Harvick splashes to win at Bristol
Kyle Busch has frustrating day
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kevin Harvick passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 70 laps to go and held to win at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, ending a two-day, water-logged ordeal.
Harvick led 128 laps for his second NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of the season and his second at the highbanked, half-mile concrete bullring. Fittingly for a race halted because of Saturday night storms, Harvick had to sit out one last rain delay before easily pulling away on the restart and cruising to victory.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Harvick said over the radio as he crossed the line.
Harvick enticed his car owner — and retiring driver — Tony Stewart to do burnouts with him to celebrate the three-time champion’s last race at Bristol.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher.
Kyle Busch led 256 laps, but was knocked out in a crash.
Busch clearly had the strongest car, leading a racehigh 256 laps. But he spun on Lap 373 when a part broke and Justin Allgaier, driving in relief of Michael Arnett, hit the No. 18 car flush to end the defending series champ’s race.
Busch was angered by his equipment failure and said the race shop “was going to hear about it Tuesday.” He also blasted Allgaier and his spotter, saying they should’ve seen Busch’s spin and moved clear instead of hitting him. “I don’t know. Frustrating day. Let’s go home,” Busch said.
Allgaier apologized to Busch. “That is the worst possibly scenario when the leader spins out and you hit them,” Allgaier said.
That was the sentiment of many at Bristol. The end was a welcome relief for race teams, track officials and those who came back out after last night’s soaking rains.
It was the second time in three races — Pocono’s Sunday race ended on a Monday three weeks ago — that rain impacted a Sprint Cup race and only a fraction of the 160,000 in the stands Saturday night returned for the conclusion.
The finish also meant Bristol could begin the massive conversion of its race track to a football field for No. 9 Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech, an event that track GM Jerry Caldwell expects will draw in excess of 155,000 fans.
To do that, the track must turn the infield into a football over a detailed, stepby-step, 19-day, step-by-step plan that’s already behind — the work was planned to start in Sunday’s early hours once the last NASCAR hauler had left the property.
Mother Nature, though, had different plans.
INDYCAR: In Long Pond, Pa., with rain pelting the garage roof at Pocono Raceway and knowing he’d have to wait another day to race, Mikhail Aleshin just shrugged.
No big deal for the first Russian-born driver to win an IndyCar pole.
“Just one more day sitting on the pole,” Aleshin said Sunday. “That’s life. I just want to win this race. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s going to be today, tomorrow, or next month. I’m still on the pole.”
IndyCar officials acted quickly Sunday and postponed the race at the triangular 2.5-mile track until today because of persistent mid-afternoon rain. With no lights to allow for night racing and no quick end to the downpour in sight, drying the track in time to get in 101 of the 200 laps to make the race official was not possible.