
1994-2 Martin NXS
1995-2 Martin NXS
1996-1 Martin NXS
1997-2 Burton NXS
1999-2 Martin NXS
2000-1 Martin NXS
2000-2 Martin NXS
2001-2 Burton NXS
2002-1 Burton NXS
2002-2 Burton NXS
2004-1 Biffle NXS
2005 Kenseth NXS
2009 Kenseth NXS

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team head into Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with some current momentum and some long-term team history on their side.

DiBenedetto and the Wood Brothers team have been on a roll lately, finishing in the top 11 six-straight times before being involved in a crash while racing for the lead at Daytona last Saturday night.

And the iconic No. 21 Mustang will be carrying a throwback paint scheme honoring the 21st straight year of Motorcraft backing the Wood Brothers team.

It also celebrates the 20th anniversary of Elliott Sadler’s first Cup win, which came at Bristol Motor Speedway in the Motorcraft-sponsored Wood Brothers Ford. That was the first victory for the Wood Brothers/Motorcraft pairing.

DiBenedetto said driving the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang, with its throwback paint scheme, in the fabled 500-miler at the NASCAR’s original superspeedway is a combination to be proud of.

“The Southern 500 is a big one, especially when driving the 21 there,” he said, adding that he’s disappointed to not be a part of the 10-race Playoffs, which begin Sunday night.

“It stinks we missed the Playoffs, but the amount of momentum we have as a team is awesome,” he said.

The 71-year-old Darlington track, known as the Lady in Black, is always challenging for drivers, but this year there will be a new factor involved. Turn Two has been repaved to prevent seepage of water in the event of rain prior to the races, according to published reports.

“It’s going to be interesting to watch the races before us to see how the new asphalt in Turn Two affects the cars and the racing,” DiBenedetto said.

There will be no practice or qualifying prior to the start of Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500. DiBenedetto will line up 30th, as the starting order was set based on results from Daytona, where he finished 25th.

The green flag is set to fly just after 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Stage breaks will be at Laps 115 and 230.

NBCSN will carry the TV broadcast.

About Motorcraft:

Motorcraft offers a complete line of replacement parts that are recommended by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to underhood repairs, Motorcraft parts offer value with high quality and the right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available nationwide at Ford and Lincoln Dealers, independent distributors and automotive parts retailers, and are backed by the Service Parts Limited Warranty of Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com.

About Omnicraft:

Omnicraft is part of the Ford lineup of parts brands: Ford Parts, Motorcraft and Omnicraft. Omnicraft is the exclusive non-Ford/Lincoln parts brand of premium aftermarket parts. With over a century of parts heritage to build upon, Omnicraft provides excellent quality and fit and is a preferred choice of professional automotive technicians. To find out more about Omnicraft, visit www.omnicraftautoparts.com or contact your local Ford or Lincoln Dealership.

About Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center

Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center offers extraordinary service for routine vehicle maintenance including tire repair and replacement with a Low Tire Price Guarantee and a full menu of automotive services including oil and filter, brakes, alignments, batteries, and shocks and struts on all vehicle makes and models. Service is performed by certified technicians at more than 1,000 locations worldwide while you wait, and no appointment is necessary. For more information about Quick Lane, please visit www.quicklane.com.

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 200,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com.

Wood Brothers Racing

Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Matt DiBenedetto in the famous No. 21 racer.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (September 1, 2021) – The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin this Sunday evening live on NBCSN at 6:00 p.m. ET from the Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

Love’s Travel Stops will fuel McDowell into his first playoff appearance.

Earlier this week, McDowell participated in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff media day. Below are quotes from McDowell provided by Ford Performance:

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang — WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP LIKE WITH ALEX? “I’ve got a good relationship with Alex. I feel like, not just because he’s from Arizona, but I’ve always enjoyed hanging out with him and appreciate his journey too of driving for underfunded teams and Tommy Baldwin and losing his ride last minute and then getting an opportunity to fill-in, so him being successful I felt like was a really neat story, but also an eye-opener to a lot of the owners that just because you’re driving a car that doesn’t run up front every weekend doesn’t mean you don’t have the ability, so I’ve always been a fan and pulling for him, and being from Arizona, I mean, if we count Tucson as part of Arizona (laughing). He’s got a great opportunity this year with those Hendrick cars being so fast. Obviously, he’s got two wins and a really good spot to contend for the championship this year, so that’s good for him. He did run me off the road there at Sonoma for a top 10, so I won’t be getting him back in the near future here in the playoffs, but if you see him, you just let him know.”

