Kevin Harvick wins action-filled NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol
Aug. 21, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
BRISTOL,
Tenn. – For most of the final 200 laps of Sunday’s rain-interrupted
Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick
was where he needed to be
– out front and in control of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Behind
Harvick, who took the checkered flag 1.933 seconds ahead of runner-up
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the race was often out of control, as the essence
of traditional Bristol made
an emphatic appearance at the .533-mile concrete short track.
Harvick’s
victory was his second at Thunder Valley, his second of the season and
the 33rd of his career. It was the first Bristol victory for crew chief
Rodney Childers and for
Stewart-Haas Racing, whose co-owner, Tony Stewart, finished 30th after
experiencing mechanical problems in his final run at the high-banked
speedway.
“We
should have won a lot of races this year, but we just had things not go
our way,” said Harvick, who was out front for 128 laps and pulled away
for the win after a brief rain
shower caused the ninth and final caution with 66 laps left. “We made
mistakes, or whatever the case may be. But, to get back into Victory
Lane here at Bristol feels really good.
“We’ve
had some good cars here over the last few years… We knew we had the
performance that we needed to have in the cars pretty much every week.
And it’s been one of those deals
where things have just not gone exactly right. But to have the win now
and just try to get that momentum before we get into the Chase and get
things rolling is really what we needed.”
Denny
Hamlin regained two lost laps to finish third, followed by Austin
Dillon and Chris Buescher, who moved into 30th place in the standings
with his fifth-place run. By virtue
of his Aug. 1 victory at Pocono, Buescher will qualify for the Chase
for the NASCAR Sprint Cup if he’s still in the top 30 three races hence,
at the end of the 26-race regular season.
Pole
winner Carl Edwards finished sixth, with Jimmie Johnson, Jamie
McMurray, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano completing the top 10.
Stenhouse
posted the best finish of the season for Roush Fenway Racing, running a
paint scheme and wearing a helmet in honor of close friend Bryan
Clauson, who lost his life
because of injuries sustained in a midget car accident on Aug. 6.
“We
really wanted to get this Bryan Clauson tribute car in victory lane,”
Stenhouse said. “It just wasn’t meant to be today. We made our car a lot
faster throughout the race
and came from two laps down to get back on the lead lap.
“We
missed some wrecks and gave it all we had. I thought we were matching
the 4 car (Harvick) there lap for lap, but he got away from us, and we
had to restart sixth there on
that last restart, but it was an honor to drive this car.”
On
an afternoon where rosin helped provide speed in the low groove,
Harvick’s most formidable competition disappeared before the finish of
the event, which was suspended because
of rain after 48 laps on Saturday night and resumed on Sunday after
showers blew through the area by late afternoon.
On
Lap 358, Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 256 laps, spun in Turn 2,
thanks to a broken suspension part. As Busch’s No. 18 Toyota sat
sideways at the exit from the corner, Justin
Allgaier delivered the coup de grace, unable to avoid Busch’s car.
Having
started the race on Saturday in relief of ailing Michael Annett,
Allgaier finished off Busch’s Camry before ricocheting up the track and
collecting the competitive cars
of Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson.
“We’ve
been having parts failures here, so something we’ve got to address and
fix,” Busch said. “I’m really tired of losing races here with parts
falling apart, so they’ll hear
about it on Tuesday.”
Busch also had some choice words for Allgaier and his spotter.
“I’ve
been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us
out,” he said. “That’s stupid, so I don’t know – frustrating day. Let’s
go home.”
Allgaier said he tried to go low to avoid Busch but then tried to miss the No. 18 on the high side.
“The
No. 22 (Logano) ducked in front of me getting into (Turn) 1 and I had
to jam on the brakes pretty hard,” Allgaier said. “I got really loose
and I was just trying to catch
it. That’s when the spotter was telling me that the No. 18 was spinning
and he kept rolling down the hill.
“So
at first I committed to go below him, because I was already on the
bottom, and then he was still coming down the hill, so I tried to go out
around the outside of him and,
unfortunately, I just didn’t make it.”
