NASCAR at Fontana preview: Addition of Aric Almirola helps Stewart-Haas Racing ascend to new heights

Tony Stewart couldn’t believe what he was seeing last month as he watched the Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team he co-owns, Stewart-Haas Racing, had not one, not two, not three, but all four of its Fords running in the top 10.

What Stewart witnessed was a stark contrast from the differing performance levels SHR’s drivers exhibited in recent years where one driver often was upfront, another well toward the back, with the other two somewhere in-between. But on this day and during the latter portion of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick were all near the front.

“I took a picture of the screen when we had all four cars in the top seven,” Stewart said. “Just kept looking at it going, ‘This is really cool, never happened for our organization.’”

Although Harvick went on to score a dominating win at Atlanta, with Bowyer in third and Busch in eighth, Almirola backsliding to finish 13th negated SHR from having an all-around banner day.

Nevertheless, SHR had demonstrated what it was capable of and foretold what was to come. The full realization occurred when Harvick won his third consecutive race last week at ISM Raceway, while his teammates all finished in the top 10. It marked the first time SHR had all four of its drivers do so, an accomplishment that left Stewart beaming afterward.

“It was an awesome day for us,” Stewart said. “That’s a proud moment.”

Harvick is atop the Cup Series standings, with Bowyer, Almirola and Busch each 11th or better heading into Sunday’s race at Auto Club Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, Fox). On the strength of his three wins, Harvick is a virtual lock to qualify for the playoffs. And given what they’ve shown thus far through four races, every indication is that there is a strong chance Almirola, Bowyer and Busch will also earn championship eligibility and join Harvick in the postseason.

“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,” Stewart said. “It just seems like this group of these guys really work well together.”

So what has changed within SHR where in its fifth season of fielding four teams the organization is now seeing consistent success across the board? The obvious change is Almirola, the newest member of SHR’s roster who was signed this season from Richard Petty Motorsports to replace Danica Patrick after a lack of sponsorship prompted her to retire from full-time racing.

Both Busch and Harvick are in their fifth year with SHR. During their tenures neither has missed the playoffs, with Harvick winning the series championship in 2014 and establishing himself as a perennial title contender.

Although Stewart’s final years as a driver were marred by injuries and off-track distractions, he too won a race and qualified for the playoffs in his final season. Upon his retirement after the 2016 season, Bowyer took over as driver of the No. 14 car and an up and down season saw him go winless and just miss the cut the playoff cutline.

Patrick was a high profile signing in 2012, but the former Indy car driver could never completely adapt to heavier, less nimble stock cars. Despite employing a revolving door of crew chiefs that the team hoped would spur her performance, the results were never in line with her teammates. And when her sponsorship dried up, SHR elected to move in a different direction.

The addition of a driver not lacking for experience in stock cars -- Almirola had 423 starts across NASCAR’s three national divisions prior to this season compared to Patrick’s 251 starts -- has apparently been the catalyst SHR needed. And his rapport with his new teammates is unmistakable, something Harvick contributes to him rolling off three wins in row and SHR’s strong start overall.

“That progression as a race team, when everybody ups the ante on the car, you learn something from each car and each person,” Harvick said. “The confidence in the company goes up. The evolution of things starts to happen more rapidly. Now that (Almirola’s) 10 car is in that evolution, it is good for our company.”

Beyond providing key valuable information pertaining to chassis setups, Almirola is doing his part to deliver on the track as well. His two top-10 finishes already equals what Patrick had in her past 100 races with SHR.

“I’m pleased that we’ve gotten off to such a great start,” Almirola said. “But, at the same time, when you look at that company and you look at how fast their cars are across the board -- my other three teammates show speed every week and are running up in the top 10, so if I wasn’t I would feel like we’ve got a big problem.”