WHO HAVE YOU SOUGHT OUT FOR PLAYOFF ADVICE AND WHAT HAS STUCK OUT? “Even though we locked in, so to speak, early, there’s always that chance that there are more than 16 winners, so I didn’t really feel locked in. I never really allowed myself to get super excited about that until two or three weeks ago when it was finally official that we’d be locked in. As far as advice and things like that, it’s a little bit challenging because the drivers that are current right now aren’t gonna give you much advice, but I spent a little bit of time with Clint Bowyer last week at a Ford event, a Ford promotion that we were doing and talked about the playoffs and talked about Richmond coming up and just how he approached things, so everybody’s got a different style and a different philosophy. I feel like for our team and where we’re at we sort of know what we have to do and how we have to do it, and so we kind of have our own approach to it.”

DO YOU FIND YOU’RE HAVING TO CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS AT ALL WITH THIS BEING YOUR FIRST TIME IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Today has been fun and just talking about being in the playoffs and what it means. It kind of makes you appreciate and just enjoy the process, but more than anything for me is I’ve just been pretty laser focused on what I need to do and what we need to do. I haven’t really allowed myself to get too far ahead of where we’re at. Right now, we have Darlington and Darlington is the most important race in my life, and after Darlington it’ll be Richmond, so I haven’t thought about a lot of those extra things. I’m just trying to make sure we’re as prepared as we can for what’s in front of us, but at the same time, like I said, I’m extremely thankful to have the opportunity to race for a championship and to be a part of one of 16 drivers to do that in NASCAR. But I’m also trying not to let myself overthink things too much.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE PLACES TO EAT AT IN THE PHOENIX AREA? “Being from Phoenix and Glendale and having great Mexican restaurants, that’s probably the thing I miss most in North Carolina. We don’t have the same quality or the same style of Mexican food, so I’m always loading up my crew guys and taking them to different places. My favorite place, Pedro’s in Glendale, actually shut down in the last year or two, so, unfortunately, that ones not there anymore. Macayo’s and POPO’S, those are places that we typically go to. Carlos O’Briens is a place I went to growing up, so there are a lot of great restaurants that we try to hit.”

IS THERE ANY RELIGIOUS ANECDOTE OR LESSON THAT APPLIES TO YOUR SEASON? “I think there’s always a story to the journey and something to take from it. For me, it’s all just about perseverance and endurance and obviously being in this sport a really long time and not having success until this year — a lot of losses, a lot of years where it’s been a grind and a struggle, so that’s probably the thing that resonates the most with me this year is just perseverance and endurance and then also just how it’s paid off. It would have been very easy to give up several years ago and not see it through, but by staying faithful to what I feel like I was supposed to do and grinding through times that weren’t that fun, now I’m getting to enjoy something awesome and experience it. It’s humbling, too. I didn’t have to win the race to feel like I’ve accomplished something, but it has been a moment of joy to take it all in and appreciate it.”

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE CHANGES THAT PHOENIX RACEWAY HAS UNDERGONE? “It’s amazing how much has changed there. I mean, I think I’ve been through three different track configurations and moving the start-finish line and now obviously with everything for the fans in the infield and the experience you can have. The garages and the pavilions, I think it’s one of the cooler racetracks that fans can go to and really see the inner workings of the garage and the teams and just how it all functions. It makes me proud to be from Phoenix and from the area and the race fans are extremely loyal and have been for a long time. So many families and so many campers and motorhomes out there. It truly is a family sport and to be able to have a facility that sort of matches the dedication of our fans is really cool.”

YOUR AVERAGE FINISH HAS BEEN OUTSIDE THE TOP 20 AT THE ROUND OF 16 TRACKS. IS THERE ANYTHING TO GAIN OR LOSE? DO YOU NEED LUCK ON YOUR SIDE TO GET TO THESE NEXT ROUNDS? “Two things with that. This is the best season that I’ve ever had and the best that we’ve performed as a race team, and so statistically it might not look that great but I think if you look back to this year at just our top finishes for me over my career have been this year at a lot of racetracks. I feel like we have the speed and the momentum to surprise some people in the playoffs, but we’re also realistic of where we’re at. I have to have three incredible races in order to advance in the next round and I know that, we know that, we’re not naive to it. We know where we’re at as a race team and what we need to do, so we’ve got to hit home runs here the next three races and if we don’t, we won’t advance. We all know that and we’re ready to see what happens.”

HOW MUCH OF A RESET ARE THE PLAYOFFS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM AFTER THE LAST NINE RACES? “The last handful of races have not been fun. It hasn’t been from a lack of performance. We’ve actually had speed. You go to the Indy road course, running in the top seven there and hit the curb and finish in the thirties. You look at Michigan, where we ran in the top 12 or 13 all day and get tore up on that last restart and finished 20th. It hasn’t been fun the last four or five weeks. Daytona, a DNF with an engine failure, so the reset is nice. It’s nice to reset the points. It’s nice to be able to start 15th this weekend at Darlington and just kind of hit that reset. You can’t always control the ebbs and flows of racing. You look at those first five races and were crushing it, not just with the win but top 10, top 10, top 10, and then you hit this funk that we got into now where DNF, a crash, just things not always in your control. So it is nice to hit that reset button and have a fresh outlook going to Darlington, and that’s how motorsports is. The momentum can swing at any point. We have to have the momentum swing our way the next three weeks and we know that. We wish we were heading into the playoffs with a lot of momentum and not a DNF and all the things that have, but the reality is that’s where we’re at and we can start fresh this weekend.”

