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Ford

Cole Custer’s big Saturday: A return to Cup in 2025 with a reformed Haas Ford-powered team & finishing 2nd to team-mate Riley Herbst in Xfinity at the Indianapolis Oval

by Sports Benches July 20, 2024

Today was a huge day for reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer not just off-track but on-track as well having announced his return to full-time Cup racing next year with the newly-created single car Haas Factory team while he scored pole position for the Pennzoil 250 in the meantime earlier in the day, although he was a bit unfortunate towards the end when it comes to the race thanks to a last-lap winning move by Stewart-Haas Ford team-mate Riley Herbst in the No.98 for the win.

It’s been a while to see the Brickyard go left once again after a few years of using the infield road course layout with Cole having an excellent Top 5 run all along, even though a few yellows might held him back a bit at times in the early portions but not so much thanks to these pit road adjustments including that last stage restart where he re-worked his way back up front.

A win though would’ve been perfect to sum up how far he’s come since stepping back into the Xfinity Series arena again last year in order to try and be up front every race weekend off the back of his 2025 plans to begin the weekend. He endured a tough first few years as a first-time Cup driver also within Stewart-Haas organisation – despite winning the Rookie of the Year award including his one & only Playoffs run so far thanks to his win at Kentucky during July back in 2020 – before regular inconsistent results over the next two years saw Ryan Preece took over the No.41 Cup seat at the end of the 2022 season.

Now he’s set to reprise the No.41 once again at Cup level for a scaled down Haas organisation from 2025 via his dad’s connections in running the day-to-day NASCAR business & will no doubt get significant backing from Haas’s engineering division. Not only that, Haas will keep on using Ford engines but this time they will form a technical alliance partnership with RFK Racing other than continuing to build their own cars just for its own two Xfinity Series teams. We’ll see how this goes where there would be potential for RFK & Haas to team up together in order to go three Cup cars if Cole goes well again.

In the meantime, he has unfinished business ahead in the hope of winning more including the upcoming Playoffs so he can look forward upon his return to Cup in 2025 with potentially another Xfinity Series championship on his belt.

July 20, 2024 0 comment

Other Sports

Thoughts on Josh Berry moving to Wood Brothers Racing next season & what does it mean for Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece ahead of team’s last race in early November

by Sports Benches July 4, 2024

One of Dale Jr’s mentees Josh Berry is now set to replace Harrison Burton in the No.21 Ford Mustang for Wood Brothers Racing from next season off the back of Stewart-Haas Racing’s shutdown. He will still carry the No.4 Ford in the meantime as planned up until SHR’s final ever race come early November at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona as his rookie Cup season isn’t bad so far in 19th and also leading the rookie-of-the-year standings too with some great Top 5 and 10 finishes including 2 x 3rd at Darlington (May) and New Hampshire (two weeks ago) going into the Chicago Street Course (Round 20 of 36) this weekend.

He is someone who has an excellent race pedigree as Dale Jr. discovered in his eyes when he gave him a chance at JR Motorsports back in 2022-23 at Xfinity Series level before Josh accepted the offer to replace the now-retired Kevin Harvick at SHR this year and then the organization suddenly ran its course with the announcement of SHR shutting down at season’s end a few months later. I’m glad though that Wood Brothers also needed a new direction and they somehow found a great driver who can hopefully get back to their best with Berry behind the wheel after Harrison Burton just couldn’t show the consistency they were after over the last few years despite bringing his own sponsorship via Dex Imaging. WBR still has yet to taste their 100th Cup win in their decades-long existence after Ryan Blaney last won there for the team’s 99th win at Pocono in back mid-2017 before he went on to do even better at Team Penske but time will tell with Berry in the No.21 Mustang being supported by Ford the whole way through alongside the manufacturer’s subsidiary sponsorship of Motorcraft & Quick Lane Auto Repairs.

