STEWART-HAAS RACING AdventHealth 400

Date: May 5, 2024
Event: AdventHealth 400 (Round 12 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Kansas Speedway in Kansas City (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/85 laps/102 laps)
Note: Race extended one lap past its scheduled 267-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Chris Buescher of RFK Racing (Ford)

SHR Finish:
● Noah Gragson (Started 3rd, Finished 9th / Running, completed 268 of 268 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 17th, Finished 15th / Running, completed 268 of 268 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 10th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 268 of 268 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 32nd, Finished 28th / Running, completed 268 of 268 laps)

SHR Points:
● Chase Briscoe (14th with 290 points, 177 out of first)
● Noah Gragson (19th with 216 points, 251 out of first)
● Josh Berry (23rd with 196 points, 271 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (29th with 172 points, 295 out of first)

SHR Notes:
● Gragson earned his fifth top-10 of the season and his first top-10 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas.
● This was Gragson’s third straight top-10. He finished a career-best third April 21 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and sixth last Sunday at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
● This was Gragson’s sixth straight top-20.
● Gragson’s ninth-place result bettered his previous best finish at Kansas – 18th, earned twice (May 2022 and September 2022).
● Gragson finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and 10th in Stage 2 to earn one more bonus point.
● After scoring his career-best starting spot last weekend at Dover when Gragson qualified fifth in his milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series start, the 25-year-old Las Vegas native bettered that mark at Kansas by qualifying third for the AdventHealth 400.
● Berry’s 15th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Kansas – 25th, earned last May.
● This was Berry’s third straight finish of 16th or better. He finished 16th April 21 at Talladega and 14th last Sunday at Dover
● Berry was the highest finishing rookie.
● This was Briscoe’s 10th straight finish of 21st or better.

Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the AdventHealth 400 to score his 25th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his second at Kansas. His margin of victory over second-place Chris Buescher was .001 of a second, the closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 43 laps.
● Thirty-one of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Larson remains the championship leader after Kansas with a 29-point advantage over second-place Martin Truex Jr.

Sound Bites:

“I thought we had a really good car all weekend. We started third and was fourth in practice and we came home ninth tonight. Overall, a good weekend. We were trying some strategy stuff there at the end, putting two tires on it with about 60 laps to go on that caution. It kind of hurt us on the short run, but started making up ground on the long run. We thought it would’ve been the opposite. Super-thankful for everyone at Bass Pro Shops and Winchester, everyone at Stewart-Haas and Ford and everyone who has been working really hard. That’s our third top-10 in a row. Third at Talladega, sixth at Dover and ninth here at Kansas. Three, six, nine, damn were doing fine. We still want a little more, but we’re doing well compared to what our goals were at the start of the year and we just want to keep in building on it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“I think we definitely struggled in the early part of the race and really never got the feeling like I wanted, but we stayed after it all day and got a decent finish with our Overstock.com Ford Mustang.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We just weren’t very good for whatever reason. Yesterday in practice, I thought our car was pretty good. I didn’t feel like it was a race-winning car per say, but I felt like it was going to be in the mix for the top-10. We qualified inside the top-10, but when the race started, our car didn’t drive anything like it did in practice. Got into the wall in qualifying and I don’t know if it did something that we didn’t catch or what, but we definitely just fought the balance all day long. You can’t really have days like that when you’re in our position points-wise, but we have a couple of good racetracks for us coming up and, hopefully, we can capitalize.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Goodyear 400 on Sunday, May 12 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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