ABOUT LOVE’S TRAVEL STOPS
Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is the nation’s leading travel stop network with more than 540 locations in 41 states. Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Oklahoma City, the company remains family-owned and operated and employs more than 29,000 people. Love’s provides professional truck drivers and motorists with 24-hour access to clean and safe places to purchase gasoline, diesel fuel, fresh coffee, restaurant offerings and more. Love’s has over 400 truck service centers, which include Speedco and Love’s Truck Care locations. Love’s and Speedco combined is the largest oil change, preventive maintenance and total truck care nationwide network. Love’s is committed to providing customers with “Clean Places, Friendly Faces” at every stop. To learn more, visit loves.com.

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series and the 2021 Daytona 500 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 NASCAR Camping World 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.

KYLE BUSCH
Primed for the Playoffs

HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (Sept. 1, 2021) – On its own, the 1.366 mile egg-shaped oval at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway is a daunting challenge for NASCAR Cup Series competitors. But add in the fact that Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 is the first of the 10-race Cup Series playoffs, and it’s a recipe for a long, grueling night this Labor Day weekend.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), is certainly up to the task. The two-time Cup Series champion enters the postseason in much better shape than last season, carrying 22 playoff points to start the playoffs as opposed to just three playoff points a year ago. He sits fourth on the playoff grid to kick off 2021’s 10-race dash to the championship.

As Busch and the M&M’S team head back to Darlington, they return to a place where they’ve won before and Busch has enjoyed recent success. In fact, Busch has brought home top-five finishes four times in the last seven races and is had a strong third-place finish in the first Darlington race this season in May.

The Las Vegas native conquered “The Track Too Tough To Tame” in May 2008, which earned him the distinction of being the youngest Cup Series winner – at 23 years of age – in the track’s storied history. Busch also has two Xfinity Series wins at Darlington, coming in May 2011 and 2013. Last year, the Cup Series competed three times at Darlington after the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a revamped 2020 schedule, and Busch brought home best runs of second place in the Wednesday-night race in May 2020, and seventh place in the Southern 500.

So as the Cup Series heads to Darlington for Sunday’s 58th running of the Southern 500, he knows he’ll need to not only race his fellow competitors, but also the “Lady in Black,” as the aptly names racetrack will be a challenge of its own. However, adding the fact it’s the kickoff to the 2021 playoffs will make for compelling racing to start an exciting and entertaining final 10 weeks of the schedule as the series looks to crown a champion in early November.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 M&M’S Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

Where do you feel you stack up for this year’s playoffs?

“Top five probably, I’d say. Any of the four Hendrick cars are really good. Three of them are really good. Denny (Hamlin) has been fast a lot of weeks. We’ve been fast a lot of weeks, too. As we saw at Michigan, sometimes you don’t always have to be the fastest car, you just have to have the right push to win. That’s how we won our race in Kansas earlier this year and (Ryan) Blaney won last week. There can be surprise moments any time but we are hoping for a strong start to the playoffs with our M&M’s Camry this weekend.”

What are your thoughts on the first round of the playoffs and advancing through?

“Hopefully we can get a couple wins in the first round. We’ve got Darlington and we ran third there in the spring. Richmond, we always run well at, and Bristol we always run well at. It would be nice to get a win or two in the first round. That would be great. The second round is probably the most challenging round for us with the Roval and Talladega being in there. Just have not had a good Roval experience, yet, and Talladega is always Talladega.”

How do you think the new strip of pavement in turn two at Darlington will affect the race this weekend?

“That’s going to be interesting, for sure. I feel like you are going to be slow into turn one and into turn two, and you are going to get to the grip patch and you are just going to be hauling butt off of turn two. You are going to go as fast as you can. I haven’t seen it, yet, so I don’t see where it ends. I don’t know if it’s on the end of the turn or onto the straightaway on where it ends, but if you can get a good run off of turn two and be fast off of that corner, you are going to be getting off into turn three way quicker than you need to be for the asphalt grip you’ll have going into turn three.”

Darlington was repaved prior to 2008 and it’s back to a surface that’s worn and chews up tires. How much does the surface there change from year to year?

