Kevin Harvick raced off to his second victory of the 2016 season. The Stewart-Hass Racing veteran held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to win the rain-delayed Bristol night race on Monday. Harvick dominated the late stages of the event after Kyle Busch was nullified by a part failure that caused him to wreck.
As a result, the win was Kevin Harvick’s first since reaching the Winner’s Circle at Phoenix in March. Furthermore, it was the first for Stewart-Haas Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. When the race was decided, Kevin Harvick asked his teammate Tony Stewart to take a victory lap with him. Instead, Stewart joined the race winner for a victory burn-out at the finish line.
“I think we have a good plan,” Kevin Harvick said. “I think we have great cars, and we’ve made a lot of adjustments. Hopefully this win and everything getting ready to start with the Chase is going to put all the pieces together. I think everybody has been working hard to do that.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon tried to make the race interesting late but they didn’t have enough for Kevin Harvick and finished second and fourth. Chris Beuscher finished fifth and received a much needed jump to 30th in the standings. As a result, he is 13 points ahead of David Ragan and in position to use his Pocono win to make the Chase.
There was no doubt that Kyle Busch had the fastest car. The Joe Gibbs Racing stand-out had a race high 256 laps led. Unfortunately, he spun on Lap 373 when a part broke and Justin Allgaier smashed into the #18 car to end Busch’s race.
Kyle Busch was infuriated by his parts failure and said the race shop “was going to hear about it Tuesday.” The defending Sprint Cup champion also went off on Justin Allgaier and his spotter. Busch said they should’ve seen his spin and dodged him. “I don’t know. Frustrating day. Let’s go home,” Busch said.
“The person that’s the biggest moron out there is the spotter on the 46 and also the driver of the 46,” Busch said. “I’d been wrecking for half a lap and they just came through and cleaned us out. That’s stupid.”
Kurt Busch was also fighting for the lead on Lap 371 when he made a critical error that cost him a chance at victory. Busch took responsibility for his actions after miscalculating “by a few inches” where he placed his #41 Chevrolet. At the time, he was battling in tight quarters for the lead with the #22 Ford of Joey Logano.
“I think I just missed the bottom groove by a few inches, got loose and the wreck was on,” Busch said. “The way that our car was also restarting it felt comfortable, it felt good. That inside (groove) with the rosin and the VHT, if you don’t hit it exactly right you lose a lot of time. I tried to make up for it and got loose. I feel really bad for the Monster Energy guys. Furthermore, we had a win in our sights and I just drove the car at 101 percent instead of that 99 that I probably needed to be at.”
Fellow competitors Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney also paid dearly for Kurt Busch’s error. Basically, Busch got his hot-rod loose and got hit from behind by Keselowski. That set off the chain of events that immediately led to Blaney smashing right into the side of Kenseth.
Final Running Order for the Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway:
1. (24) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500 laps, 0 rating, 44 points.
2. (25) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 500, 0, 39.
3. (2) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 500, 0, 39.
4. (13) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 37.
5. (12) Chris Buescher, Ford, 500, 0, 36.
6. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 500, 0, 36.
7. (16) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 34.
8. (28) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 33.
9. (8) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 32.
10. (10) Joey Logano, Ford, 500, 0, 32.
11. (11) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 30.
12. (22) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 500, 0, 29.
13. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 28.
14. (17) Aric Almirola, Ford, 500, 0, 27.
15. (6) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 500, 0, 27.
16. (34) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500, 0, 25.
17. (18) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 500, 0, 24.
18. (30) Brian Scott, Ford, 499, 0, 24.
19. (26) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 499, 0, 22.
20. (32) Landon Cassill, Ford, 497, 0, 21.
21. (37) David Ragan, Toyota, 497, 0, 20.
22. (29) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 496, 0, 19.
23. (7) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 496, 0, 18.
24. (23) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 495, 0, 17.
25. (21) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 495, 0, 16.
26. (33) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 491, 0, 15.
27. (36) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 489, 0, 14.
28. (15) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 487, 0, 14.
29. (38) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ford, 479, 0, 12.
30. (27) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 471, 0, 11.
31. (31) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 470, 0, 10.
32. (20) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 458, 0, 9.
33. (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 458, 0, 8.
34. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, 442, 0, 7.
35. (4) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 437, 0, 6.
36. (40) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 416, 0, 5.
37. (5) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, accident, 373, 0, 4.
38. (14) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, accident, 372, 0, 3.
39. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, accident, 357, 0, 4.
40. (39) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, accident, 354, 0, 0
