Kevin Harvick confirmed to media members Saturday at Daytona
International Speedway he has signed a two-year contract extension with
Stewart-Haas Racing.
Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion, said his new deal
with SHR lasts through the 2023 season. It was initially slated to end after
2021, but now the 44-year-old has a deal to race in NASCAR’s top series for
four more years.
The veteran’s future was the subject of much speculation, given his contract status, age and the manner in which he capably joined the FOX broadcast booth for select events as an analyst. Harvick said Saturday that he was dialing back his TV and radio commitments this year, in part to spend more time with his family, but that making a transition to media after 2023 would coincide with the expected arrival of a new TV broadcast contract.
“I’m intrigued by that and for me, that’ll keep me in the car a
few more years as we go through 2023 and see where we’re at,” Harvick said.
“Really, that timing works well for me from a media standpoint, just because of
the fact that you have a TV contract that’s coming up, you’ll know who the
players are and I think at that particular point, you’ll have a fair amount of
experience in the new car. You’ll hopefully have been through the engine
change, the vehicle change. So there were a number of things that go along with
that. I really like racing with the group of guys in the organization where I’m
at and I worked my whole career and feel like I got here with a group of guys
and people that I want to have had success with. For me, going through a few
more years in the car just made sense.”
Harvick continues to stay busy with Kevin Harvick Inc., his
sports marketing agency, in addition to his full-time role with SHR. But even
with the side projects, Harvick said his drive to excel at the sport’s top
level still sustained him.
“KHI’s definitely bigger than I thought it was going to be at
this particular point, but the TV and radio stuff is definitely something that
I’m extremely interested in,” Harvick said. “But I talked with some of my
friends over the offseason just about where I was at with things, and everybody
told me the same thing: If you’re not done with that competitive side of it,
just keep chasing that side and I’ve got everything around me that I need to be
competitive, so I’m just going to continue doing that.”
After a career-long stint with Richard Childress Racing, Harvick
signed with the Tony Stewart co-owned team prior to the 2014 season. Paired
with crew chief Rodney Childers, he delivered his best-ever season — five wins,
more than 2,000 laps led and, most importantly, the series championship — in
the first year of the elimination-style playoff format.
Harvick and Childers have posted 26 wins together in the No. 4
Ford over six years, averaging more than four wins per year together. Harvick
has qualified for the Championship 4 five times in six years and blossomed into
one of the most feared — and respected — drivers in the garage.
With 49 career Cup Series wins, Harvick is set to join just 13
other drivers in NASCAR history with 50 career victories at the sport’s highest
level. He ranks second among active drivers in all-time wins, behind only Kyle
Busch.
With Jimmie Johnson entering his last year of full-time racing,
a Next Gen car slated to debut in 2021 and various other big-name drivers
reportedly nearing the end of their contracts, the next two years of Silly
Season is expected to produce plenty of turnover throughout the garage.
Count the SHR No. 4 Ford, though, as a ride that is taken.
Kyle
Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team won their second Monster Energy
NASCAR Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway with seemingly
flawless execution by the driver and team.
His three competitors, however, fell short. Even so, each of these drivers had noteworthy seasons and they are undoubtedly looking ahead to next year and the possibility of another title run.
Martin
Truex Jr.:
Martin
Truex Jr. finished second to Busch as a result of a costly mistake on pit road.
He won Stage 1 and was leading during Stage 2 when he took his No. 19 JGR
Toyota down pit road for a green-flag stop.
As
soon as he left pit road Truex reported that there was something wrong with his
car. Crew Chief Cole Pearn informed him that the team has put tires on the
wrong side of the car and that he needed to come back down pit road to correct
the mistake.
He was the beneficiary of a caution on Lap 136 and was able to get back on the lead lap. He was able to rebound to a second-place finish but it was too little, too late.
Truex
said it was the loss of track position that cost him a shot at the win and the
championship.
“Yeah,
ultimately it was the loss of track position that bit us,” he said.
