Harvick bumps Busch to score sixth win
LOUDON, N.H. — Highlights of Sunday’s Foxwoods Casino Resort 301 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
Kevin Harvick bumped Kyle Busch from the lead with six laps to go and stayed out front to score his sixth victory of the season.
Harvick clearly had the fastest car in the race’s closing laps, but it took him a few laps to zero in on Busch for the lead. He bumped Busch in the left rear between turns one and two and pushed him up the track to easily take first.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get there at the end and just felt that was best opportunity,” Harvick said. “We were running out of laps. I didn’t want to wreck him, I just knew that might be my only opportunity.”
The win was the 43rd of Harvick’s career.
Harvick noted the exciting finish earlier this month at Chicagoland Speedway
WINNER —
when Busch and Kyle Larson made contact fighting for the win in the closing lap.
“As you saw at Chicago, you need to be aggressive and do what you have to do to win,” Harvick “We want to win. That’s what it’s about.”
Busch called Harvick’s move “Just racing” but indicated he might consider retaliation if the circumstances are similar.
“He could have made the move cleaner than that, but how you race is how you get raced,” Busch said.
Aric Almirola was third, Martin Truex Jr. fourth and Chase Elliott fifth.
A Clint Bowyer crash brought out a caution on lap 255. Almirola had a 1.1-second lead over Harvick, but he lost first place to Busch because of a longer pit stop.
Elliott scored his first stage win of the season, outrunning Kurt Busch by .38 of a second. Truex, who led much of the stage, was third, followed by Harvick, Almiola, Kyle Busch, Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.
Truex won the race’s first stage by 1.9 seconds over Elliott. Following in the top 10 were Johnson, Kurt Busch, Blaney, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Bowyer, Logano and Almirola. Almirola edged Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the final stage point.
BOWYER PARKS — STAGE TWO — STAGE ONE —