“The way that our vehicle was restarting it felt comfortable, it felt good”. “I think we have great cars, and we’ve made a lot of adjustments, and we’ve had a lot to adjust to as we started the year to overcome, and there’s just a lot going on, and I think hopefully this win and everything getting ready to start with the Chase is going to put all the pieces together, and I think everybody has been working hard to do that”. Hamlin gained late race track position by just taking two tires on the final pit stop.
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“It’s been one of those deals where things have just not gone exactly right”, said Harvick, who led 128 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. How Harvick Won: After starting 24th in the field, Harvick methodically moved toward the front of the field. Harvick claimed the lead for good shortly before the last 6:57-minute red flag for rain and maintained it after the race restarted, leading the final 71 laps. When the race finally got under way just after 9 p.m., drivers completed only 31 laps before the rain returned. The end was a welcome relief for race teams, track officials, and those who came back out after Saturday’s rains. He previously reported a problem with a shock that he was going to have to go behind the wall to fix. Busch tried to nurse it for awhile and had just made a decision to go behind the wall for repairs when he spun out, lost control and was hit by Justin Allgaier (driving in place of Michael Annett) after he had already stopped. “Let’s go home”, Busch said.
“It’s us against us”, Harvick said. “We didn’t have the auto where we needed to be at the start, but we got some timely cautions to get some laps back and got the vehicle faster”. I’m really exhausted of losing races here with parts falling apart, so they’ll hear about it on Tuesday.
“The person that’s the biggest moron out there is the spotter on the 46 and the driver of the 46”, Busch told Fox Sports after the wreck. I’ve been wrecking for half a lap, and they just come on through and clean us out. That’s stupid. So, I don’t know. Larson also was involved for the second straight issue in a handful of laps.
Harvick said the team’s achievement was not about beating Joe Gibbs Racing, whose Toyotas, along with affiliated Furniture Row entry driven by Martin Truex Jr., have won 11 of this season’s 23 races. “The way that our auto was restarting, it felt comfortable; it felt good”. I tried to make up for it and got loose.
Hamlin also found himself two laps down at one point after having to correct a loose tire and a season-high eighth pit road speeding penalty.
Rick Hendrick won’t have Jeff Gordon as an option should Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Yeah, there’s been a couple race tracks where they beat us, but I don’t think I could count more than three races that I thought that we wouldn’t have been in contention to win”. Michael Annett was sidelined by flu-like symptoms.
It’s the second time in three races weather has altered the Sprint Cup schedule.
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Pole-sitter Carl Edwards started on the bottom, but was quickly picked off by Hamlin and Chase Elliott.
