Harvick gets stress-relieving Chase victory at New Hampshire
Sept. 25, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LOUDON,
N.H. – Remember last week, when Kevin Harvick was trapped a lap down at
Chicagoland Speedway, finished 20th and fell out of the top 12 in the
Chase for the NASCAR Sprint
Cup standings?
Remember
last year, when Harvick crashed at Chicagoland and ran out of fuel
while leading at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and had to win at Dover to
advance in the Chase?
That’s
all moot, now that Harvick redeemed himself with a victory in Sunday’s
Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire, the second race in the Chase.
Surging
ahead of Matt Kenseth after a restart with six laps left in the 300-lap
event at the 1.058-mile track, Harvick pulled away to win by .442
seconds and joined Chicagoland
winner Martin Truex Jr. in the Chase’s Round of 12.
“One
of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad,”
said Harvick, who won last year’s Dover race to escape the Round of 16
in his last opportunity. “I feel
like the performance of the car and the things that we’re doing are
good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and
go from there.”
Harvick
got his opportunity to win the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed
Sorenson collided on the backstretch on Lap 291 to bring out the sixth
and final caution of the
race.
Starting
on the inside lane and timing the restart perfectly, Harvick stayed
side-by-side with Kenseth entering the first corner and cleared
Kenseth’s No. 20 Toyota through Turn
2. Kenseth was unable to get back to the rear bumper of Harvick’s No. 4
Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet over the final six laps.
“Man,
that worked out really good,” said Harvick, who won for the second time
at the Magic Mile, the third time this season and the 34th time in his
career. “The car was pretty
good on the restarts. Once we got clean air there at the end, it wound
up being really good up front. I’m just really proud of our team. They
did a great job.”
NASCAR
admonished Kenseth before the final restart not to slow down in the
restart zone, as the sanctioning body believed he had done on the
previous restart, when Kenseth held
off Truex for the lead.
“They
made it sound like I slowed down the last time,” Kenseth said. “But in
my opinion, the leader is always supposed to have the advantage. He's
the leader. He earned that
advantage. They said I slowed down a little bit last time, which I've
got to re-watch it.
“I
don't really think I did, but if I did at all, it's because the inside
car (Truex) was laying back a little bit, and you want to make sure he
gets up to your nose so it's
a fair restart. If he's back at your door and anticipates a little bit,
it's not a fair restart. He's going to be equal to you or a little bit
better.”
Then Kenseth second-guessed the way he handled the final restart with Harvick beside him.
“I
saw Kevin at my door, and I should have known better,” Kenseth said. “I
should have went deep in the box and waited, and the acceleration was
probably better down there anyway,
but I didn't. I went right at the first line, and he anticipated a
little bit of that and got rolling good through the gears, and then I
got through the gears bad. I spun the tires in second (gear), I spun the
tires in third, so I had a really bad restart
besides all that.”
Kyle
Busch finished third behind Harvick and Kenseth after pitting for fresh
tires under caution on Lap 265 and charging through the field. Brad
Keselowski ran fourth and took
over the Chase points lead by one point over Truex, who led a race-high
141 laps in a seventh-place run but wore out his tires trying to pass
Kenseth after a restart on Lap 269.
Kurt Busch came home fifth, followed by polesitter Carl Edwards, Truex, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson.
Harvick
escaped the bottom four in the standings, and that left Jamie McMurray,
Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher all needing to improve
their positions to avoid
elimination next Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
McMurray
and Dillon (19th and 16th, respectively, at New Hampshire) are five
points behind Larson in 12th place. Stewart is 11 points back of Larson
after a 23rd-place run on
Sunday, and Buescher trails by 30 points, needing a Dover miracle.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race - Bad Boy Off Road 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Sunday, September 25, 2016
1. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 300.
2. (8) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 300.
3. (12) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 300.
4. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 300.
5. (13) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 300.
6. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 300.
7. (2) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 300.
8. (4) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300.
9. (9) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 300.
10. (6) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 300.
11. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 300.
12. (16) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 300.
13. (10) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 300.
14. (18) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, 300.
15. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 300.
16. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 300.
17. (26) Aric Almirola, Ford, 300.
18. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 300.
19. (7) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300.
20. (3) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 300.
21. (17) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 300.
22. (37) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 300.
23. (22) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 299.
24. (21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 299.
25. (14) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 299.
26. (20) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 298.
27. (31) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 298.
28. (33) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 298.
29. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 298.
30. (28) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 298.
31. (25) Brian Scott #, Ford, 298.
32. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 297.
33. (32) Greg Biffle, Ford, 297.
34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 297.
35. (36) * Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 294.
36. (38) * Reed Sorenson, Toyota, 293.
37. (40) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 290.
38. (27) Trevor Bayne, Ford, Accident, 282.
39. (39) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 268.
40. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Steering, 236.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 109.291 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 54 Mins, 15 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.442 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers.
Lap
Leaders: C. Edwards 1-30; M. Truex Jr 31-75; C. Edwards 76; Kyle
Busch 77-78; B. Keselowski 79-80; M. Truex Jr 81-124; Kyle Busch 125; M.
Truex Jr 126-166; C. Elliott #
167; M. Truex Jr 168-178; M. Kenseth 179-231; K. Harvick 232-233; D.
Patrick 234-242; M. Kenseth 243-294; K. Harvick 295-300.
Leaders
Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Truex Jr 4 times for 141
laps; M. Kenseth 2 times for 105 laps; C. Edwards 2 times for 31 laps;
D. Patrick 1 time for 9 laps;
K. Harvick 2 times for 8 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 3 laps; B.
Keselowski 1 time for 2 laps; C. Elliott # 1 time for 1 lap.
Top
16 in Points: B. Keselowski - 2,087; M. Truex Jr - 2,086; Kyle Busch -
2,085; M. Kenseth - 2,078; J. Logano - 2,073; K. Harvick - 2,071; D.
Hamlin - 2,071; J. Johnson - 2,070;
C. Elliott # - 2,068; C. Edwards - 2,068; Kurt Busch - 2,067; K. Larson
- 2,057; J. Mcmurray - 2,052; A. Dillon - 2,052; T. Stewart - 2,046; C.
Buescher # - 2,027.
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