“Darlington gets worn out a lot more every year we race there. We’ve gone back there the last couple of years and it’s really slickened up and fallen off. The pace falls off a ton over the course of the run and really chews up the tires for the first little bit of the race. As the rubber gets down on the track, it starts to level off a little bit, but still the day races there are treacherous and slick and hard to hang on. Especially coming back this year, we’ll have the lower-downforce, higher-horsepower package, which will be a lot more to have to hold onto.”

At Darlington, do you wait to get toward the front as it gets later in the race when the sun is starts going down? How does the track change as it goes from afternoon to early evening there?

“You start the race off there and you just don’t want to hit the wall. We know how easy it is get into the wall and get a Darlington ‘stripe.’ You don’t want to hit the wall and take yourself out of a chance to win the race. The early stages of the race, you are biding your time and racing the racetrack and you are trying not to put yourself in a bad spot, and you aren’t worrying about competition, and you aren’t trying to take too many chances. As it gets deeper into the race and closer to the checkered flag, you are definitely going to be going for it and, if you can find even a half-inch of grip by getting a half-inch closer to the wall because that’s where the speed is at, you’ve just got to do it.”

Event Overview:

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 6
● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval
● Laps/Miles: 347 laps, 501.3 miles
● Format: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC/ MRN/ SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Meet the No. 18 M&M’S / Joe Gibbs Racing Team

Primary Team Members:

Driver: Kyle Busch
Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Ben Beshore
Hometown: York, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Nate Bellows
Hometown: Fairfax, Vermont

Spotter: Tony Hirschman
Hometown: Northampton, Pennsylvania

Over-The-Wall Crew Members:

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Front Tire Changer: Blake Houston
Hometown: Enochville, North Carolina

Jackman: T.J. Ford
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Joe Crossen
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Jeff Cordero
Hometown: Salem, Connecticut

Road Crew Members:

Race Engineer: Seth Chavka
Hometown: Soldotna, Alaska

Truck Driver: Chris Miko
Hometown: Bronx, New York

Truck Driver: Tom McCrimmon
Hometown: Spicer, Minnesota

Mechanic/Tire Specialist: Justin Peiffer
Hometown: Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Mechanic: Scott Eldridge
Hometown: Warsaw, Indiana

Notes of Interest:

● Playoff Points: Busch has racked up 22 important playoff points he can take with him through each round as the playoffs begin this weekend. Busch sits fourth on the playoff grid in the standings with 11 top-five finishes and 16 top-10s.
● All in the Stats: Busch has one win, six top-five finishes and 13 top-10s and has led a total of 725 laps in 19 career Cup Series starts at Darlington. Busch’s average Darlington finish is 10.7.
● Alone in Ninth: With Busch’s win at Pocono in June, the two-time Cup Series champion scored his 59th career win in NASCAR’s top series as he moved past Kevin Harvick into sole possession of ninth on the all-time win list. Next up on the win list is Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer who won 76 races during his storied career.
● 222 and Counting: Busch will be aiming to add to his record 222 overall wins among NASCAR’s top three series this weekend at the Darlington. In addition to his 59 Cup Series wins and 102 in the Xfinity Series, Busch has 61 wins in the Camping World Truck Series

CHASE BRISCOE
Darlington Advance
No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 5
● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/501.3 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● As the final 10-race stretch of the season begins for Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, so does the final push in the pursuit of the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year title. Though Briscoe is not part of the playoff field, he does have a chance to become just the third driver to earn Rookie of the Year honors in NASCAR’s top three national series. He would also be the first former ARCA Racing Series Rookie of the Year titleholder to accomplish the feat.
● Joining HighPoint.com on the car for Sunday’s race is Founders Federal Credit Union. HighPoint provides a range of solutions and services for Founders, including collaboration, endpoint security, network infrastructure, SD-WAN, and wireless technologies.
● Headquartered in Lancaster, South Carolina, Founders Federal Credit Union has been setting the pace for credit unions across the Carolinas for more than 70 years. With tools like Founders Online and the Founders App, it offers all the perks of a big bank with local, personalized service. Founders serves more than 220,000 members through more than 30 locations across the Carolinas. As a credit union, it focuses on its members and communities by providing better rates on savings and loans, friendly and personalized service, financial education and an assortment of tools to give you control of your financial future. Founders provides for all its members’ financial needs, from mortgages and auto loans to savings and checking accounts. And, as it continues to grow, it continues to develop new, innovative ways to serve. Founders understands its members work hard, day in and day out, and they deserve a financial institution that works just as hard as they do.
● When the Cup Series visited Darlington on May 9, Briscoe started 22nd and worked his way into the top-10 over the course of the 293-lap race. With two laps to go, while battling for a 10th-place finish, he made contact with the outside wall and ultimately crossed the line 11th.
● In the Xfinity Series, Briscoe claimed the victory in the series’ first trip to The Lady in Black, outdueling the winningest driver in Xfinity Series history, Kyle Busch. In his three career Xfinity Series starts at Darlington, Briscoe has finished no worse than 11th.
● With 26 races complete in the Cup Series season, Briscoe is 23rd in the driver championship and leads the Rookie of the Year battle by 218 points over Anthony Alfredo.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

There’s a patch of new asphalt in turn two at Darlington. Do you know what to expect with that?

