Kevin Harvick wins at Charlotte
Oct 11, 2014; Concord, NC, USA; Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick (4) celebrates in victory lane after winning after winning the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Harvick led nearly half of the Bank of America 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night, running up front for 162 of the 334 laps that made up the race en route to the win. It was his third win of the season, but his first since he visited victory lane at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in April.
“Everyone on our team has continued to build better race cars,” Harvick said. “Things just haven’t gone right.”
With the Charlotte win, Harvick secured advancement into the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup before next weekend’s race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
“I just didn’t want to have to go into Talladega (needing to win there),” Harvick said.
Jeff Gordon finished second, Jamie McMurray was third, Joey Logano fourth and Kyle Busch was fifth. Finishing sixth through 10th were Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne.
“Well, we’ve actually been good all year,” McMurray said. “I don’t know that we’ve put the finishes together, but our McDonalds Monopoly Chevy was really good tonight.”
As Harvick celebrated his win with a traditional burnout, fireworks came on pit road and in the garage. On the cool down lap, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski traded paint over heated tempers from late-race action. The action then spread to pit road when Keselowski, attempting to further get his point across to Hamlin, made contact with the cars of Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart. That contact resulted in Stewart putting his car in reverse and backing into Keselowski’s car and then Kenseth getting physical with Keselowski when both drivers were outside their cars in the garage.
Kyle Busch started the race on the pole, but lost the lead to Gordon on lap 14. Busch returned to the front again, but Gordon soon got back up front and led 70 laps of the first 100 laps of the race before Harvick took over up front.
Harvick got to the lead for the first time on lap 104. For much of the remainder of the race, he and Gordon ran first in second, except for when they were shuffled back a few positions because of pit strategy.
“Kevin got out there on us after that green flag stop (inside the final 30 laps),” Gordon said. “I didn’t want to see another restart, because every time we start on the inside, we seem to lose positions — there at the end, and the whole race.”
The was one addition restart, though, with three laps remaining, putting Harvick and Gordon side-by-side on the front row. In all, the yellow flag waved eight times.
Pre-Chase favorites Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Keselowski all headed to Charlotte in the danger zone of not advancing to the Eliminator round of the Chase. Keselowski finished the race 16th, Johnson 17th, and Earnhardt wound up 20th after battling with a broken shifter for much of the race.
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