Last week at Chicagoland Speedway, it looked as if Kevin Harvick was going to be the racing god’s whopping boy. This weekend everything changed. Harvick used a late race restart to surge past Joe Gibbs Racing’s Matt Kenseth with five laps remaining.
That was all the gifted driver of the #4 Freaky Fast Chevrolet needed. Harvick kept his lead and went on to win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. As a result, he will automatically advance to the second round.
Kevin Harvick was still unhappy when he rolled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The 2014 champion was forced to start last week’s race from the rear for unapproved adjustments on his hot-rod.
Late in the race he had battled his way back up to sixth place when his team made a pit stop during a green flag run. When the yellow flag flew, he got caught a lap down and finished 20th. Unfortunately, it dropped him to 15th in the NASCAR points standings, in danger of not advancing into the second round.
Kevin Harvick was determined to not let that be the case. He got his opportunity to jump out in front when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson wrecked on Lap 291 to bring out the sixth and final caution of the race.
The wily veteran surged ahead Matt Kenseth after the race’s restart. Kevin Harvick pulled away with only six circuits left of the 300 lap affair. He won the contest by .442 seconds and joined Martin Truex Jr. in the second round of the playoffs.
“One of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad,” said Harvick, who won last year’s Dover race to escape the Round of 16 in his last opportunity. “I feel like the performance of the car and the things that we’re doing are good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there.”
NASCAR warned Matt Kenseth before the final restart not to slow down in the restart zone. The officials believed he had intentionally done it on the race’s previous restart to hold off Martin Truex Jr.
“They made it sound like I slowed down the last time,” Kenseth said. “But in my opinion, the leader is always supposed to have the advantage. He’s the leader. He earned that advantage. They said I slowed down a little bit last time, which I’ve got to re-watch it.
Kyle Busch finished third behind Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth after pitting for fresh tires under the races second to last caution. The defending champion was charging toward the front but another the last caution mired him in traffic and quashed his chance for victory. Brad Keselowski ran fourth and took over the Chase points lead by one point over Truex Jr.
Martin Truex Jr. led a race-high 141 laps resulting in a seventh-place run. Unfortunately, he wore out his tires trying to pass Matt Kenseth after a restart on Lap 269. Kurt Busch finished out the day in fifth. He was followed by pole-sitter Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Larson.
Jamie McMurray finished 19th because his crew chief decided to take on fresh tires with seven laps to go. McMurray was sitting inside the top 10 before the horrible decision was made. The call to put on fresh rubber and move up through the field cost McMurray ten spots or more. The helpless driver watched as his playoff hopes were diminished on pit road.
Austin Dillon came in 16th because of his team making solid choices that benefited the young speedster. A 16th finish was a decent outcome considering he was a lap down for most of the event.
Kyle Larson finished in 12th place but moved up two spots in the standings. Stewart is 11 points back of Larson in 13th after a 23rd place run on Sunday. Chris Buescher trails by 30 points, and needs to capture a win to advance.
Final Results for the Bad Boy Off Road 300:
1. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 300 laps, 115.6 rating, 44 points.
2. (8) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 300, 130.4, 40.
3. (12) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 300, 118.7, 39.
4. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 300, 91.7, 38.
5. (13) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 300, 91.7, 36.
6. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 300, 107.7, 36.
7. (2) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 300, 132.7, 36.
8. (4) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300, 106.2, 33.
9. (9) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 300, 89.4, 32.
10. (6) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 300, 95.7, 31.
11. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 300, 77.8, 30.
12. (16) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 300, 76.0, 29.
13. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 300, 106.5, 29.
14. (18) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 300, 82.3, 0.
15. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 300, 90.7, 26.
16. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 300, 62.0, 25.
17. (26) Aric Almirola, Ford, 300, 67.9, 24.
18. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 300, 67.5, 24.
19. (7) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300, 86.7, 22.
20. (3) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 300, 79.7, 21.
21. (17) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 300, 70.2, 20.
22. (37) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 300, 47.5, 19.
23. (22) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 299, 71.8, 18.
24. (21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 299, 57.6, 17.
25. (14) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 299, 62.5, 16.
26. (20) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 298, 56.5, 15.
27. (31) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 298, 50.0, 14.
28. (33) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 298, 39.5, 13.
29. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 298, 40.9, 12.
30. (28) Chris Buescher, Ford, 298, 48.8, 11.
31. (25) Brian Scott, Ford, 298, 46.0, 10.
32. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 297, 39.5, 9.
33. (32) Greg Biffle, Ford, 297, 41.9, 8.
34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 297, 37.5, 7.
35. (36) Cole Whitt, Ford, 294, 30.8, 6.
36. (38) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 293, 28.3, 5.
37. (40) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ford, 290, 24.8, 4.
38. (27) Trevor Bayne, Ford, accident, 282, 49.5, 3.
39. (39) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 268, 25.2, 2.
40. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, garage, 236, 29.0, 1.
Race Statistics:
Average Speed of Race Winner: 109.292 mph.
Time of Race: 2 hours, 54 minutes, 15 seconds.
Margin of Victory: 0.442 seconds.
Caution Flags: 6 for 31 laps.
Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers.