“I really don’t. I think it’s definitely going to change some things. For me, I always run down on the apron of turn two pretty consistently and, looking at the pictures, it appears there’s still old pavement on the apron. So, I don’t know how much that will change for me. It will definitely be smoother, and you’re going to carry a lot more brake into (turn) three since you’ll have more speed. It’ll definitely change some things. I’m just not quite sure what that means, yet.”

That low line in turn two is not the norm. There are drivers who run right up at the wall. Did you find that line by running where other guys don’t?

“I don’t know. Since my first race there, I’ve run that line. I don’t know that it’s right or wrong. A lot of guys run higher. I get to the fence and almost scrape it in the center and diamond the corner. I just use the apron to get my car to turn. As the race goes on, there are times when it has more grip and then may lose it, but I guess it’s just a comfort thing for me and how I’ve always done it.”

We know you’re capable of winning at Darlington, and the May race result showed that your comfort with the track has transferred to the Cup Series. Can you improve on that finish this weekend?

“I really think this will be a good racetrack for us. It’s too bad we’re not in the playoffs, but we ran really well there in the spring and nearly had a top-10. We’ve got a good baseline to work off of and hopefully we can keep chipping away at it this weekend and show the progress we’ve made.”

No. 14 HighPoint.com/Founders Federal Credit Union Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe
Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: John Klausmeier
Hometown: Perry Hall, Maryland

Car Chief: Chad Haney
Hometown: Fairmont, West Virginia

Engineer: Mike Cook
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engineer: Marc Hendricksen
Hometown: Clinton, New Jersey

Spotter: Joe White
Hometown: Windsor, Virginia

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Daniel Coffey
Hometown: Granite Falls, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Chris Jackson
Hometown: Rock Hill, South Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Jack Man: Brandon Banks
Hometown: High Point, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Justin Wilson
Hometown: Wise, Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Front End Mechanic: J.D. Frey
Hometown: Ferndale, California

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams
Hometown: Naples, Florida

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads
Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips
Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Glenn Funderburk
Hometown: Mint Hill, North Carolina

COLE CUSTER
Darlington Advance
No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 5
● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/500 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) are bearing down for the final 10 races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season after their strong bid for a top-five finish last Saturday night at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway was foiled when Custer was caught in a multicar accident on the next-to-last restart of the race. Custer and the team left Daytona more determined than ever to lock down their first victory of the season during the home stretch, which begins with Sunday night’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
● Appearing on Custer’s SHR Mustang for the first of two consecutive races Sunday night will be Haas Automation’s Demo Day in leadup to this year’s annual event held at the network of nine Haas Factory Outlet (HFO) locations throughout the country. Demo Day provides HFOs an opportunity to feature the latest CNC machines, innovations and technology from Haas Automation. HFOs will showcase machine cutting demonstrations, as well as educational seminars to explain how the latest Haas machines and options can make companies more efficient and profitable. Current Haas users, potential customers and anyone in the manufacturing industry are also invited to attend. To find the nearest HFO, and for more information, click here.
● Saturday’s 500-mile race will be Custer’s 66th Cup Series start and his and his fifth on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. The reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year’s 12th-place finish in the Southern 500 last September was the best of his three Darlington outings in 2020. In this year’s Southern 500 at Darlington in May, an accident during Stage 2 of the race ended his day prematurely.
● The native of Ladera Ranch, California, was credited with the victory in his most recent NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington in 2019 after finishing second the previous year and ninth in 2017, all behind the wheel of the No. 00 SHR Ford. In the 2019 race, he crossed the finish line .602 of a second behind the apparent race-winner Denny Hamlin. But Hamlin’s racecar was disqualified after a ride-height violation was discovered in postrace inspection, giving Custer his eighth of nine career Xfinity series victories. In the September 2018 Xfinity Series race at Darlington, Custer was runner-up to Brad Keselowski by .738 of a second.
● After last weekend’s 24th-place finish on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval, Custer arrives at Daytona 28th in the driver standings.
● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.
● September is Hunger Action Month, and SHR, its partner Wow Wow Classic Waffles, and Feeding America®, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, are asking fans to think about their answer to a simple question: How will you choose to end hunger? Hunger Action Month is an annual campaign dedicated to driving awareness and inspiring action to help end hunger in America, both on a national scale and on the ground in local communities. It’s a time when the Feeding America network of food banks and the public come together to raise awareness and inspire action to help people facing impossible choices due to hunger. Fans are encouraged to visit the Hunger Action Month page via the Feeding America website to learn how they can take action through sharing, volunteering, pledging to advocate, fundraising and making a donation. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks. Custer and the No. 41 SHR Ford team have accumulated nearly 100 volunteer hours to date, working with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina in packing bags and helping with drop-off events at Charlotte-area schools.
● Fans can do their part by texting HUNGER to 50555 to make a $5 donation to Feeding America, by visiting the Feeding America donation page on Facebook, or the donation page via the Feeding America website. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Is there a race you’re looking forward to more than any of the others over these last 10 events of the season?

