When it was all said and done almost 23 hours later on Sunday, he wound up crossing the finish line ahead of the rest of the field. “I think we have a good plan”. “I like to pass cars”.
Advertisement
The race was originally supposed to be run in-full on Saturday night, but after a short 31-lap green flag run, rain began to fall, and it didn’t let up.
The No. 4 driver won his second race of the season and first in Bristol since 2005 with a little help from inclement weather. “You know, as the night was going on and we became the dominant auto and started to lead the race, that’s when everybody’s nerves get up, and we started having mistakes”.
Harvick had 13 top-10 finises in the 18 races since winning at Phoenix in March.
Kevin Harvick passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 70 laps to go and held to win at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, ending a two-day, water-logged ordeal. “Really looking forward to Michigan, probably my best track, so hopefully we can go win one and not have to worry about it for two weeks”.
Harvick enticed his vehicle owner and retiring driver Tony Stewart to do burnouts with him to celebrate the three-time champions last race at Bristol. And when the race concluded Harvick asked co-owner and teammate Tony Stewart to take a victory lap with him.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 1.9 seconds behind Harvick. He took the lead on lap 23 and was up front when the race was halted for the night after the completion of 48 laps. Busch eventually led six times for 256 laps before a broken part led to a spin on lap 358 and a subsequent hit by Justin Allgaier eliminated him from the event. That’s stupid. So, I don’t know.
“It’s a real shame”, said Busch. “That is the worst possibly scenario when the leader spins out and you hit them”, Allgaier said.
“I think the biggest thing is just being so close so many times”, Childers said of why Bristol means so much to him.
After a marathon of a race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race finally came to a close on Sunday evening.
NASCAR may have looked hard for any free, dry windows of race time given that Bristol will begin transforming the race track into a football field to host Tennessee and Virginia Tech on September 10. That line appeared to be in play periodically in Sunday’s race, but overall the racing appeared to be more in line with what Bristol has produced in recent years – some side-by-side competition with a preferred line near the top of the race track. IndyCar officials announced that the race would go off at 12:09 p.m. Monday.
Pole-sitter Carl Edwards started on the bottom, but was quickly picked off by Hamlin and Chase Elliott.
Brittany Force raced to her third Top Fuel victory of the season Sunday in the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn. Behind them, Chase Elliott turned Matt Kenseth, who was hard on the brakes, and Ryan Blaney ended up drilling Kenseth. Brown registered 6.566 seconds at 103.17 miles per hour.
Advertisement
Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, says Bristol has been circled on his calendar for quite some time, and he was understandably ecstatic after his first Thunder Valley win. Del Worsham won in Funny Car, Drew Skillman in Pro Stock and Andrew Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