Comparatively speaking, that wreck was a minor incident relative to the chaos that followed.
Battling
for the lead after a restart on Lap 372, Kurt Busch turned sideways in
his No. 41 Chevrolet, clipped the side of Joey Logano’s Ford and
collided with the No. 2 Ford
of Brad Keselowski, who subsequently finished 33rd and lost the series
points lead to Harvick.
The
contact between Busch and Keselowski ignited a wreck that involved 11
cars and eliminated Busch, Matt Kenseth and Sunoco rookie Ryan Blaney
from the race.
“I
think I just missed the bottom groove by a few inches, got loose and
the wreck was on,” Busch said. “The way that our car was restarting it
felt comfortable, it felt good.
That inside with the (rosin), if you don’t hit it exactly right you
lose a lot of time.
“I
tried to make up for it and got loose… We had a win in our sights and I
just drove the car at 101 percent instead of that 99. I just
over-pushed the groove by a few inches.
When you miss your line on a (rosin) grip level, you go for a ride.”
Notes:
Harvick came from 24th on the grid to win the race, the deepest in the
field a Bristol winner has started since Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the
checkered flag from 30th in
the 2004 Night Race… Three of Stenhouse’s career top-five finishes have
come at Bristol… There were 20 lead changes among eight drivers in a
race that produced nine cautions for 106 laps.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race - Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Saturday, August 20, 2016
1. (24) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500.
2. (25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 500.
3. (2) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500.
4. (13) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500.
5. (12) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 500.
6. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 500.
7. (16) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500.
8. (28) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500.
9. (8) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500.
10. (10) Joey Logano, Ford, 500.
11. (11) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500.
12. (22) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 500.
13. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 500.
14. (17) Aric Almirola, Ford, 500.
15. (6) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 500.
16. (34) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500.
17. (18) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 500.
18. (30) Brian Scott #, Ford, 499.
19. (26) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 499.
20. (32) Landon Cassill, Ford, 497.
21. (37) David Ragan, Toyota, 497.
22. (29) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 496.
23. (7) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 496.
24. (23) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 495.
25. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 495.
26. (33) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 491.
27. (36) * Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 489.
28. (15) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 487.
29. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 479.
30. (27) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 471.
31. (31) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 470.
32. (20) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 458.
33. (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 458.
34. (35) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 442.
35. (4) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 437.
36. (40) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 416.
37. (5) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, Accident, 373.
38. (14) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 372.
39. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Accident, 357.
40. (39) Justin Allgaier(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 354.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 77.968 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 25 Mins, 05 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.933 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 106 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 8 drivers.
Lap
Leaders: C. Edwards 0; D. Hamlin 1-8; C. Elliott # 9-22; Kyle Busch
23-87; B. Scott # 88-92; R. Newman 93-101; Kyle Busch 102-160; C.
Edwards 161-189; Kyle Busch 190-226;
C. Edwards 227; Kyle Busch 228-250; C. Edwards 251; Kyle Busch 252-285;
K. Harvick 286-309; Kyle Busch 310-347; K. Harvick 348-366; J. Logano
367-403; K. Harvick 404-417; J. Logano 418; D. Hamlin 419-429; K.
Harvick 430-500.
Leaders
Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Busch 6 times for 256
laps; K. Harvick 4 times for 128 laps; J. Logano 2 times for 38 laps; C.
Edwards 3 times for 31 laps;
D. Hamlin 2 times for 19 laps; C. Elliott # 1 time for 14 laps; R.
Newman 1 time for 9 laps; B. Scott # 1 time for 5 laps.
Top
16 in Points: K. Harvick - 762; B. Keselowski - 735; Kurt Busch - 692;
C. Edwards - 689; J. Logano - 684; Kyle Busch - 674; D. Hamlin - 659; M.
Truex Jr. - 630; J. Johnson
- 612; M. Kenseth - 604; A. Dillon - 596; C. Elliott # - 588; J.
Mcmurray - 583; R. Newman - 576; T. Bayne - 541; K. Larson - 537.
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