“I lost a bunch of ground on that run,” he continued, “because
of getting tight in traffic and then just was too far back to make anything happen
the last run. Ultimately it came down to track position, and I felt like
if I could have been up front and controlled the race, I could have drove away
from them.
“At the end, we were quite a bit quicker, but it’s just, it was too much of a gap. Yeah, it’s part of the deal. You’ve got to be perfect, you know, and one mistake probably cost us a shot at it.”
The disappointment was obvious for the 2017 Cup Series champion.
“Yeah, these things don’t come around every
day,” said Truex. ‘”Second two years in a row definitely stings a little,
but the fact that we have one is still really a big deal. It’s hard to win
these things. Congrats to Kyle and the 18 guys. It’s a huge
accomplishment just to get here I feel like. Yes, sometimes you win,
sometimes you don’t. It just wasn’t our day.”
Truex finishes the season with seven wins, 15 top-fives, and 24 top-10s with 1,371 laps led, ranking him second in the year-end standings.
Kevin Harvick:
Harvick finished fourth and led 41 laps. He described his biggest obstacle during the race was how much better the other Championship cars were on long runs.
“On the restarts I could do what I wanted to
do,” he said, “and I could hold them off for 15 or 20 laps right
there, and you know, this race has come down to that every year, so you kind of
play towards that, and they were quite a bit better than us on the long run,
but we had a really good car for those first 15 or 20 laps on the restarts and
had a lot of speed. Just never got to try to race for it there with a
caution.”
Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childers hoped to
gain an advantage by leaving his driver out on the track as long as possible
before the final round of pit stops to give him the freshest tires and hoping
for that elusive caution.
“We just needed to do
something different,” Harvick added. “Really our best chance was to have a
caution there at the end and never got one. We just did something
different hoping for a caution, and that’s what you’re supposed to do in those
late situations like that. Just do the opposite of the cars you’re trying
to race, and it just didn’t work out.”
While he was racing against three Joe Gibbs
Racing cars for the championship, Harvick said he never felt out-numbered.
“You race against these guys and it really turns into
individual battles and I would say those guys were all racing for each other
and trying to win a championship. I didn’t really look at it quite that
way.”
Harvick ends the year with 4 wins, 15 top-fives and 26 top-10s
with 953 laps led, finishing third in the year-end rankings.
Denny Hamlin:
Hamlin’s championship run hit a major snag toward the end of the race with about 50 laps to go when his car began overheating. On the previous stop, his crew had applied a large piece of tape to the front grille causing water temperatures to rise in his No. 11 JGR Toyota and necessitating an unscheduled pit stop.
This put him a lap down and while he would eventually get back
on the lead lap, he had to settle for a 10th place finish.
Hamlin was disappointed but felt like he did all that he could
do on the track and that being aggressive had worked for them in the past.
“Like I said, last week”, he said, “I was going to come in here and do the best I could and live with the result either way. I definitely feel like I couldn’t have done anything different. Certainly, we got a little aggressive there, and it cost us, but I mean, he’s (Chris Gabehart, Crew Chief) also been really aggressive and won us races, too. It’s just he’s going for it. He saw an opportunity there to really add some speed to the car, and it just didn’t work out.
Hamlin went as far as to say that it has been a great year that could
not be defined by one race.
“it’s
just a great year,” he emphasized. “We won 19 races as an
organization. That’s the most in this era. That’s a good thing. In
the world where we just keep getting more common with everything, right, common
pit guns, common this, common that, JGR continues to set itself apart, and
that’s the people and the effort that they’re putting in. I think that it
really says a lot about the organization, no doubt.
“I’m excited about next year. I really am. It’s
not like I’m going to go through the off‑season upset or sad. It’s like,
I’m looking forward to having the momentum that we took through this year with
a first‑year crew chief, and we’re going to win a lot, like a lot next
year. I just think that we’ll have another opportunity. There’s no
question.”
Hamlin won six races this season with 19 top-fives, 24 top-10s and
led 922 laps. He finished out the year ranked fourth in the standings.
