LAS VEGAS – Almost nothing’s gone right for Stewart-Haas Racing in the last month.
Almost.
In the last four weeks, the organization has seen two of its NASCAR Cup Series teams — the No. 4 of Kevin Harvick and the No. 41 of Cole Custer — hit with big point penalties and the suspensions of crew chiefs Rodney Childers and Mike Shiplett, with Shiplett’s indefinite.
On top of that one of the team’s engineers, DJ Vanderley, was injured in a micro sprint Outlaw race in September. And in the days before this weekend’s visit to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the hauler of SHR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series No. 98 team crashed in Arizona on its way to the track.
The penalty against the No. 41 team came after last week’s playoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, when NASCAR reviewed data, video and audio and determined Custer’s team attempted to manipulate the results of the race on the last lap to benefit Chase Briscoe‘s chances of advancing to the Round of 8.
Luckily for Briscoe, the only SHR driver alive in the playoffs, he would have advanced even without the benefits of the alleged manipulation.
“Everything that happened Sunday was out of my control,” Briscoe said Saturday (Oct. 15) at LVMS. “I was trying to make playoff spots. And we were in regardless. Go back to the (race’s final caution) and we’re in by six or seven points. So yeah, just trying to figure out what we need to do to move on to Phoenix.”
The fact that Briscoe, in his second full-time Cup season, is among the last eight drivers is impressive. He’s outlasted teammate Kevin Harvick, defending champion Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.
But in the middle of a trying time for SHR, Briscoe sees his playoff run as being a “light” for the team.
“It’s been no secret, it’s been a rough couple of weeks as a company, going back to Texas and everything that went on with DJ and then the 98 truck wrecks coming out here,” Briscoe said. “It’s been disappointing. But at the same time, it’s been really encouraging that we’re … in the final eight, have a shot to still win a championship. I think that’s the one thing, if we would have been knocked out, then obviously, the mood would have been pretty bad I would say the whole rest of the season. …
“So glad that we can kind of be that one kind of small light, that we still have a shot and definitely trying to keep the spirits up over there for sure.”
But the next three races will be their own…
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