Kevin Harvick wins race, championship at Homestead

Nov 16, 2014; Homestead, FL, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kevin Harvick holds the Sprint Cup championship trophy after winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

Kevin Harvick’s win of the Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday was Harvick’s 29th-career win but it was the biggest win of his career as it was the exclamation point on his first-career Sprint Cup championship.

“Well, I just really don’t know what to even say about how much I appreciate this,” Harvick said. “Everybody on this Budweiser – Jimmy Johns – Outback team, Stewart-Haas Racing, Gene Haas, Tony Stewart, for everything that they put into this team.”

With Harvick’s win, Chevrolet also secured a manufacturers’ championship.

Fellow title contender Ryan Newman finished second, while Brad Keselowski, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five.

“It’s been an amazing year,” Newman said. “They say you’ve got to lose one (championship) before you win one. I’m ready to win one now.”

Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, also championship contenders at Homestead-Miami finished seventh and 16th.

“Championship effort,” Hamlin said. “It wasn’t for a lack of trying. I thought we had a better car than those guys, just I had a bad restart and lost position to the 4 (Harvick) and Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made the decision to leave us out there on tires, trying to do something to get that track position back that I lost on the restart and it just didn’t work out for us.”

Harvick dropped outside the top-10 by pitting for four tires during a caution with just under 20 laps to go. He restarted 12th while Hamlin and Jeff Gordon restarted on the front row after staying out. Logano also pitted. He fell outside the top-20 after his car fell of its jack. Newman restarted fourth after pitting but only taking two tires

“Execution was our strong point all year, and we just didn’t do it tonight,” Logano said. “For that reason, we finished fourth (in the Chase) after, I think, we scored the most points this whole Chase.”

The yellow flag waved two additional times, for a total of 13 cautions for the race. With nine laps remaining, Harvick restarted seventh. He quickly moved up to second when the race returned to green, with Hamlin leading and Newman in third.

Harvick then took the lead before the yellow flag waved for the final times with six laps to go. On the final restart, Newman was alongside in second with Hamlin in third. Logano was still outside the top-20.

“It came down to a pit call and I though, man, we are in big trouble here,” Harvick said. “Rodney Childers (crew chief) and all these guys that have put together these teams have just done and amazing job.”

Gordon dominated the race, leading 161 of the 267 laps that made up the event. He started on the pole and led most of the laps until Harvick took the lead on a restart following a lap 116 caution.

Gordon also led laps later, exchanging the lead, primarily, with Harvick and Hamlin throughout the remainder of the race. He gave up a position near the front to head down pit road with about 10 laps to go. With new tires, he worked his way back up to 10th by the checkered flag.

Other top-10 finishers included Matt Kenseth in sixth, Clint Bowyer in eighth and Jimmie Johnson ninth.

After the race, Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus was called to the NASCAR hauler. According to reports, Knaus put a wheel spacer on Johnson’s No. 48 car after being told not to by NASCAR.

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