“I would say Darlington is one I’m looking forward to. It’s one of those races that every driver looks forward to because of the challenge behind it and how much you can do as a driver. There are so many different lanes you can work and you’re running right up against the wall. It’s just a driver’s racetrack and I feel there’s not one guy who doesn’t feel excited when they hear Darlington is coming up.”

How do you feel the team has progressed to this point, where you’re about to enter the home stretch of the season?

“There have been just so many things to work through this year that were a little unexpected, there were a lot of curveballs thrown against us. Everybody’s worked so hard to figure out what direction we need to go in. We’ve got more of an idea on what direction to go, it’s just a matter of fine-tuning that. I think we’re headed in the right direction, it’s just a matter of working the final details.”

What did it mean for you to be in the playoffs last year as a rookie?

“I think it meant the world. It was a great experience to see how everybody raced each other under tight circumstances. It was definitely a great experience and hopefully we can be right back in the thick of things next year. In the meantime, we’ll just work as hard as we can to build all the momentum we can through these final 10 races this year, maybe even pick up a win or two.”

Do you feel the playoffs are a good way to determine a champion?

“It’s how we play the game. I don’t know how else to say it. I think it generates a lot of excitement. I think it’s a lot like other sports where we have playoffs and I think it’s always been good. In all sports, you have times where the best team doesn’t win the whole thing, doesn’t win the championship. That happens in our sport, too. It’s just part of it. Our sport is a little bit unique because we do race at different tracks and things can happen. Some teams are better at certain tracks than others, but at the same time it’s the game you play. We have a playoff system and I think it’s been great for the sport in having a lot of excitement and you just have to make it happen those last 10 races.”

No. 41 HaasTooling.com Demo Day Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Cole Custer
Hometown: Ladera Ranch, California

Crew Chief: Mike Shiplett
Hometown: Amherst, Ohio

Car Chief: Tony Cardamone
Hometown: Bristol, Virginia

Engineer: Davin Restivo
Hometown: Ashboro, North Carolina

Engineer: Scott Bingham
Hometown: Lawrenceville, Georgia

Spotter: Andy Houston
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: John Roselli

Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana

Rear Tire Changer: Coleman Dollarhide
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Chad Emmons
Hometown: Tyler, Texas

Jack Man: Matthew Schlytter

Hometown: Ponte Vedra, Florida

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola
Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Joe Zanolini
Hometown: Sybertsville, Pennsylvania

Mechanic: Nick McIntosh
Hometown: Havre, Montana

Shock Specialist: Aaron Kuehn
Hometown: Kensington, Connecticut

Tire Specialist: Thomas Gagliano
Hometown: East Hampton, Connecticut

Engine Specialist: Evan Cupples
Hometown: Hudson, Illinois

Transporter Co-Driver: Eddie DeGroot

Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: David Rodrigues
Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

