After the green flag was delayed for over six hours, the driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet earned his third win of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season after the rain-shortened Quicken Loans 500 became official. (14th) will join Jeff Gordon (sixth; he already had advanced with a Martinsville Speewday win) in racing for the championship. The three guys that I’m racing with, it’s so cool the storylines that you’re going with there. “I didn’t say I was happy”, Harvick told a TV reporter just after climbing out of his vehicle after the call to end the race. If I had 4 or 6 inches at Talladega, we would be going there to Homestead to race for a championship, too. “But, hey, you lose a few and you win a few like that”.
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For those on the wrong side of the cut line, they couldn’t help but lament a decisive race ending short of the scheduled distance and the seemingly cruel nature of a playoff format that often leaves them at the mercy of happenstance. “But, in the end, the big picture is what it’s all about”.
The race to the championship round of NASCAR’s Chase ultimately was decided by the weather Sunday at Phoenix global Raceway.
Harvick is one of four drivers that is competing for the Sprint Cup title. Busch did more than that.
The 2004 champion entered the event needing nothing less than a victory to advance to the Championship Four and appeared to have the speed to do it, qualifying second and leading final practice on Saturday afternoon. “I’m playing with house money, so I’ve got the advantage”. Truex came in 14th. We feel like we could have raced our way back in there and had a shot at it. We were still five points out, just like we were seven points coming in. He won Homestead a year ago and, by so doing, a championship.
Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr. all came out of a rainy desert day and night to make it out of the final race of the Eliminator Round in Phoenix with more than a little momentum. Gordon, Harvick and Truex drive Chevrolets.
Certainly for me, my final race. Matt gets suspended for two races and Joey’s championship dreams evaporate.
“We’ve just been in planning mode for trying to be in the Chase and planning mode for trying to make it to Homestead as a team”.
The highest finisher among the four will win the Sprint Cup Championship.
“It’s hard to play the race with rain in the area”. “We had many opportunities to try to get ourselves to the font, we just weren’t as fast (as Harvick)”.
My midvalue picks were Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. said it came down to the leadership of team owner Rick Hendrick.
A restart might have been interesting with the desperate Logano lined up behind Earnhardt in third, but he never got a chance.
“It’s a shame that we didn’t win that race because it was pretty damned badass how we drove that race”, Earnhardt said.
“The cool thing is we are going there to celebrate regardless of that moment and that day and sharing that with the people that have supported me over the years and are closest to me”.
“This track really throughout my whole career has been one that I’ve been consistent at”.
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Harvick dominated the race after getting off pit road first courtesy of a two-tire stop during a competition caution on lap 40.