NASCAR will return for the 2020 season with The Clash at Daytona on Sunday, Feb. 9 as the prelude to the 62nd annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 16.
Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Denny Hamlin finds redemption from last week’s mistake to secure his spot into the Championship 4 by winning the Bluegreen Vacations 500 at ISM Raceway.
“I can’t believe it,” Hamlin said post-race.
Hamlin was below the cutoff race and lost 44 points in a single race. Today’s win negates that mistake as the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota will go for his first career NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series championship.
“This race team worked so hard this whole year. They deserve to be there. I put them in a bad hole last week. I told them today in the meeting, I said, I’m going to give everything I’ve got to make up for the mistake I made last week. That’s all I got.”
Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. will join Hamlin and go for their second championship. If one of them wins next weekend, they will become the second active driver in the field with multiple championships (Jimmie Johnson holds seven titles).
“Guys did a great job, this M&M Camry was good,” Busch shared. “Thanks to everybody at JGR, Stanley, Toyota, TRD. It’s cool to have a chance to go race for a championship.”
Truex was the first driver to lock in after winning at Martinsville.
“I know we’re ready for Homestead,” stated a confident Truex. “To put three (JGR) cars in the Championship 4 is pretty incredible, so thanks to TRD and Toyota and all those guys. Bass Pro, Auto-Owners, everybody that helps us on the 19, and we’ll see what we can do next week.”
Harvick will be the second seed with his 49th career victory last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
“The one thing about this particular year, it seems like you’ve had great weeks, you’ve had mediocre weeks so that momentum thing is kind of hit-or-miss as you go through it,” Harvick explained the various parts of his season as being a momentum factor. “Just really proud of everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford.”
Joey Logano comes to pit road for full service, four tires and fuel. The adjustments the crew made would hurt the car instead of help, as the No. 22 team fell one lap down. Photo courtesy of Rachel Schuoler with Speedway Media.
Stage 2 winner and Playoff contender Joey Logano was competing up front in the first half of the race. After the conclusion of Stage 2, Logano’s crew made an adjustment on the car that appeared to not agree with the track conditions. When the field returned to green flag racing, Logano dropped through the field and even fell a lap down. He could never recover, finished ninth, and was the first driver eliminated from the Playoffs after being above the cutoff line to start the day.
“I went from a car that could lead and win a stage and run really well, and from what they told me, it was an air pressure adjustment made it go from a winning car to can’t stay on the lead lap, and one of the tightest things I’ve ever driven. I don’t really understand it. It doesn’t make any sense. You change tires and change a half pint of air, that sounds ridiculous. It is what it is. Just wasn’t our year to make it, I guess. But we’ll fight for fifth, I guess, in points for this year, and we’ll move on.”
“It stinks. It hurts a little bit, but we’ll live,” Logano said. “Everything is going to be OK. Life is a lot worse in other ways for some. We’re still fortunate to be here and get to do what we love. It’s a bummer for sure. It doesn’t take anything away from that, but it’s just part of the game sometimes.”
Three other drivers in must-win situations were also eliminated from the Playoffs: Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott. For Elliott, he battled for the lead throughout the first half of the race, but a blown tire in Turn 1 caused race-ending damage on his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet.
“Yeah, it’s just a continuation of our first two weeks, unfortunately, ” Elliott said. “I feel like we were in a good position to run solid. I’m not sure why we had a tire go down. I think that’s what happened, at least; it seemed like it. It’s unfortunate. Like I said, these last three weeks have been pretty rough. So, hopefully, Homestead goes better and we can get prepared good for next season and get a good notebook for next year.”
“All in all, a great season for our team,” Larson shared after the race. “A little rocky at the start, but we kept our heads down and kept working hard and got our stuff a lot better and more consistent throughout this season. We’ll try to go to Homestead next week and get a win.”
