“It feels great”, said Hamlin, who is recovering from a recent anterior cruciate ligament tear.
Advertisement
Contact with Jimmie Johnson led to a blown tire for Harvick that caused him to crash and finish 42nd Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, where he had a brief post-race scuffle with Johnson.
Joliet, Ill. – If the first race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup is any indication of what’s to come in the next nine, tighten your seat belts.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin celebrates in victory lane after winning the MyAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday.
It wasn’t a fight by any means, but the confrontation between two star drivers was enough to make highlight packages on Monday morning news shows (Fox News and CNN among them) and help NASCAR steal some headlines during National Football League season. “Takes some pressure off of us”, Hamlin said about his strategy in the near term. Harvick’s vehicle developed a left-rear tire rub, and four laps later, the tire let go and the No. 4 auto backed heavily into the Turn 3 wall. He still didn’t think he had a chance to win in the five-lap green-flag dash to the finish. His flat track history is good as well, eighth in his last visit to Richmond; second in his last visit to Martinsville. He shoved Johnson with a closed fist before someone stepped between the two, and after Johnson pointed his finger at Harvick, he had to be held back from getting at Johnson a second time. Brown raced to his fifth victory of the season and took over the points lead in his bid for a second season championship. “We’ve just got to go win one of these races”.
“(Johnson and Logano) must have gotten together and had a good run-up”, Harvick said.
“If there’s a guy in this sport that can rally back from a bad day, it’s certainly Kevin Harvick“, said Gappens.
“I assumed he would try to find it as my fault”. “I thought that if we could stay out on the front row we would have a great shot. I was on the bottom trying to get back up on the racing surface, and he was trying to pin me down and I had to get back up or else it would have been a hell of a mess”. “We could have won today”, said Harvick. During his years at Richard Childress Racing there were periods of inconsistency, but that has not been the case for Harvick at Stewart-Haas. Along with that explosion came some fans who felt it was necessary to target DeLana Harvick and her and Kevin’s son on social media.
Hamlin declined to comment on the irony of Harvick’s situation. Hamlin was forced to start in 29th after qualifying was canceled due to weather. Then it went to a rain-out rule of going by the speeds of the first practice to set the field. He led laps for the first time since the carburetor age, it seems, by virtue of jumping a restart – or so Kyle Busch claimed on his radio. Thanks to Hamlin, JGR has won the last three, and eight of the last 10 Sprint Cup Series races. Carl Edwards had issues on his second stop, as he was forced to stay out an extra lap because his pit stall was blocked. The strong showing by Kurt Busch, who led 37 laps, and Gordon as well as Johnson and Harvick indicates that horsepower maestro Rick Hendrick has answered the challenge made by Toyota when it comes to engines.
“Just didn’t get a good restart and got passed by some cars”, said Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens.
Advertisement
Headed into New Hampshire, the four drivers needing to make a big move off the elimination bubble are Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and Harvick.
