Stewart-Haas off to hot start
NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will start in the pole position for today’s race.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Kurt Busch is on the pole, Clint Bowyer is coming off his first victory in six years and Kevin Harvick has won half of the races so far on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
Aric Almirola, the newcomer to the team, has been steady, too, finishing 14th or better in every race.
With Stewart-Haas Racing already off to a sensational start this season, the decade-old team will now have the top three starters in a race for the first time today.
Busch, Harvick and Bowyer qualified their Fords 1-2-3 at Texas Motor Speedway, while Almirola was 12th at the 1½-mile track.
“We unloaded off the truck here and went right back to the top of the board. That is pretty cool,” said Bowyer, whose victory at Martinsville before the Easter break ended his 190-race winless streak.
“It is crazy how you can get your cars with a good balance on them and really roll them through the corners good,” he said. “It seems if they are fast at one track they are going to be fast at the next.”
All four Stewart-Haas cars are in the top 11 in season points through the first six races. Harvick is seventh, followed by Bowyer at eighth, Busch 10th and Almirola 11th.
Hendrick Motorsports also has all four of its drivers in the top 20. But Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott and William Byron are all below the StewartHaas drivers in the standings.
Busch is the first three-time Cup pole sitter in Texas, where he and Harvick will make their track-record 31st starts. TMS, which opened in 1997, is hosting its 35th race. Both have one win there.
When asked why Stewart-Haas Larry Papke / 1. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 197.368 mph 2. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 197.116 3. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 196.829 4. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 196.600 5. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 196.257 6. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 195.979 7. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 195.922 8. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 195.773 9. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 195.603 10. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 195.030 11. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 195.023 12. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 194.995 13. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 194.840 14. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 194.812 15. (43) Darrell Wallace Jr., Chevrolet, 194.763 16. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 194.742 17. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 194.546 18. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 194.539 19. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 194.426 20. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 194.321 21. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 194.175 22. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 193.952 23. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 193.819 24. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 193.736 25. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 193.514 26. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 193.458 27. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 193.417 28. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 192.651 29. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 192.294 30. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 191.598 31. (15) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 190.644 32. (23) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 189.016 33. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 188.193 34. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 186.445 35. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 178.359 36. (51) Harrison Rhodes, Chevrolet, 164.991 37. (55) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 0.000 AP
is having so much success this season, Busch was admittedly biased in his assessment. Tony Gibson, his former crew chief including for the 2017 Daytona 500 win, is now off the road in what the driver calls “a perfect role” for Gibson, who is involved in building the cars for all four teams.
“If you go ask him now, he will say it is all about the people and process around him,” Busch said. “But he has found some good people, rearranged them into different positions and I think that our team is doing a really good job of creating continuity between the four cars.”