Busch, Blaney, Larson, Harvick and Truex finished in the top six respectively. Erik Jones was the highest non-Playoff driver who finished in seventh. Clint Bowyer, Logano and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10 positions. Elliott, the final Playoff driver, finished 39th after crashing out on Lap 166.
The champion for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be crowned next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
1. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex, with his ticket already punched to the championship round, finished sixth in the AAA Texas 500.
“I’m feeling no pressure,” Truex said. “My spot in the finale is guaranteed. Heck, not only am I sitting pretty, I’m laying pretty. And in a quick plug for a former sponsor, I’m laying pretty on a Denver Mattress.”
2. Kevin Harvick: Harvick started on the pole and won the AAA Texas 500 to earn a spot in the championship finale at Homestead.
“I overcame a penalty in the pits for having equipment over the wall too soon,” Harvick said. “I warned my crew to keep their ‘equipment’ properly holstered. Otherwise, this race could have become the ‘XXX Texas 500.’”
3. Joey Logano: Logano finished fourth at Texas and sits fourth in the playoff points standings.
“Tensions will be high at Phoenix,” Logano said. “If Denny Hamlin and I are racing for a spot in the finale and we crash, you can best believe there will be a confrontation. And it’s gonna take more than just one of my crewmen to pull Hamlin off of me.”
4. Kyle Busch: Busch finished seventh at Texas.
“I’m going to Phoenix with the intention of winning,” Busch said. “I’m not going to guarantee a win, because I don’t want to end up putting my foot in my mouth. I’d rather put my foot on a pedal on my floorboard because I’m gonna be ‘clutch.’”
5. Denny Hamlin: An early spin ruined Hamlin’s day at Texas, resulting in a 28th-place finish. Hamlin is fifth in the points standings and will likely need a win at Indianapolis to advance.
“The pressure will be immense at Phoenix,” Hamlin said. “Stomachs will be in knots. So, the desert will bring the dry heat, and the dry heaves.”
6. Kyle Larson: Larson finished 12th at Texas and is currently seventh in the playoff points standings.
“Bubba Wallace may have spun himself intentionally,” Larson said. “And that really screwed me. I don’t understand why Bubba is intentionally spinning when it happens enough accidentally.”
7. Alex Bowman: Bowman finished fifth at Texas, posting his seventh top-five of the season.
“The Formula 1 Grand Prix Of The United States was going down in Austin,” Byron said. “So, for a day, Texas was the racing capital of the world. As for traffic and parking issues, there was a ‘mess in Texas.’”
8. Ryan Blaney: Blaney took eighth in the AAA Texas 500.
“I’ll likely need to win at Indianapolis to make it to Homestead,” Blaney said. “I’m somewhat confident I can do it. I just need a little extra motivation. So I’m reading ‘The Little Engine That Could,’ because I think I can, I think I can.”
9. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski crashed in Stage 1 at Texas and finished a disappointing 39th in the AAA Texas 500.
“I got a little greedy,” Keselowski said, “and as a result, I collected Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. This is all new for both of us because I’m not used to being out of the championship hunt and Ricky’s not used to being in a crash in which he wasn’t to blame.”
10. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished 32nd at Texas after an accident ruined his chances of a solid finish.
“I brushed the wall 9 laps into the race,” Elliott said. “Now, I’m really behind the 8-ball, which means I have to win. Well, I guess that’s my ‘cue.’”
Kevin Harvick had the dominant car at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday night, leading 119 laps from the pole and winning his third-straight AAA Texas 500 for a spot in the championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick held off Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Aric Almirola at the checkered by 1.594-seconds.
“Our car was just so fast through [Turns] 3 and 4, as long as I could keep my momentum up, I could get up beside [Almirola],” Harvick said of his late-race battle with his teammate. “So it was definitely fast, and speed made up for our Ducks Unlimited Busch Beer Ford Mustang in what we lacked a little bit in our handling.”
Fellow SHR driver Daniel Suarez finished third after leading 25 laps.
“That was a very solid night, and I’m very happy with the performance and speed that we brought from the shop,” said Suarez. “Everyone back at the shop did a great job. We knew we would be fast here.
