Harvick wins 1st Cup race of this season
“To finally check this one off the list ... being so close to home and having raced here so much, this was one that was on the top of the list.”
Harvick was on cruise control and conserving fuel in the race that ended under caution after Kasey Kahne had a hard accident on the final lap. Either way, Harvick had a cozy 9second lead over StewartHaas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer before the caution.
Bowyer, now the driver for the entry Tony Stewart used for his final NASCAR victory a year ago at the track, was second and Brad Keselowski third.
For Harvick, it was the first victory since StewartHaas Racing switched to Ford this season. Harvick had spent 16 years in a Chevrolet.
It was Ford’s seventh victory of the season. Ford won eight Cup races in 2016, and seven came exclusively from Team Penske drivers. This year, the manufacturer has wins from Penske, Roush-Fenway Racing, The Wood Brothers and SHR.
“I had mixed emotions about how the year was going to go just because of the fact that we had a lot on our plate to switch over,” Harvick said. “It’s just a big undertaking, and one day I think when we get done with this year, I think everybody will actually learn all the details of all the things that it took to get to this particular point. It’s a huge undertaking, and I think it says a lot about our people at Stewart-Haas Racing.”
Martin Truex Jr. led 25 laps but had an engine failure and finished 37th. Truex won the first stage of the race, his series-leading 11th stage victory. Jimmie Johnson won the second stage, his first stage victory of the season, but finished 13th overall.
Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray started on the pole for Chip Ganassi Racing and hoped to give the owner a sweep of Sunday after Scott Dixon won the IndyCar race at Road America in Wisconsin. But Larson, the points leader, was never a factor and finished 26th. McMurray was 10th.
Most of the top 10 was comprised of veterans. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were fourth and fifth in Toyota, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sixth and the highest-finishing Chevrolet. Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch was seventh. Then came Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, who along with Larson are part of the newest faces of NASCAR.
Kahne was in a hard accident on the final lap of the race and had harsh words for Kevin O’Connell, who was making his Cup debut.
“No. 15, no clue who he is, I saw him a lot today lapping him, but he went low down the front stretch and then just, I was going to his outside and he just turned right and just hit me, put me straight in the wall,” Kahne said. “No clue what he was thinking. You obviously don’t know what he’s doing either.”
Bowyer couldn’t catch teammate Harvick for the win, but Bowyer still finished a season-best second. He was content with that and knows how hard his new SHR team is working.
He also understood that Harvick was eventually going to get a win.
“Let’s face it, you’re not going to keep that team that’s won a championship, won all these races in the last five years, you’re not going to keep them out of winning,” Bowyer said.