Kevin Harvick overcame several setbacks to finish third in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Kevin Harvick proved conclusively at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday that a great car and an elite driver can overcome issues that would sink a lesser team.
In fact, in the AAA Texas 500, Harvick rallied from three separate setbacks to finish third and keep his hopes of winning a second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship very much alive.
On two occasions, Harvick cut down tires on his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, the first time on lap 36 when he ran over debris on the track. The second time came under similar circumstances on lap 281 of 334, and that instance cost Harvick a lap during an off-sequence green-flag pit stop.
But Harvick got the lap back when the lead-lap cars in front of him also had to pit for tires and fuel during a cycle that started 15 laps later. Harvick made the most of his reprieve.
But cut tires were not the most annoying problem. Throughout the second half of Sunday’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Eliminator Round race, Harvick had to hold his shifter in place with his right hand to prevent the car from popping out of gear.
“We’ve had really good race cars, and that allows us to overcome things like today with two flat tires,” Harvick said. “Even with the shifter problem, we were able to maintain what we had. But all in all, we just kept gouging away, and everything worked out in the end.”
Harvick’s crew handed the driver a bungee cord during his last pit stop, hoping that would secure the shifter, but Harvick couldn’t find a way to secure the shifter with the cord.
“I never found anything to hook it to,” Harvick said. “I don’t trust those bungees anyway. I would rather just sit there and hold it and take my chances. I was more worried about it popping out of gear. It hadn’t missed a gear or jammed a gear or anything like that.
“It shifted smooth all weekend. I was just going along like normal. One lap, all of a sudden, it just pops out of gear in the middle of the straightaway. So, I don’t really know. That’s happened to us several times, so we definitely need to figure that out.”
Power Steering, Loose Wheel End Truex’s Winning Chances
Martin Truex, Jr. took the green flag in second place, next to leader Brad Keselowski, on Sunday’s final restart on lap 317 of 334.
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For one lap, Truex was the equal of Keselowski, inching ahead at the start/finish line to lead lap 317 as the two drivers rubbed fenders fighting for the top spot.
But Truex soon developed other issues and fell back to eighth at the finish, dropping to fourth in the Chase standings.
“We just rubbed a little bit there in the tri-oval,” Truex said of the contact with Keselowski. “No big deal at all. We were both racing hard. Good hard racing—rubbing a little. It was fun. I wish I could have hung with him a little longer, but my right front wheel starting shaking.
“We had a loose wheel at the end. We were lucky to hang on and get what we did, because with five laps to go, the power steering quit working. It broke a fitting or something. One of those weird days where I thought we had a shot at the win. Our car was real fast at the end of the race. Just a loose wheel and the power steering killed us.”
NASCAR Confiscates Splitters From Joe Gibbs Racing
Before Sunday’s race, NASCAR inspectors discovered irregularities with the splitters on three of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas—those of Chase drivers Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and non-Chaser Denny Hamlin.
The sanctioning body required the three JGR teams to replace the splitters and confiscated the parts that failed to pass inspection.
NASCAR will review the situation during the week and decide if any further action is warranted.
Busch finished fourth in the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and is second in the Chase standings with one race left in the Eliminator Round. Edwards ran fifth at TMS, the same position he occupies in the standings.
Hamlin suffered a fuel pump problem early in the race and finished 38th, 30 laps down.
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