I experienced it firsthand in 1979 and beat myself losing the championship in the last race of the year.
Advertisement
There’s no such thing as a lock since NASCAR created its elimination-style format for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. We all knew what we had to do. When the chips are down and they can find themselves in that rare moment of being able to perform better than the competition is when they are clearly defined as exceptional. Which meant Sunday was an absolute must-win.
Harvick and his No. 4 Chevy team are trying to focus on a business-as-usual approach this weekend. Restart if there I think Kansas State out that are coming out and author of sport that. That No. 4 team was flawless on Sunday. With fresh rubber on the restart, Edwards said he was confident he had the race. Kevin drove flawlessly. The pit crew performed flawlessly.
Harvick retook the lead with just under 50 laps to go.
“We finished where I thought we deserved to be”, Busch said. Well, the answer to that question was, “Absolutely nothing”.
Simply open the video on the NBCSN live extra web site and select to watch the AAA 400 from Dover. But since Bristol recently changed its layout, the half-mile high-banked track has shown a few similarities to Dover in terms of results. Getting on pit road is treacherous. The team could leave a wheel loose. He was runner-up to Johnson in May in the first Dover race. Harvick’s auto suffered the most damage – a tire rub. But he ended up sixth in the race and is fifth in points. The poor guy had a $5 rear-end seal blow out on him and it cost him the 2015 championship.
That’s what made what Kevin did Sunday so impressive.
The key to surviving the first two rounds of the Chase is simple. I worry about things.
A full day later, both drivers likely think they could have done something differently. I’m sure they are going to do everything in their power not to make the same mistakes in beating themselves in this next round like they did at Chicago and Loudon.
Harvick was too hot to do it Sunday. Earnhardt Jr. finished third one spot ahead of McMurray in fourth putting the drivers in a tie for the 12th spot. The race is also airing as a live stream online. He saw his chance of a record-tying seventh championship evaporate, but he was the epitome of class in defeat.
“Yeah, I don’t think there was really any pressure”, a nonchalant Harvick reiterated after the race. And dominating all season and failing to advance from the first round is different from needing points to advance from the semifinal round to the championship race.
Someone else that hasn’t had a whole lot to brag about this year got a great finish Sunday. “I was going to drive in there and hope everything worked out”. At Dover, on the other hand, he had never won before and had posted just four top-five finishes in 29 previous starts. “There’s no telling what he’ll want to do”, said the six-time champion. Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer join McMurray and Johnson as the four drivers that will not be moving on to the next round.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Hamlin found himself in trouble at the start as he tagged AJ Allmendinger and quickly fell a lap behind as he visited the pits. “We just needed one more point”. Harvick was out in front for 355 laps, with Busch and Matt Kenseth being the other two drivers leading the race, for 19 and 26 laps respectively.
So Saturday night begins the next three-race round in the 2015 Chase.
Advertisement
“This is the second fuel mileage race we’ve lost and hopefully our luck can turn around for the rest of the season”. “I was glad NASCAR let it play out except for the last yellow there”.