“We had a solid perfomance here last time. We did a good job. We had good execution and a good clean day. I’m very happy for Stewart-Haas Racing and the No. 41 Ford Mustang was pretty sporty. I am very happy for Kevin getting his ticket for Homestead.”
Playoff driver Joey Logano finished fourth and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five. Playoff drivers Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, and Ryan Blaney finished sixth through eighth, with Kurt Busch and Erik Jones rounding out the top-10.
Playoff driver Kyle Larson had a quiet day as well, finishing in 12th after starting 13th.
The race was slowed 11 times for 56 laps, with Playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin finding trouble with the wall or the frontstretch grass early in Stage One. Elliott would finish 32nd, several laps off the pace, while Hamlin would finish six laps down in 28th, despite winning at TMS in March.
Seven-time Texas winner Jimmie Johnson also found the wall after leading 40 laps. The No. 48 was running in second when he spun off the second turn and slapped the wall, relegating his Hendrick Motorsports team to a 34th-place finish.
There were 26 lead changes among 11 drivers, with 2,957 green flag passes (10.6 per green flag lap).
The next race will be at ISM Raceway for the Bluegreen Vacations 500, the final race in the Round of Eight. The race will air on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET and will also be streaming on MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 and the NBC Sports app.
Kevin Harvick wheeled his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang to a 28.465-second lap at 189.707 mph around the Texas Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. The pole was Harvick’s second at the speedway in 34 races and sixth overall of 2019.
“I think the key to the lap was knowing that you had to be wide open and kind of did a halfway qualifying run yesterday and worked most of the day on race runs and making sure we ran enough laps to know where our car was,” said Harvick.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones put his No. 20 Toyota on the outside of Row 1 with a lap of 28.588 at 188.890 mph. Denny Hamlin, Kurt Busch, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five.
Harvick and Hamlin were the only Playoff drivers to qualify in the top-10, as the other six drivers in the Round of 8 will start in the top-20. Joey Logano will start 11th, with a lap of 28.755 seconds, while Kyle Busch will start on the outside of Row 6 with a lap of 28.764 seconds.
Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and Ryan Blaney will start in positions 13-15, while Martin Truex Jr. will be starting from the 17th spot with a lap of 28.863.
The AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will start at 2 p.m. CT on NBCSN/SiriusXM Channel 90.
1. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin won the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas in a cut-off race that narrowed the field to eight drivers.
“Anytime it’s an elimination race,” Hamlin said, “things can get crazy. So, even though this race was sponsored by Hollywood Casino, ‘all bets were off.’”
2. Kyle Busch: Busch took third in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas.
“This is the time of year when pressure builds,” Busch said. “That was evident in Saturday’s Xfinity race when Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer were involved in an altercation. Things got physical, and a little sexy, because the ‘fight’ was really just a very intense hug.”
3. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex finished sixth in the Hollywood Casino 400 and joins Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin in the Playoff Round of 8.
“It’s me, Denny, and Kyle,” Truex said. “Some people would call that ‘Two Men And A Baby.’”
4. Kevin Harvick: Inspection issues forced Harvick to start 40th but he worked his way through the field to post a ninth. He heads to Round 3 of the Playoffs in fifth, 18 out of first.
“I didn’t even get to qualify,” Harvick said. “But there’s something cool about starting at the back of the field. Starting at the ‘ass-end’ of the field, you get a true perspective of the ‘ass-end’ of talent in this series.”
5. Kyle Larson: Larson finished 14th in the Hollywood Casino 400 and is seventh in the Playoff points standings, 35 out of first.
“I had a run-in with the lapped car of Joey Gase,” Larson said. “He was in my way and I needed to be somewhere, so I moved him. It’s football season so I gave Joey the ‘punt, the pass, and the kick (to the curb).’”
6. Joey Logano: Logano survived a late accident and slide through the grass to finish 17th at Kansas and advanced to the Round of 8, where he’ll be the sole representative of Penske Racing.
