Over the past four races in the desert, Harvick has a whopping average finish of 1.25 (!), winning three races, finishing in the Top 5 in the other, and leading 855 laps, more than quadruple the closest competitor in that category (Joey Logano at 123).
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“I would not discount him being able to drive up from his starting position”, Kyle Busch said. Edwards, however, exited the pits in second place with fresh rubber, right behind Harvick.
So it’s no surprise Harvick came out ahead when he edged Carl Edwards by 0.010 seconds on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway – tied for the seventh-closes finish in NASCAR Cup Series history since the advent of electronic scoring in 1993. Edwards started off by bumping Harvick up the track’s banking, and Harvick promptly returned the favor, nudging Edwards back.
Harvick now sits equal-top of the Sprint Cup Series standings alongside Busch on 154 points.
“I should’ve wrecked him”, laughed Edwards.
CAUTION KAHNE: While running 14th with six laps to go, Kasey Kahne lost a right front tire and slammed into the wall bringing out the caution. Harvick elected to stay out and Edwards almost had enough to run him down. Harvick won a three-lap sprint to the final for victory at Phoenix. “And I know he doesn’t want to lose to me”.
Carl Edwards qualified second and Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin third, giving Toyota the top three spots for the race Sunday. Hamlin is a former victor at the track and has an average finish of 11.4 there.
And this time, there was no throat-grabbing or name-calling.
“It’s going to be a tough one to swallow”, said Edwards, “but it was a lot of fun”. “To feel as good as I do – no sore spots, no aches or pains – is really good”.
Harvick made up for qualifying 18th by shooting toward the front early in the race. He was 13th fastest in the final practice.
“I knew he was better through 3 and 4”, said Harvick of the moment he saw Edwards closing in his rear view mirror. Harvick, Dale Jr., and Austin Dillon did not pit while the rest of the lead lap cars did.
Crew chief Rodney Childers was also uncertain.
“I knew that he had been saving his stuff and thought we’d be OK”, Childers said. He has been a lock for 100-plus fantasy points at DraftKings at Phoenix lately, and the seven-time PIR victor appears poised for another monster performance. “I fully expected it going into Turn 3 and would have done the same thing”. The trend of the season seems to be relatively uninteresting races getting hectic at the end, and through four races, that’s resulted in four heavily favored winners for four different teams. After a few bad showings the last two weeks, look for Larson to make an aggressive run at today’s title, knowing that this is a track he could potentially win at.
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Johnson said he was “completely shocked” that the wheel came loose because he has been racing with detachable wheels his whole career but has never experienced that. It was kind of fun coming to the line because I thought, man, I got him, and then he doored me real hard and then he got a little run and then I tried to door him and slow him down, but it just didn’t work.
