Kevin Harvick advances in Chase with dominant PIR win
Nov 9, 2014; Avondale, AZ, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick (4) celebrates after winning the Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Harvick dominated the Quicken Loans Race for Heros 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, leading 264 of the 312 laps that made up the race to claim his third-straight and sixth-career win at PIR. The win also advanced him to the Championship round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup in next weekend’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Wow, I guess that is what it feels like to hit a walk-off in extra innings there,” Harvick said. “This thing (car), both races here, has just been bad to the bone. “Everybody on our Budweiser team has done a great job and here we come, Homestead.”
Jeff Gordon finished second. He raced back toward the front after a jack issue on pit road and took over the second spot by getting off pit road second during a caution with just under 75 laps to go. But the runner-up finish wasn’t enough to keep Gordon in the Chase.
“It’s disappointing. We have a lot to hold our heads high about the way we raced this race and this season,” Gordon said. “Second just wasn’t good enough. Harvick was just in another zip code. Nobody was going to be able to stop him today.”
After the checkered flag, Gordon found himself one-point shy of Chase advancement. That final Chase spot went to 11th-place Ryan Newman. In the closing laps, Newman ran down on the apron and made contact with Kyle Larson to gain one final spot and secure Chase survival.
“I just gave it my all. They paved it (apron) that way for a reason,” Newman said. “I did what I had to do. I’m not proud of it, but I think if (Kyle Larson) was in my position he would have done the same. That kid is a hell of driver and he’s going to have tremendous success here.”
Third and fourth-place finishers Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski also fell shy of remaining in the Chase, despite their top-five finishes. Instead, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin advanced. Hamlin finished fifth and Logano sixth.
Both Hamlin and Logano fell off the lead lap, Hamlin twice. Both drivers led laps early before Harvick took over on lap 44.
Hamlin pitted twice during a lap 31 caution because of a right-rear tire issue, putting him in the back for the restart. Instead of racing toward the front, he wound up a lap down by the time the second caution of the race came on lap 81. Hamlin got back on the lead lap during a lap 96 caution but went a lap down, again, near the halfway point of the race.
Logano was penalized for dragging his gas can out of his pit box during a cautioin on lap 123. Harvick then put him a lap down just before a lap 184 caution.
“There are a lot of emotions, believe me; when the 4 car (Harvick) laps you, you don’t know how the race is gonna play out,” Logano said. “You don’t know if there are gonna be enough cautions to get the lucky dog or will you get the lucky dog.”
Logano got back on the lead lap during a caution on lap 201, and then Hamlin got back on the lead lap, for good, when the yellow flag waved, again, just a few laps later.
In all, the yellow flag waved 12 times, a track record for PIR.
Kurt Busch finished seventh, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was eighth, Greg Biffle ninth, and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-10.
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