“I feel like it’s me against the world,” Logano said. “So, I’m gonna go out there and be a ‘world beater.’ Unfortunately, no one will care, because the general opinion of me is a ‘world of indifference.’”
7. Chase Elliott: Elliott finished second at Kansas which was good enough to secure the final playoff spot.
“That was close,” Elliott said, “and I get the cigar. And, as the kids say, it was ‘lit.’”
8. Ryan Blaney: Blaney finished 21st at Kansas and heads to Martinsville eighth in the Playoff points standings.
“I’m last among the eight drivers in the Playoff field,” Blaney said. “I feel like I’m the forgotten driver in the Playoffs. But I very well could quietly sneak in and eliminate the rest of the field. Then you could call me ‘champion,’ and Kurt Busch could call me ‘assassin.’”
9. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 18th at Kansas and narrowly missed advancing to the next round of the Playoffs.
“Had a late caution came out just a fraction of a second later,” Keselowski said, “I’d be in the Playoff field. But we all know NASCAR wanted that extra restart. I’d like a do-over because I have some ‘un-finish-ed’ business I’d like to take care of.”
10. William Byron: Byron finished fifth at Kansas and failed to make the Playoff Round of 8.
“You probably heard about the flock of birds flying into the NASCAR Hall Of Fame,” Byron said. “I guess they really wanted to get in. But come on birds, show some manners. Don’t you know, ‘Birds of a feather knock together.’”
It was a quiet day for Kevin Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing team who had a special paint scheme design on the No. 4 Ford. Harvick was hoping to bring his “Harvick Beer” car to victory lane at Dover, a track that he has been so strong at in the past.
Harvick had a solid qualifying effort of fourth and he was consistently strong throughout the race, at one point catching the leaders. However, despite having a good car Harvick was never able to challenge for the lead and wound up settling for a fourth-place finish.
“Our “Harvick Beer” Ford never gripped today,” Harvick described to MRN Radio. “Took off on the first lap, the front tires never turned and the back tires never gripped. Just way different then practice, but our guys did a great job of staying in there and grind one out today and finished fourth. Still, a solid day, just not what we thought we had after practice.”
Harvick was able to place his No. 4 “Harvick Beer” Ford Mustang fifth and fourth in both stages respectively. The Stewart Haas Racing driver sits fifth in the playoff points standings, +42 above the cut line heading into Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday. Harvick won at Talladega, 10 years ago in 2010 during a Chase race and has not won since.
It was almost a happy day for Kevin Harvick who led 34 laps but was passed for the win late in the going. Harvick qualified sixth, placed eighth in Stage 1 and fifth in Stage 2.
He recycled out as the leader after pit stops concluded with 29 to go. However, cautions late in the going caught him at the wrong time and he was passed by Elliott on Lap 103 and eventually wound up with a third-place finish. Regardless of the top-five finish, Harvick was already locked into the Round of 12.
“I thought it was a great day for us,” Harvick said to PRN Radio. “Everybody on our Jimmy Johns Ford did a great job. From last year to this year, to have the improvement and Watkins Glen to now. We knew we were off from the Hendrick cars on speed and they put me in a great position to win the race if the caution didn’t come out. I kept seeing that 9 (Elliott) getting closer and closer and didn’t really see the 88 (Bowman), but I saw he had fresher tires.”
“Just proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas. We worked hard to be competitive and it paid off.”
Harvick will be seeded in the fifth position, 18 points behind Kyle Busch. The third-place finish was Harvick’s 11th top five of the year.
His teammate Clint Bowyer had a similar day. The Emporia, Kansas native had a strong car starting fifth, finishing third in both stages and at one point he was third after a restart. Bowyer was also up front at one point in the race before wheel hopping and losing a couple of spots.
However, Bowyer and his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing team did what they needed to do and are advancing to the Round of 12.
