Busch coasts to win in 600 at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. — At NASCAR’s halfway point, it sure looks like a two-man race to the title between past champions Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
They have combined to win nine of 13 races — 10 of 14 counting this month’s All-Star race — and neither expects to slow down during the second half of NASCAR’s 26-race regular season.
Busch and Harvick were the headliners again Sunday night. Busch led 377 of 400 laps to win the CocaCola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick, who had won the past two points races and the All-Star race, was not around at the end. But he did make a charge from 39th to fourth over the first 70 laps before an accident took him to the garage.
While the rest of NASCAR is scrambling to make a summer playoff run, Harvick and Busch are preparing for bigger things.
“Our goal is to playoff race every week,” said Harvick, the 2014 series champion.
Busch, like Harvick in March, won three straight races earlier this year and both teams look capable of running off several more victories before the playoffs begin in Las Vegas in September.
After 13 races last season, there were 10 drivers with a victory, securing them a spot in the 16-man playoffs. The dominance of Harvick and Busch this year means only six drivers have won races, perhaps making points racing to qualify more a focus in the second half.
Denny Hamlin, who has missed the playoffs just once from 2006 through 2017, stands seventh in the points and is one of those winless drivers who could be shuffled to the outside without that victory.
Hamlin, Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, said the difference this year has been finding that little bit of speed that’s the difference between ending up out front or further down standings.
“We’re disappointed,” said Hamlin, third at Charlotte. “It’s something we’re going to continue to look for.”
Runner-up Martin Truex Jr. won last year’s title with eight victories. He won the Auto Club 400 in California this season to lock into the play
Still, he said he and his team are fighting to find the speed and make another run at the top. “We’ve still got a long way to go,” Truex said.
Not much searching is required at the moment for Busch, the pole-sitter who won every stage at a track where he had never won a points race before.
Busch had a race-day aura about him, crew chief Adams Stevens said, that showed he was prepared to finally break through at Charlotte. Busch kept pulling away from the field on restarts and had a six-second lead on Truex on the final laps. Busch became the first driver in modern history to win a Cup points race at every track on the circuit.
It has been almost a full year since Jimmie Johnson last won a Cup race. The seven-time Cup champion has gone 36 straight races without a victory. He ran well in the 600, finished fifth and said “it feels good, but I want to win. I’m tired of running fifth. I’m tired of running whatever it is.”