Earnhardt and company didn’t have to wait too long and when word came, euphoria broke out. Earnhardt inherited the lead from Harvick when he beat the yellow out of the pits. “That was (g.d.) damn killer pit work”, another said.
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In another interview with Fox Sports reporter Kaitlyn Vincie, Earnhardt said, “We had a good vehicle”. Earnhardt’s crew delivered when it absolutely needed to Sunday. The race’s climax happened in about 120 laps to go when Joey Gase’s vehicle was seen sliding into the wall, which prompted a caution from race officials.
“You always want to win when you have a auto like we did today, but I’ll take it again next week”. It hasn’t been one-hundred percent pretty from one end to the other, but I think as you look at the Chase, it’s been championship material and that’s proven by making it to the championship race.
Harvick has a great vehicle: See his 15 top-two finishes this season.
Three of the four finalists for NASCAR’s Chase championship had a little fun with each other late Sunday night. By the halfway point of the race, though, both Johnson and Kurt Busch were inside the top 10 of the running order.
Had it not begun raining when it did, a very intriguing and presumably highly contentious restart would have then ensued with Logano lined up third and desperately needing a victory. Kenseth will return next week….
The 44-year-old earned his four championships within his first nine full-time Cup seasons, the last of those coming in 2001. The final downpour ended the race 93 laps short of the 312 scheduled.
Harvick is one of four drivers that is competing for the Sprint Cup title. While on pit road, Earnhardt crossed the scoring line at the flag stand before Harvick, who had dominated with 143 laps led, got to the stripe. If a reaction ever said it all, it was his. “I’m just really proud of everybody and we’re going to go down there and just do like we’ve done and race as hard as we can”. While the change will benefit the single-car outfit in the long-term, in the immediate it does make for a bit of awkwardness.
Sunday night, Logano climbed as far as third place and in position to take lead at Phoenix during the final caution before the red flag came out.
Kevin Harvick had a good run going early, and nearly overtook Johnson for the lead when the competition caution came out due to the amount of rain that the track received.
That would start with Edwards, who was credited with a 12th-place finish Sunday, leaving him five points in the standings behind Truex, who finished 14th in the rain-shortened race. And his younger brother, Kyle, got a waiver because NASCAR felt awful about the crash at Daytona that sidelined him 11 races with a broken leg and broken foot. It’s not NASCAR’s fault. That was encouraging just as a team and the way we analyzed everything.
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Gordon finished sixth, Kurt Busch seventh, Denny Hamlin was eighth, Keselowski ninth and Aric Almirola 10th. Kurt Busch has reason to be upset as well, with his shot at winning the race and thus having a shot at Homestead being badly damaged when he was penalized for jumping the race’s start from the front row on lap eight. Each could have earned a spot in the finale with a victory in the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500.