“Going into the weekend, our backs were against the wall,” Bowyer said to PRN Radio. “We answered the call in qualifying. First of all, Mike (Bugarewicz, Crew Chief) answered the call unloading a fast car off the box. We qualified well, ran up front and passed cars. We did all the things we needed to do. Very proud of that race team, you never give up. It just shows, we were down and out after Vegas, could have easily been bummed out and gave up, but we didn’t and stuck to it.”
“Had a good race last weekend and top five here. That’s good momentum and going to some racetracks that are good. I am not going to start this thing off on the wrong foot again like we did in Vegas.”
Bowyer will be seeded 12th going into the next round of the Playoffs, 46 points behind Busch.
LAS VEGAS, NV — Martin Truex Jr. becomes the first driver to lock himself into the Round of 12 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Playoffs. The No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the South Point 400.
It is his fifth win of the season, but it also came during a string of races with a combination of finishes. Since his last win at the road course of Sonoma Raceway, he has earned three top fives, but also four finishes of 15th position or worse.
“We took a gamble, qualified 24th,’’ said Truex, who led 32 laps. “For a while, it wasn’t looking too smart with the 4 (Harvick) out front. Got the right adjustments in the end. Had a great car all day long.
“Hell of a way to make a championship run. Get some good bonus points, move on to the next round, see what we can do there.’’
Kevin Harvick led 47 laps in total, but fell short in the closing laps to finish second.
“I knew the Gibbs cars would be tough,’’ the 2014 Cup champ said. “Martin was just so much better on the second half of the run. He made up that ground there, was able to stay close enough to us. My car started to get loose and push the front. It was just in kind of a four-wheel drift.
“We did some things this weekend that we probably will have to undo going forward. I think we can do a little bit better going forward.’’
Earlier in the race, Brad Keselowski appeared to have engine issues, with the No. 2 Ford team pulling the hood up to investigate internal issues with the racecar. Whether they were able to dodge a bullet or get diagnose the issue, the car seemed to run at full speed. He fell back as far as outside of the top 20 late in the race, but was able to charge his way through the field to finish third.
Chase Elliott was the highest finishing Chevrolet and finished fourth, leading 12 laps. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five with his fifth place effort. The rest of the top 10 was filled with Playoff drivers: Alex Bowman, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman respectively.
For Byron, it was his first Playoff race of his young career. However, his crew chief Chad Knaus has now been in every Playoff since its formation back in 2004.
“Survive the whole race and try to compete,” said Byron who finished a career-high at Vegas with a seventh place run. “I was really happy with that (finish). We have to be aggressive coming up. Richmond’s going to be a tough short track.”
Drivers got aggressive on the restarts, as many went three-wide into Turn 1. Photo courtesy of Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
The rest of the Playoff drivers finished outside of the top 10. Aric Almirola led earlier in the race and stayed in the top 10 for most of the race, but finished 13th.
“The goal was to leave here in a decent in the points,” Almirola shared after the race. “We just gotta fight hard. Nobody’s going to give it to you. Every point matters, every stage matters.”
Denny Hamlin finished 15th, and Kyle Busch, with multiple issues throughout the race, wound up 19th. Busch hit the wall on Lap 4, and went two laps down early in the race. He was able to rally back to battle for a top five run until a collision with Garrett Smithley knocked the nose of the car and the splitter askew. The handling of the car seemed to be destroyed, and he fell back to finish a lap down.
Pole sitter Clint Bowyer fell back early and was not able to recover. The No. 14 Ford ended the event in the 25th position after leading just the opening lap. Erik Jones had transmission issues that put him behind the wall for 15 laps until the team could make repairs to the car. He finished 36th, 13 laps down. Kurt Busch hit the outside wall in Turn 3 after a left front flat tire caused from contact between him and Truex Jr. on a restart on Lap 185. He would finish in last place, the 39th position.
