AVONDALE, Ariz. – Even if you were to take away Kevin Harvick’s third consecutive win this season in Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway, it was still a stout day for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Harvick earned his 40th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win and his ninth triumph at ISM, while Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch all finished sixth, seventh and 10th respectively putting all four SHR cars inside the top-10 for the first time in the organization’s history.
The win for Harvick was redemption after his SHR team received an L1 penalty this past Wednesday for a rear-window infraction.
“Just really proud of everybody,” said Harvick. “After everything this week, everybody just came here mad, chip on their shoulder, wanting to do exactly what we did today. That’s the type of determination and grit that you want in a race team. There’s nothing better to be a part of than something like that.
“Actions speak a whole lot louder than all the words I can say this week, tweets that you can send out. Parking that thing in Victory Lane is the most powerful thing, most powerful message you can send, and says the most about our organization and our team.”
For Bowyer, Phoenix delivered his second top-10 finish of the year and propelled him back inside the top-10 in the standings.
“It was a solid day,” said Bowyer who sits ninth in the standings. “We just have to get better as a team. I buried us a little bit in qualifying. It was a good run for us. A good run for Stewart-Haas Racing. We weren’t very good here last year.
“We sucked as a matter of fact, so that is a breath of fresh air after stubbing our toe last week. Having a good run today is definitely some positive mojo going.”
Almirola captured his second consecutive top-10 finish and his best finish at Stewart-Haas Racing since taking the reins of the No. 10 Ford Fusion from Danica Patrick at the beginning of the season.
“We just keep plugging away,” offered Almirola. Johnny (Klausmeier, crew chief) and the guys made a lot of good adjustments on the car throughout the day. We started off okay and then we started dialing ourselves out the first few stops.
“We got some track position there with that two-tire call and got our Smithfield Ford Fusion up front and it really liked the clean air. Our car got a lot better up there. I am proud of everybody. We just keep building on it.”
Settling into his new role at SHR, Almirola has a plan to keep his team in the headlines.
“Top-10 ‘em to death,” he added. “Just keep scoring points and doing what we do.”
Seasoned veteran Kurt Busch earned an unexpected stage win Sunday with pit strategy and track position allowing Busch to fend off fellow Ford rival Brad Keselowski for his first Stage win of 2018. ‘
“The car responded well to my steering and gas inputs,” sounded Busch. “I was a little slow on restarts, but I love being able to lean on the right-rear tire and make passes later in the run. Our strategy unfolded the best it could have to win stage 2 and get back in the top-10.”
Busch’s 10th place finish was a much-needed rebound for the No. 41 Mobil 1 / Haas Automation Ford driver after crashing out the week before at Atlanta.
“We just didn’t run the same lap times we did at the end as we did at the beginning of the race, but all in all it was a good day.”
Team co-owner Tony Stewart said top-to-bottom SHR is in its prime and believes their trend will continue into the heart of the Cup schedule.
“It was an awesome day for us,” offered Stewart. “That’s probably what I’m most proud of. It’s the first time in our organization’s history that we had all four cars in the top 10.
“Just proud of everybody at Stewart Haas Racing. So many people that don’t get a chance to come to the track each weekend because they’re working hard at the shop. I think this weekend really is a big thank you to those guys for everything they’ve done.
“Like Kevin (Harvick) mentioned, it just shows the strength of having four really good teammates that are giving four valid sets of information that they can all feed off of and work off of. It just seems like this group of these guys really work well together.
“I think a lot of it, too, is having that little extra time like we mentioned last week, for these guys to be able to massage everything, take everything we had had and make it better.
“It’s nice to look on the board and see all four cars in the top 10. That’s a proud moment.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