KEVIN HARVICK
Darlington Advance
No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 5
● Location: Darlington (S.C) Raceway
● Layout: 1.366-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/501.3 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Kevin Harvick is running a fan-inspired paint scheme in the Cook Out Southern 500 NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Scott MacDonald, a NASCAR fan since 1977 who witnessed Busch’s entry into NASCAR when the brand sponsored driver Cale Yarborough in 1979, was chosen by Busch to influence the design of Harvick’s No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang. MacDonald has been a Harvick fan since 2007 when he watched him win the Daytona 500 by just .020 of a second over Mark Martin. MacDonald caught the racing bug as a 6-year-old growing up in Haddonfield, New Jersey. He became a regular visitor to his two nearest Cup Series venues – Dover (Del.) International Speedway and Pocono (Pa.) Raceway – and has since been a part of the NASCAR Fan Council. “To have the opportunity to design a car for a driver like Kevin Harvick is a dream come true,” MacDonald said. “Plus, to have it run at the Southern 500 – a crown-jewel race – I can’t stop smiling. Stewart-Haas Racing and Anheuser-Busch have given me the opportunity to become a part of NASCAR history. Nothing can compare to that! When anyone watches this race again, they’ll see my design, especially when Kevin wins!” When the 50-year-old MacDonald was asked which will be more satisfying – seeing the car he inspired out on the racetrack or bragging to his friends and co-workers that he was behind the look of Harvick’s Busch Light Ford, MacDonald said, “Oh, I’ve already started bragging, but I think when I see that car out on the racetrack, that will definitely be more satisfying.”
● The NASCAR Playoffs begin Sunday at Darlington and for the 15th time in his career, Harvick is a part of it. Harvick qualified for the playoffs by virtue of his ninth-place finish in the regular-season standings. This is his 12th consecutive playoff appearance. Harvick won the championship in 2014.
● There’s a sense of déjà vu in this year’s playoffs. Despite going winless in this season’s first 26 races, Harvick pointed his way into the playoffs by finishing ninth in the regular-season standings. Back in 2011, Tony Stewart – the “Stewart” in Stewart-Haas Racing – went winless in the season’s first 26 races and pointed his way into the playoffs by finishing ninth in the regular-season standings. Despite declaring that he was “wasting” a spot prior to the first race of the 10-race playoffs, Stewart went on to win that race and four more, including the season finale where he beat Carl Edwards for the championship by virtue of a tiebreaker, as Stewart’s five victories trumped Edwards’ lone win. Harvick seeks to emulate the championship run Stewart performed 10 years ago.
● Harvick is the defending winner of the Southern 500. In last year’s race, the driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang led three times for 32 laps, including the final 13, to beat second-place Austin Dillon by .343 of a second. It was Harvick’s eighth win of 2020. He would go on to win one more race – the Sept. 19 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. His nine wins in a single season were a series-best and career-best, all in Harvick’s 20th year of NASCAR Cup Series racing.
● Darlington is known as “The Track Too Tough To Tame” but Harvick has tamed the venerable 1.366-mile oval three times. The 45-year-old racer from Bakersfield, California, owns two Southern 500 victories (2014 and 2020) and one win in the track’s 400-mile race. In fact, Harvick enters Darlington with an impressive record – he hasn’t finished outside the top-10 since 2012. How long ago was that? “Gangnam Style” and its music video by South Korean singer Psy went viral in 2012, four years before the social media app TikTok became reality.
● That’s a long time, but not nearly as long as Darlington has been around. The 2021 season marks the track’s 71st anniversary, with the egg-shaped oval having hosted 120 NASCAR Cup Series races. The first came on Sept. 4, 1950 and it was the first 500-mile race in NASCAR history and the first on asphalt. Johnny Mantz drove his Plymouth to the win with an average speed of 75.250 mph and the race took 6 hours, 38 minutes and 40 seconds to complete. Juxtapose that with Harvick’s win in last September’s Southern 500. His Ford Mustang had an average speed of 132.256 mph and the race finished in 3 hours, 47 minutes and 26 seconds.
● COVID-19 stopped racing in its tracks last year. After the checkered flag dropped March 8 at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR went on a 10-week hiatus as the world grappled with the scale of a pandemic not seen since the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. NASCAR had to navigate a brave new world, and the sport was one of the first to return to action when racing resumed May 17 at Darlington. It was a welcome surprise, as one version of NASCAR’s hypothetical return featured a start date of Oct. 25 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a stretch of 30 races in 64 days that would wrap with three straight races at Phoenix… on Jan. 1-3 of 2021. In a time of great uncertainty, seeing sports’ return with NASCAR pacing the field proved both prideful and poignant. Harvick never let off the gas even as the season ground to a halt. He focused on all the little details that go into wheeling a 3,400-pound racecar around tracks faster than 39 of his competitors. The result? After finishing second March 8 at Phoenix, Harvick one-upped that result by winning in NASCAR’s return to racing May 17 at Darlington.
● That win on May 17, 2020 at Darlington was Harvick’s milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory. Harvick led 159 of the race’s 293 laps to secure his 11th straight season as a Cup Series winner. His career win total now stands at 58, which puts him 10th on the all-time Cup Series win list. Next on the all-time win list is Kyle Busch with 59 victories.

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

What are your expectations as you enter the playoffs?

“Well, you have to be in it to win it. Our guys have done a great job of navigating through the year. Obviously, we would’ve loved to win all the races and win as many races as we have in the past, but those things weren’t in the cards this year. Our team has done an absolutely phenomenal job of getting the most out of every weekend, so if you look at that and the guys and everything we’ve had to do, I think the people are on point. Our cars have run well for the last month and a half or so. We’ve had a little bad luck over the last two weeks with some accidents, but as you look at the speed, that’s been there. Now, we just have to go out and race the first few weeks and see where it falls after that.”

Have you had to reset your expectations going into the playoffs compared to previous years?