So far the No.14 of Chase Briscoe has already been signed up to replace the retiring Martin Truex Jr. last week at Joe Gibbs Racing that will also begin at the start of next season in the No.19 Toyota Camry while Ryan Preece and Noah Gragson are still on the lookout for other rides.Now Gragson wouldn’t be short of suitors since his performances have been solid since his return from suspension in the No.10 where he will likely end up at Front Row Motorsports unlike the No.41’s Preece who would most likely drop down to Xfinity and/or Trucks level instead of trying to just stay there with Kaulig or Rick Ware Racing.

Plus, If you’re wondering what’s going to happen with SHR’s 4th and final charter? Well, It’s not going anywhere after all with Gene Haas keeping one for just himself under the newly created Haas Factory Racing organization by operating one Cup car and two Xfinity Series teams. Tony Stewart won’t have any involvement at all as he will be focusing on his drag racing team as well as his young family with his wife and veteran drag racer Leah Pruett expecting their first child together (a baby boy) this November. Who will be part of Team Haas? It will be easy to say Cole Custer whose dad is part of Haas’s management team while they will keep on running Fords, although it remains to be seen which alliance Haas will link up with at a later date.

I think though in my opinion that Brad Keselowski via his co-owned RFK Racing team (No.6 car) would love to team up with Haas together by turning from two cars into three under RFK-Haas Racing without him having to buy another charter that is worth $40 million nowadays. But again you never know and it would allow Ford to have a proper young driver pathway like Toyota is doing with Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing where Keselowski would love to have one of his drivers succeed at Xfinity level before being given the chance to race for him at the top level someday once his driving days are eventually over.

July 4, 2024 0 comment

Motorsport NASCAR

Team Penske Ford dominates the NASCAR Cup Series for another year at Phoenix this time by new Drivers’ Champion Ryan Blaney

by Sports Benches November 6, 2023

What an amazing finish to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season after 36 points-series races across nine months of the calendar year where the same Ford team has won another championship in Team Penske, but this time it’s Ryan Blaney who is now your new drivers’ champion for the first time at age 29. Great start by William Byron with his opening stage win but was inconsistent as the race goes on where failure to stay ahead up front was the one weakness that ultimately costed him the race & championship itself in 4th. Meanwhile, unlucky from Christopher Bell due to a brake issue before things went bad to worse after he made contact with the wall in Stage 2. Then Byron’s team-mate at Hendrick Kyle Larson may entered the fight late into the 3rd & final stage in a bid to add Championship win No.2, but he couldn’t defend & stay ahead of Blaney under pressure at the last restart in 3rd where he had to settle as runner-up on the final drivers’ points standings of 2023.

And last but not least, it’s the man of the hour Ryan Blaney who steered this No.12 Ford Mustang home that secured him his first major silverware of NASCAR, despite finishing 2nd in the race to Ross Chastain (Trackhouse). He may have started slow & steady from outside the Top 10 earlier on, but he gradually improved along the way towards the Top 2-3 places before Blaney locked out both Hendrick Chevy cars at the checkered flag. Roger Penske will be thrilled to see another championship-winning race car showing up at his race shop in Mooresville after Blaney’s team-mate Joey Logano won his 2nd Cup crown just one year ago in the sister No.22 team. Enjoy the 14-15 weeks of off-season before we go back all over again for the next NASCAR Cup Series season beginning with the 66th edition of the Daytona 500 on Sunday February 18th, 2024.

November 6, 2023 0 comment

Motorsport

Christopher Bell made a sensation at Charlotte Roval 400, champion eliminated

by Admin October 10, 2022

Christopher Bell scored an incredible victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. With this victory, Bell secured a place among the eight drivers who will continue the fight for the championship title. Bell was not the fastest on the track, but he took advantage of the incidents at the end of the race to take a sensational victory. Before this race, Bell was as much as 45 points below the zone where there were eight drivers potentially continuing the championship fight.

“Man, you’ve just got to be there at the end of these things,” “I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn’t always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year”. “We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren’t in position to win (before taking tires). We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us.”

Kyle Larson, the guy who won the title last year won’t have a chance to repeat the feat of the previous season after making too many mistakes throughout the season. Quite rightly, he was very disappointed after this race.