LOGANO SHOWING EARLY STRENGTH IN STAGE ONE
Logano started 22nd, but took over the race lead by Lap 34. Photo courtesy of Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
As the green flag dropped, drivers were aggressive right out of the gate. While Bowyer was on pole for the first time in 12 years, Daniel Suarez took over the race lead over the next several laps after his Stewart Haas Racing teammate led the first lap. A couple drivers made quick climbs through the field, including non-Playoff driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who made his way up as high as third in the running order.
But the opening laps proved the drama of the Playoffs was alive and well. On Lap 4, Kyle Busch got loose in Turn 2 and hit the wall. The race stayed green, but he was forced to come down pit road a few laps later to replace a flat right rear tire. The crew spent a few extra seconds to pull sheet metal away to provide clearance for the new tires. He would eventually end up two laps down further into the stage.
Just passed halfway through Stage 1, Almirola took over the lead. However, that was short lived as Logano took over the race lead on Lap 34. He originally started in the 22nd position. During green flag pit stops, all drivers came for fuel and tires except for Michael McDowell, who wanted to stretch out his run as far as they could go. The driver of the No. 34 Ford eventually came down pit road, cycling the lead back to Logano who went on to win the stage.
PLAYOFF HOPES SCATTER FOR MANY DRIVERS IN STAGE TWO ONWARD
On the restart, Jones appeared to potentially miss a shift or have a mechanical issue with the transmission of his Toyota Camry as he was stuck in second gear. The crew diagnosed the issue behind the wall in the garage, and the Southern 500 winner was able to rejoin the race 15 laps down.
No one appeared to have any major issues during the second set of green flag pit stops, but Elliott had one of the biggest gains on pit road and found his way up to second in the later half of the stage. Truex was able to get around late in the run, but it Logano seemed to be the car to beat. Truex won Stage 2.
During the pit stops at the conclusion of the Stage 2, Larson received a safety violation penalty and was forced to restart at the tail end of the field. At the time, he had worked his way up into the third position. Front runners ran aggressive on the restart of the final stage. Byron made contact with a few drivers, and had a flat tire to spin on the exit of Turn 4. No contact with the wall was made, so he was able to continue but the yellow flag did fly. Teammate Elliott saw him on pit road as his crew replaced the tires, and backed off to allow him to stay on the lead lap.
Logano, Harvick and Elliott (outside to inside) battle for second behind race leader and eventual race winner Truex. Photo courtesy of Rachel Schuoler for Speedway Media.
Cars were four-wide during the restart. Contact between Truex and Kurt Busch caused the No. 1 Chevrolet Camaro to have a tire rub on the left front. The team went back on forth on if they should come down pit road, but the decision was just a lap too late. His left front tire gave way down the backstretch, and the 2004 champion was not able to get the car slowed in time. He hit the outside wall in Turn 3, and came to rest at the entrance to pit road. He would be the first car out of the race and finish in last place.
With 50 laps to go, Harvick led over Truex and Keselowski. The Team Penske driver had the hood up earlier in the race on pit road as the team was diagnosing strange performance issues, but they were able to resolve those and fight their way into the top three. The other big mover was Kyle Busch, who moved into the top 10 for the first time in the day.
In the closing laps, a few drivers decided to stretch their run as far as they could. Unlike Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race where fuel mileage played a potential role, it was definitely too far for their cars to go in one run. Two drivers included Byron and Larson stayed on track to see if a caution would get them in a strong position. At this point, all other Playoff drivers were a lap down according to scoring.
It was not meant to be. The race stayed green, and the rest of the field was forced to pit. Harvick was able to regain the lead, but Truex was able to fight his way around and take over the lead on Lap 248.
As Kyle Busch climbed his way to start battling for the top five, he chose the middle lane when battling with Elliott and Bowman. Smithley however was in the middle lane running slower than Busch expected. The No. 18 Toyota slammed into the rear of the lapped car, caving in the nose and tweaking the splitter on the right front. Busch fell far off pace to finish in 19th, one lap down.
Out front, Truex led the remaining 20 laps to win his fifth race of the season. The victory secures his spot into the next round. The Cup series will compete next at Richmond Raceway as the Round of 16 continues.
