Penalty ruins Harvick’s big day
HAMPTON, Ga. — Kevin Harvick was faster than everyone at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Too fast, it turned out. Harvick ruined a dominating performance by speeding on his final pit stop, allowing Brad Keselowski to steal a NASCAR Monster Energy Cup victory Sunday.
“I’m just snake-bit here,” Harvick said. “But it’s my own doing.”
Harvick won the first two stages under NASCAR’s new race format and led a staggering 293 out of 325 laps overall. But after a late yellow flag came out when Austin Dillon lost power, the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford eclipsed the 45 mph speed limit going into the pits.
The ensuing drive-thru penalty pushed Kyle Larson to the lead, but he couldn’t hold off Keselowski, who surged ahead on the backstretch with six laps to go and cruised to a 0.564-second victory.
Keselowski, who had his own misfortune at Atlanta in 2013 that cost him a shot at making the Chase, wasn’t about to turn down Harvick’s gift.
“We’ve had races where we led a bunch of laps and things just fall apart at the end,” Keselowski said. “That’s just how this sport works. You take advantage of the opportunities when they come. We certainly caught an opportunity.”
Harvick seemed poised to win at the 1.54-mile tri-oval for
the first time since his initial Cup victory in 2001, just three races after he got his chance following the death of Dale Earnhardt. Instead, it was another bitter disappointment.
Harvick also led more laps than anyone each of the past three races at AMS, a total of 442 in all, but was never ahead when it mattered. This mistake cost Stewart-Haas what would have been its second straight victory to start the season after Kurt Busch won the Daytona 500 the weekend before.
“I didn’t think I was pushing it,” Harvick told his crew over the radio. “I’m so sorry, guys.”
He clearly had the fastest car all weekend. After starting from the pole, he took the first 85-lap stage by more than 2.5 seconds and was ahead by a staggering 5.4 seconds at the end of the second stage — turning the new format into a total snoozer.
The speeding penalty on pit road knocked Harvick to the end of the lead pack with 11 laps remaining. He didn’t have enough time to make up for the mistake, forcing him to settle for a ninth-place showing that should’ve been so much better.
“I had a great car under me,” Harvick said.
Keselowski went to victory lane after a Cup Series race for the 22nd time in his career.
“Kevin was very, very strong,” Keselowski said. “But we persevered.”
Georgia native Chase Elliott might have been in position to challenge for his first win in the top-tier series, but a problem on the final pit stop cost him valuable track position. He wound up fifth.
“We had just a little bit of a hiccup that cost us the second spot, unfortunately,” said Elliott, who ran out of gas while leading late at Daytona. “After Kevin’s misfortune, that would have put us in a really good spot.”