“I just made way too many mistakes all year long,” Larson said. “Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.“Just extremely mad at myself. I let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today.”

Larson lacked only 2 points to pass among the top 8 drivers, but Chase Briscoe was placed in his place as the last driver in the further stage. Throughout the season, Larson struggled to find the right rhythm in a vehicle that had undergone changes compared to the previous season. Last season was fascinating because he achieved as many as 10 victories while this season he recorded only 2 triumphs.

“It’s been tough,” Larson said. “I mean, there’s been no real rhythm to it for me and our team, but we fought hard all year to get better. And we’re gonna continue to fight, continue to work hard to be better for the rest of the season as well as be more prepared for next year.”

In the end, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez were left without a place in the top 8, as they also had accidents in this race. Briscoe was out of the top 20 after the restart on lap 111, but in the end he achieved a placement which guaranted him the top 8.

“Yeah, man, what a wild day,” Briscoe said. “It took every bit of it there at the end. To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out (on Lap 104). Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road-course races, how much can change so quickly”.

Bell almost certainly would not have won if a whole series of incidents had not happened at the end of the race and with a good strategy he reached a big victory. Those developments helped him find his place among the top 8 drivers who continue to fight for the title next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

October 10, 2022 0 comment

Motorsport NASCAR

Watkins Glen: Larson scores second straight win, Raikkonen retires in Nascar debut

by Admin August 23, 2022

Kyle Larson claimed victory in a thrilling race at Watkins Glen International that was delayed several times due to bad weather. It was the second straight win for the defending Nascar Cup Series champion and his 18th career win overall. In a dramatic finish, Larson made a great maneuver to pass Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Despite ultimately finishing the race in fourth place, Elliott finished the regular season of the Nascar championship in first place, which he secured by winning the first place after the first stage at Watkins Glen.

After the race, Larson commented on a key maneuver in the race: “I knew that was my only opportunity to get by him. I feel like our cars were pretty equal today. Had a lot of fun after the green-flag cycle trying to chase him down. Kind of burned my stuff up a little bit.” But the restarts kept me in it and kept our team in it. I’m proud of my guys. Good to get another win here at Watkins Glen and get some more bonus points going into the Playoffs, we haven’t had a lot here this year.” Elliot congratulated his teammate on the victory: “Congratulations to Kyle and everybody on the 5 team and at Hendrick Motorsports for getting the win.” AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano finished the race ahead of Elliott.

The race at Watkins Glen was special because never before had a larger number of international drivers had the opportunity to compete in a single race within the Nascar Cup Series. At the aforementioned race, we had the opportunity to watch drivers from as many as seven countries. Most of the drivers are, quite logically, competitors from the USA. In addition, at Watkins Glen we had the opportunity to see drivers from Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Finland and England. This data shows that Nascar is becoming more and more popular outside the American continent from year to year. Of the international drivers at Watkins Glen, the best position was achieved by Daniel Suarez, who took fifth place.

The mentioned race, which is the penultimate in the regular part of the season, was marked by the debut of Kimi Raikkonen, the former world champion in F1. His debut performance in Nascar ended in ingloriously, although at one point the Finnish driver was among the top ten ranked drivers. Kimi started the race in the 27th position, and at one point he was occupying a high eighth position. Unfortunately, he ended the race prematurely by crashing into the guard rail. Regardless of the fact that he finished the race in the mentioned way, Raikkonen is satisfied with the new experience in his already rich racing career.

“Yeah, for sure, but it’s always hard to know especially now here like what states (of the pit) stop and you know the tire life on that,” he said. “I felt that we had very good speed and especially after the pit stops but maybe I was a bit too harsh on the tires on the one of the sets.”

The other internationals didn’t make a name for themselves at Watkins Glen either. The best place was achieved by the German driver, Mike Rockenfeller, who finished the race in 30th place. Dutchman Loris Hezemans was three positions lower. At the very back with Raikkonen were his former colleague from F1, Daniel Kvyat and the Englishman Kyle Tilley.

August 23, 2022 0 comment