Stewart-Haas drivers charge ahead
Four teammates alive in NASCAR playoffs
As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series gets set to begin the third round of the playoffs, one seemingly unstoppable force looms over the proceedings.
Like an imperial army advancing on its foes, preparing to lay siege to another battlefield, Stewart-Haas Racing marches forward with unparalleled strength and rigid discipline. The only thing standing in the way of total conquest is a small band of resistance fighters led by two mighty champions and joined by a battle-tested warrior and a talented young upstart, the last men left standing after other foes and allies fell by the wayside.
Of course, the NASCAR playoffs are not war, but it’s difficult to view the Round of 8, which begins with Sunday’s First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN), as anything other than SHR vs. the field.
Four of the remaining eight championship contenders hail from StewartHaas. Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola have combined for 11 wins this season, with Harvick leading the way with seven. Almirola won two weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway. Bowyer enters Sunday as the most recent Martinsville winner, one of his two regular-season wins. And Busch scored his lone 2018 victory two months ago at Bristol Motor Speedway, the only other track on the circuit comparable to the .526-mile track at Martinsville, where short-track skills are put to the test.
“The toughest part about Martinsville is you just never have a moment to breathe,” said Busch, who has twice taken the checkered flag at the Virginia track (2002, 2014). “You have to be on your game non-stop for 500 laps because somebody’s on you, or you are on top of somebody the whole time, and there’s just no room for error.”
That somebody could be a competitor or a teammate. The close-quarter racing leaves virtually no room for separation, which could put the SHR drivers in a bind.
A victory at Martinsville or one of the next two races — at Texas Motor Speedway and ISM Raceway in Phoenix — guarantees a berth in the championship round in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. With so much at stake and the cars so closely bunched together, drivers will do whatever it takes to win — even if it might mean bumping a teammate out of the way.
Yet no one in SHR, where teamwork and discipline have been a hallmark this season, is ready to contemplate that possible scenario.
“I’ve never witnessed or seen a race team so cohesive,” Almirola said. “Everybody working together and everybody pulling the rope in the same direction. While yes, we are still competing against each, the ultimate goal is to have what you’ve seen out of us the last several weeks where we run 1-2-3-4 and battle it out amongst ourselves.
“I think the teamwork will continue all of the way through to Homestead. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t.”
Busting up that cohesiveness could become a prominent strategy for the other four championship contenders: Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Chase Elliott.
Elliott comes in as the series’ hottest driver, with two wins in the Round of 12, while Logano has been as steady as they come throughout the playoffs. Busch and Truex will likely be the biggest obstacles to SHR’s quest, and each knows what it takes to compete for a championship.
Busch won last year’s playoff race at Martinsville and has been among the final four drivers for three consecutive years, taking the championship in 2015. Truex finished runner-up to Busch at Martinsville last season en route to the 2017 title. And they each enter the Round of 8 among the playoff points leaders, with Busch ranked first, Harvick second and Truex third.
“I really look forward to this round,” Kyle Busch said. “I feel like it’s our best round.”
There is little doubt the SHR juggernaut will try to flex its combined muscle, but on a battlefield where it’s ultimately every man for himself, strength in numbers might not be enough to trump individual prowess.