“I’m over being a cheerleader”, Harvick said. “He taught his boy everything he knew but it’s just not the same without Junior being here”, Kenyon said.
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Two poor pit stops cost Harvick track position with the second one – from a possible air wrench malfunction – sending him back to 12th with 84 laps to go Sunday night at Darlington Raceway. SHR competition director Greg Zipadelli and Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childress have attempted changing crewmembers – including replacing the front-tire changer earlier this season – and Harvick has tried to stay positive believing his team would improve and eventually learn from its mistakes. Buescher can’t afford to drop out of the top 30 at Richmond or he won’t make the Chase.
The rest of the top five was made up Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano.
“We’ve had a string of awful bad luck lately”, Truex said in Victory Lane. “I’ve always loved this racetrack”. I’ve led a lot of laps here in my career. “I’m proud to get to victory lane with this group”. The nostalgic paint schemes like the Matt Kenseth’s Tide Ride or Kevin Harvick’s Busch Beer vehicle thrilled fans and competitors both. Regan Smith stunned the Sprint Cup garage in 2011 with his win here.
The team’s slow pit stops, especially in the last 250 miles, put Harvick at a track position disadvantage. We had a shot at it last year and didn’t really have the performance at the end of the season that we needed in our race cars, and I feel like this year with the speed we’ve had in our Toyotas that we can go to Homestead and really have a shot at this thing. “It’s been that way for a few years”, he said.
With most cars already having pitted before the yellow flag, only three drivers – Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott – were scored as the top-three and the only drivers on the lead lap at the time of caution, still needing to pit.
Zipadelli said there is something to say about trying to maintain chemistry on a team, but pit crew members these days have to understand they “got to do their job”. On lap 214, Johnson spun out and slid into the inside wall. The two continued their crash across the finish line with Nemechek winning by less than a foot.
It didn’t make up for his crushing eighth-place finish at Toronto in June, a race he led for 56 laps after starting from pole and lost because of pit strategy.
SMOKE WILL BE MISSED: Tony Stewart will leave Sprint Cup without a victory at Darlington after finished 35th on Sunday night when his engine overheated and he went behind the wall.
“He wrecked”, Stewart said of Scott. Scott thought Stewart was mad at him and ran into him on goal. “I’m not sure if he thought I was trying to hold him up”. “I’d say that’s pretty good”.
The wreck occurred on Lap 204 of the 367-lap race and ended the day for Scott, who was a lapped vehicle. All locked in fans’ minds and NASCAR history – and all back on display at Darlington Raceway’s latest throwback weekend. We’ve had super-fast race cars. The veteran driver would lead 28 of the final 29 laps and cruise to the win over Harvick.
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Now watch, Custer will be punished by NASCAR for his post-race WWE impersonation, and future displays of raw emotion from young drivers will be throttled. “You have to do everything you can to get a win here”.
