Three in a row for No. 4
Kevin Harvick makes statement with latest victory
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Harvick is at his best when’s he mad, so much so that former crew chief Gil Martin used to try to rile him up during races.
Harvick was running extra hot when he got to ISM Raceway after penalties for technical violations marred his victory last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. When he finally cooled off Sunday afternoon, he celebrated his third straight NASCAR Cup Series victory and recordextending ninth at the mile oval formerly known as Phoenix International Raceway.
“Everybody just came here mad, chip on their shoulder, wanting to do exactly what we did today,” Harvick said. “That’s the type of determination and grit that you want in a race team. There’s nothing better to be a part of than something like that.
“Actions speak a whole lot louder than all the words I can say this week, tweets that you can send out. Parking that thing in victory lane is the most powerful thing, most powerful message you can send, and says the most about our organization and our team.”
After saying Friday he would jump up and down on the back of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford if he won, Harvick simply patted the back window in a nod to social media photos of his buckled rear window in Las Vegas.
“I made it very clear to pat my window and thank it for doing its job,” he said.
Harvick got in front of Kyle Busch on the last series of pit stops. Busch’s team dropped the jack and had trouble with the right rear tire on the stop with 53 laps left, allowing Harvick — who pitted three laps earlier — to slip ahead.
“We lost the race on pit road today,” Busch said. “But we’ve won races on pit road, too.”
Harvick took the lead with 22 laps left when Ryan Newman finally made his last stop on the sunny day after morning rain. Busch never challenged Harvick after that and finished 0.774 seconds back.
“Man, it was a heck of a battle today,” Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers said. “To sit down there in the corner and watch these guys race like that was like my shorttrack days.”
Chase Elliott was third, followed by Denny Hamlin and pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr.
“I needed a little bit of forward drive there at the end,” Elliott said. “I was turning pretty good and just had a hard time putting the power down.”
Kyle Busch won the first 75-lap stage, and brother Kurt Busch stayed on the track during a caution and won the second segment in a one-lap shootout.
Stewart-Haas racing had all four drivers in the top 10 for the first time, with Clint Bowyer finishing sixth, Aric Almirola seventh and Kurt Busch 10th.
“It was an awesome day for us,” team owner Tony Stewart said. “That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”
Harvick began the streak at Atlanta Motor Speedway after crashing and finishing 31st in the season-opening Daytona 500. He’s the first to win three straight Cup Series races since Joey Logano in 2015.
NASCAR said Wednesday that inspectors at its research and development center in North Carolina found Harvick’s Las Vegas car violated a rule requiring rear window support braces to hold the glass rigid, as well as another requiring the right rocker panel extension to be aluminum.
Harvick was penalized the seven playoff points he earned for winning the Las Vegas race and its first two stages. He was docked 20 regular points and the team lost 20 owners’ points. Crew chief Rodney Childers was fined $50,000, and car chief Robert Smith was suspended two races.
Stewart said he won’t appeal.
“How many appeals have you seen overturned?” he explained.
Harvick regained the points lead Sunday, moving 12 ahead of Kyle Busch. And with the victory, the No. 4 car was headed back to the R&D facility.
IndyCar: Bourdais victorious in opener
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There was never a question
if Sebastien Bourdais would return to racing after suffering serious injuries during a crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Instead, it was a matter of how fast he could get back in a car. Doctors told him 2018; Bourdais said he’d be healed in time to race again last year. He succeeded.
But a fiery accident that caused a broken pelvis and a broken hip can change a driver’s mentality no matter how determined he was to race again, so it was reasonable to wonder: Would Bourdais be the same driver?
Absolutely. His comeback from a vicious wreck, the kind that can end careers, was completed Sunday when Bourdais showed he’s still a winner. He made it two straight in St. Petersburg, the adopted hometown for the Frenchman, and won IndyCar’s season-opening event.
It doesn’t matter how it happened, or that Bourdais was gifted the victory, only that he could indeed win again.
“I was very emotional in the car. I think you get the questions from people: Is he going to be the same? Is he going to come back? Is he this? Is he this?” Bourdais said. “I really try not to leave any room for uncertainty as far as what I was going to do and how forward I was going to go by coming back last year, 2 1/2 months later.
“It’s been bumpy, it’s been
tough, it’s been everything in between. It’s been pretty hard for myself. It’s quite an achievement to be able to restart the season and settle the matter right away and get back on the horse and win another one.”
Bourdais won because newcomer rookie Robert Wickens, in his IndyCar debut, lost.
The Canadian dominated the race, leading 69 of the 110 laps, and the win was in his grip until two late cautions set up NASCAR-style late restarts and contact with Alexander Rossi on the final restart of the race ruined his day. Rossi dove inside of Wickens in the first turn with two laps remaining, Wickens defended his position and the two cars touched.
Wickens went off course, Rossi slid back to third and Bourdais sailed by for the 37th victory of his career.
“It would have been a fairy tale to finish that well, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be,” Wickens said. “My opinion, he just went too deep, locked the rears and slid into me. There’s really no other explanation to it. The only pity is he carried on to a podium, and I ended up in the fence.”
Wickens ended up 18th. Even Bourdais, who wept after his win, understood the race had been Wickens’ to win.
“I was really happy for Robert,” Bourdais said, “and I’m heartbroken for him.”