It took about 20 hours longer than anyone anticipated, but Kevin Harvick emerged the victor in Sunday’s rain-delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Harvick took advantage of the misfortune of the dominant Kyle Busch and contenders Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski to pull away and win a freaky race at Bristol Motor Speedway. When the race finally got under way just after 9 p.m., drivers completed only 31 laps before the rain returned. Race teams covered up the cars with tarps and race officials encouraged fans to leave the grandstand as the storm approached.
Denny Hamlin will join his teammate Edwards on the front row.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished the race in second-place and he was followed by Hamlin, while Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.
Harvick enticed his vehicle owner and retiring driver Tony Stewart to do burnouts with him to celebrate the three-time champion’s last race at Bristol.
Harvick had 13 top-10 finishes in the 18 races since winning at Phoenix in March.
“I was actually just enjoying what was going on (up front) trying to get there”, Dillon said about the chaos. That being said, he won the night race in 2012 and finished third in the event past year. I’ve been wrecking half a lap and they just come up and clean us out. Both Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch were caught up in accidents that ended their chances earlier than expected. “I don’t know. Frustrating day. We had a win in our sights and I just drove the auto at 101 percent instead of that 99 that I probably needed to be at”.
Two crashes in the second half of the race took contenders Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Brad Keslowski out of contention.
The race was slowed by nine cautions – the first for rain on Lap 31, which delayed the race overnight.
“It’s time to go out there and get every point we can get every time we’re out on the track”, Buescher said. That’s the nature of short-track racing. “The way that our auto was restarting it felt comfortable, it felt good”. We had Bryan Clauson’s tribute helmet here and I dug deep and the guys dug deep and made a lot of changes that made our Ford run a lot better. Hamlin immediately stole the lead from Edwards by the end of the opening lap once proceedings got under way.
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“We kept working our way up towards the end and got to the top five, and nearly got one there at the end, but I love Bristol”. Now 45, Jeff Gordon is set to make his fourth straight start in the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports as Dale Earnhardt Jr. recovers from a concussion. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series now heads to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday afternoon.
