With the 2018 season getting further and further in the rearview, it’s time to take a look back at the highs and lows of each Cup Series team in 2018. Next up, Stewart-Haas Racing.
Clint Bowyer
Points position: 12
Top 10s: 16
Top 5s: 9
Wins: 2
Season highlight: Bowyer snapped a long winless streak when he went to victory lane at Martinsville in March. Bowyer led 215 of the race’s 500 laps and was really, really good when he needed to be. Bowyer first took the lead at lap 285 and led the rest of the way with the exception of lap 386 when the field pitted under caution. Bowyer then got his second win of the season at Michigan in June when a two-tire pit stop was enough before rain to get an advantage over his faster teammate Kevin Harvick.
Season lowlight: The playoffs were a damn disaster. Bowyer started with a 23rd at Las Vegas, but a 10th at Richmond and a third at the Charlotte roval were enough to advance to the second round. He was then 35th at Dover after the team sent him back out on track with a mechanical issue. He was second at Talladega, a finish that buoyed him to round three. And then he had finishes of 21st, 26th and 35th in round three to not only knock him out of the playoffs but out of the top 10 in the standings.
Kurt Busch
Points position: 7
Top 10s: 22
Top 5s: 6
Wins: 1
Season highlight: After crashing out and finishing 37th at Daytona in July, Busch’s run into the playoffs was splendid. Busch had finishes of sixth, eighth, ninth, ninth, sixth, first, sixth and sixth in the eight races before the postseason. That win came at Bristol in the night race where he led 24 laps and took the win after a late pit stop sequence. If only Busch could have carried that summer success into the playoffs.
Season lowlight: Busch was in position to make it to the final round of the playoffs when he was caught up in a wreck with Denny Hamlin at Phoenix. He ended up finishing 32nd and his last best chance at a second Cup Series title disappeared.
Busch is moving on from Stewart-Haas Racing and joining Chip Ganassi Racing in 2019. He leaves SHR with six wins in five seasons with the team and 37 top-five finishes. Busch made the playoffs in every season with the team, though his highest points finish is seventh.
Aric Almirola
Points position: 5
Top 10s: 17
Top 5s: 4
Wins: 1
Season highlight: This one’s easy. Almirola got his first win of 2018 and the second win of his career after Busch ran out of gas on the final lap at Talladega. The win guaranteed Almirola a berth in the third round of the playoffs where he put up a valiant fight at Phoenix to finish fourth when he needed to win there to advance to the final round.
Season lowlight: Almirola had a season that defied a lot of people’s expectations. His first season at Stewart-Haas Racing produced success he’d never seen in his Cup Series career and he boosted the team with the No. 10 car’s first playoff berth. 2018 was the first time that SHR had ever gotten all four cars in the postseason.
But while Almirola was good — he was fifth in the points, after all — he wasn’t good enough at getting bonus points. Because of his lack of bonus points via wins and stage wins in the regular season, Almirola started the playoffs in 14th. That turned out to be critical as Almirola needed to win at Phoenix despite finishes of 11th and eighth earlier in the third round.
Kevin Harvick
Points position: 3
Top 10s: 29
Top 5s: 23
Wins: 8
Season highlight: Pick any of the eight wins. OK, pick any of the six wins that didn’t have post-race penalties to follow. Harvick led 181 of 325 laps at Atlanta. He led 201 of 400 laps at Dover. He led 108 of 200 laps at Michigan.
Want an insane stat? Harvick led laps in 26 of 36 races in 2018. And it’s not like Harvick stayed out during pit stops simply to lead a lap in many of those races. He led 12 or more laps in 24 races and eight laps in each of the other two races.
Season lowlight: That Harvick’s most dominant season didn’t end with a championship. Harvick was without his crew chief Rodney Childers on the pit box at Homestead because of an infraction from Harvick’s win at Texas. That was Harvick’s second post-race penalty of the season. He was earlier penalized for an illegal car after dominating at Las Vegas.
The penalties and lack of a title mar what could have been a season for the NASCAR ages. We’ve reached the point in Harvick’s career where anything less than a title is a disappointment. Which is a hell of a compliment. Even with the rules changes for 2019, Harvick should be one of the top contenders.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
More from Yahoo Sports:
• School district boycotting ref who made wrestler cut dreadlocks
• Bengals’ Burfict suffers 7th career concussion, 2nd this month
• Martin: Do the Giants have an Eli exit plan?
• Browns QB defends Hue Jackson staredown
Be the first to comment