NASCAR Insiders Feel Tony Stewart’s Team Dropped the Ball at Richmond

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race was a ray of hope for Stewart-Haas Racing. After struggling to get into form for the majority of the season, their drivers decided to shine at Richmond. The track was witness to strong performances by Ryan Preece and Aric Almirola. With the ever-consistent Kevin Harvick delivering the goods, as usual, the other Ford deployed cars reciprocated as well.

NASCAR engineer and crew chief Darian Grubb happens to jot down some positives from SHR’s outing at Richmond. The Trackhouse Racing Director of Performance is of the opinion that despite their consistent struggle with results all season, they looked like a competent side on Sunday.

Darian Grubb feels SHR missed out on a potential win

The #41 Mustang driver Preece gradually gained positions on the track. Clocking the highest green flag speed on the grid, he made sure that they didn’t miss out on making the most out of the excellent condition of the car. Grubb acknowledges the same as he says, “Actually, I think Stewart-Haas has something you gotta look back at.”

Speaking about the potential results for Almirola and Preece, he adds, “I think both #41 and #10 could have been winners. The #41 first time to pit road, that last pit stop, not ideal. They got cornered because it’s very narrow, you gotta get around the inside wall to get into it. He got jacked up and pushed. I think he lost kind of 11 spots on that cycle. Battles way back to a top 5 finish.”

“The #10 car, Almirola was really strong. Green flag pit cycle, second stage, first time, commitment box violation, crossed the orange box. Had to do a pass-through. If you look at the math the pass-through is 17 to 10 seconds of time that you lose up. He finished stage 2 18 seconds behind the leader. They had the potential and the speed and drove themselves back to a top-10 finish.”

Tony Stewart and co will hope that their drivers bring in a possible win since qualifying with sheer points seems light-years away. But if we are to believe Grubb, if not for the blunders from their side, they could have had a first win for the team this season.

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“My confidence was I’ve seen what Chad [Johnston] has given here in years past and we talked a lot about what we were gonna need,” said Preece, speaking to Racing America. The fifth-place result was the best non-superspeedway result for Preece in his Cup career. While Ford drivers have complained previously about the reduced efficiency and stability of their cars in dirty air, at Richmond they thoroughly dominated.

“I said, ‘If you can get me to roll the center, I’ll deal with loose in,’ so that’s what he gave me today and this United Rentals Ford Mustang was pretty stout. Fifth, but we lined up in that second row at the end, but we run more like this and we’re going to have more opportunities to challenge for wins,” said a hopeful Preece.

“We all did (run well). I think that’s just a product of working hard. Sitting and twiddling your thumbs isn’t gonna get you the results that you really want. I know that from racing, so we’ve just been working hard and trying to find what I like, find what Aric [Almirola] likes, Kevin [Harvick] likes, Chase [Briscoe] likes and I feel like we’re all trending in that direction.”

It seems like Ryan has already geared up to give the playoffs one big shot in the last few races available.

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