“I don’t think so. I think you do the exact same things that you’ve done in previous years. You look back at 2014, for us, obviously that was a championship year that didn’t have the year that 2015 or 2019 had and you end up winning the championship. There’s not a recalculation of anything. The expectations are still the same. You might have a different route to get there, but we haven’t even run a race, yet. So, right now the expectations are the same as they always have been.”

You say you’re not going to change your approach, despite not scoring a win yet this season. Is it hard to stick with what got you to the playoffs, or is this where your experience comes into play?

“You can pull something apart a whole lot faster than you can build it. As you look through the years, it’s very easy to sit back and just chime in and jump all over people. That’s really easy. Obviously, there are still times that you need to do that, but the thing I’ve learned is the fact that you’ve got a group of people around that you know can win and do the things that you need to do, but sometimes you’re just off. The problem solving in our world is difficult, and sometimes it’s a whole bunch of small things, and trying to push something – and I’ve done it a couple of times this year on the racetrack – you try to push something a little bit further than it can go and you wind up with the fenders torn off and you make bad worse. There’s no reason to make the problem worse than it needs to be. You have to be part of the process and the solution in order to solve the equation. Obviously, we all want to win and run better and do the things that we need to do, but Saturday night (at Daytona) kind of sums up the way it’s gone this year. You think you’re in a good position and don’t make it through the last corner. That’s just kind of the way that it’s gone. You ride the wave down just like you ride the wave up. You just hope that your wave down is shorter than most people’s and you can ride that wave back up when it’s right.”

Your car owner, Tony Stewart, won his third and final championship after going winless during the regular season. Do you draw any inspiration from his championship run in 2011?

“The only thing I remember about 2011 is that Tony won the championship. I know he won half the races, but I don’t know what happened in the other five because there was still a tie at the end. So I think that explains the extreme ups and downs that come with playoff racing because if he won five races and they were still tied at the end of Homestead, there was some bad side to that, too. Quite a feat, obviously, coming out on top, winning the championship. Doesn’t say how he got there, it just says he won. Hopefully, we can do something like that. There’s nothing that says we can’t right now, so we’ll go with that.”

The playoffs start with one of the toughest races on the schedule. What is your mindset as you kick off the playoffs with 500 miles at Darlington?

“Darlington, from a preparation standpoint with the team and things with the car, those will be business as usual. From a physical and mental preparation standpoint, you just have to be able to put yourself in a good spot because Darlington is a super-long race. It’s a very difficult racetrack to keep yourself out of trouble, and you just have to keep yourself on the lead lap and not bang up against the wall and not miss pit road and get yourself into the pit box with no mistakes. And if you can do that for 400 miles, then you’re probably going to be somewhere toward the front of the field and have a chance. It’s a really long race and it’s a very difficult racetrack, and you have to be prepared for that, mentally.”

Is Darlington a good track to start the playoffs?

“The Southern 500 has always been one of our sport’s best races so I think it’s a great place to kick off the playoffs. There’s no other place that we go to that just screams the history that Darlington does just because of the fact that the track layout is the same, the surface is unique and worn out – obviously turn two is newly repaved, but I think that just adds more character to what Darlington already has. There’s just nowhere else on the schedule where you can go that has the same, unique feel that Darlington does. It’s just a great place to race.”

You have three wins at Darlington and 792 laps led in 27 career starts. How satisfying it to have that kind of success at a track that’s so notoriously difficult its nickname is “The Track Too Tough To Tame”?

“It’s been a lot of fun to have been able to win there a few times now. As you look at the last Southern 500 and being able to go back to victory lane and celebrate in front of some fans was different from the first time of dead silence. Darlington is one of those historic racetracks that everybody loves going to because of the fact that it’s forever tied to the guys that used to race there with the same shape of the racetrack. It may be a different surface, but it’s the same racetrack that they raced on in the 1950s. It’s a unique place to go race and a place that has so much history in our sport.”

Is there a particular key to your success at Darlington?

“Yeah, don’t hit the wall!”

No. 4 Busch Light Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Kevin Harvick
Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Car Chief: Robert “Cheddar” Smith

Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin

Engineer: Dax Gerringer
Hometown: Gibsonville, North Carolina

Engineer: Stephen Doran
Hometown: Butler, Pennsylvania

Spotter: Tim Fedewa
Hometown: Holt, Michigan

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jeremy Howard
Hometown: Delhart, Texas

Jack Man: Stan Doolittle
Hometown: Ninety Six, South Carolina

Fuel Man: Evan Marchal
Hometown: Westfield, Indiana

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Richie Bean
Hometown: Bradford, Vermont

Tire Specialist: Jamie Turski
Hometown: Trumbull, Connecticut

Engine Tuner: Robert Brandt
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama

Transporter Co-Driver: Rick Hodges
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Stephen Mitchell
Hometown: Woodville, Ohio