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NNS: Harvick Wins In Texas
Kevin Harvick finishes first in Texas as series standings have Elliott Sadler, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tied…
Kevin Harvick, who hasn’t had much fun in the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season, jumped to the other side of the garage area Saturday night and enjoyed a cakewalk of sorts in winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Harvick dominated on a night that saw the Nationwide Series championship race roll into a deadlock – and the flaring of some tempers.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rallied late to finish fourth, while Elliott Sadler, who had a six-point lead entering the race, dropped positions in the closing laps and finished 11th.
Stenhouse, who won last year’s title, and Sadler, driving his final two weeks for Richard Childress Racing, are tied at the top of the standings with two races to go.
In third place is Austin Dillon, 21 points back.
Harvick led 127 laps and took the win over hard-charging Ryan Blaney, the impressive 18-year-old who scored the best finish of his young career.
“We had a great car tonight,” Harvick said. “These guys in the RCR Nationwide program have done a great job all year. We wanted to get to where we could get more wins. We could have won all but maybe two of the 13 races.”
Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Stenhouse and Denny Hamlin. In the second five were Dillon, Sam Hornish Jr., Justin Allgaier, Kevin Swindell and Cole Whitt.
The end of the race featured a tense confrontation between Hamlin and Dillon and some no-holds-barred commentary from Hamlin. They bumped on the cool-down lap, and Hamlin then forced Dillon into the inside wall.
“First of all, he got his ride because of his name,” Hamlin said of Dillon, Richard Childress’ grandson. “He has to give room. That’s why he always gets wrecked. I’m on the bottom, all the way to the apron. He needs to learn a lesson.
“Maybe he needs to take his little ass over there and fix the race cars if he wants to be wrecking.
“After the checkered flag, he runs into me -- I don't know if he feels entitled by the number on his door (3) to think he's tough. If he's going to start it, I'm going to finish it.”
Dillon was apparently upset by a late-race restart that found his car and Hamlin’s as part of a four-wide group.
After the race, Hamlin used his Twitter account to apologize to Blaney, “who really deserved the attention...” Blaney was not interviewed on the television broadcast of the race, but there was coverage of the Dillon-Hamlin tiff.
A caution with 23 laps to go bunched the field after Harvick had built a substantial lead. The green flew with 20 to go and Harvick leading Busch and Hornish.
Harvick kept the lead the rest of the way.
Stenhouse fought his way through the field despite battling handling problems with his Mustang. As he was gaining positions over the final miles, Sadler was dropping spots.
“I didn’t think we would get it back to a top-five car,” Stenhouse said. “We weren’t near as far behind as we were at Kansas, though, so it gave us a little hope. The cautions came out, and we were able to work on it as much as we could, and I don’t think there were any more adjustments we could do to it to get it tight enough.
“We took advantage of that second-to-last restart there with 40 to go and got our track position, and that was the best we could do. It was a great night for us but disappointed because we wanted the win.”
Can Stenhouse repeat his championship?
“It is going to take a better race car than what we had today,” he said. “We aren’t going to be able to come back like that every week. That is two in a row we have done that. It is going to take better race cars, but I think we are capable, and I feel comfortable where we are.”
Busch was dominant in the early part of the race. He led the first 63 laps virtually without a challenge.
Harvick took over for 26 straight laps and wound up leading 35 of the first 100.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Harvick dominated on a night that saw the Nationwide Series championship race roll into a deadlock – and the flaring of some tempers.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rallied late to finish fourth, while Elliott Sadler, who had a six-point lead entering the race, dropped positions in the closing laps and finished 11th.
Stenhouse, who won last year’s title, and Sadler, driving his final two weeks for Richard Childress Racing, are tied at the top of the standings with two races to go.
In third place is Austin Dillon, 21 points back.
Harvick led 127 laps and took the win over hard-charging Ryan Blaney, the impressive 18-year-old who scored the best finish of his young career.
“We had a great car tonight,” Harvick said. “These guys in the RCR Nationwide program have done a great job all year. We wanted to get to where we could get more wins. We could have won all but maybe two of the 13 races.”
Kyle Busch finished third, followed by Stenhouse and Denny Hamlin. In the second five were Dillon, Sam Hornish Jr., Justin Allgaier, Kevin Swindell and Cole Whitt.
The end of the race featured a tense confrontation between Hamlin and Dillon and some no-holds-barred commentary from Hamlin. They bumped on the cool-down lap, and Hamlin then forced Dillon into the inside wall.
“First of all, he got his ride because of his name,” Hamlin said of Dillon, Richard Childress’ grandson. “He has to give room. That’s why he always gets wrecked. I’m on the bottom, all the way to the apron. He needs to learn a lesson.
“Maybe he needs to take his little ass over there and fix the race cars if he wants to be wrecking.
“After the checkered flag, he runs into me -- I don't know if he feels entitled by the number on his door (3) to think he's tough. If he's going to start it, I'm going to finish it.”
Dillon was apparently upset by a late-race restart that found his car and Hamlin’s as part of a four-wide group.
After the race, Hamlin used his Twitter account to apologize to Blaney, “who really deserved the attention...” Blaney was not interviewed on the television broadcast of the race, but there was coverage of the Dillon-Hamlin tiff.
A caution with 23 laps to go bunched the field after Harvick had built a substantial lead. The green flew with 20 to go and Harvick leading Busch and Hornish.
Harvick kept the lead the rest of the way.
Stenhouse fought his way through the field despite battling handling problems with his Mustang. As he was gaining positions over the final miles, Sadler was dropping spots.
“I didn’t think we would get it back to a top-five car,” Stenhouse said. “We weren’t near as far behind as we were at Kansas, though, so it gave us a little hope. The cautions came out, and we were able to work on it as much as we could, and I don’t think there were any more adjustments we could do to it to get it tight enough.
“We took advantage of that second-to-last restart there with 40 to go and got our track position, and that was the best we could do. It was a great night for us but disappointed because we wanted the win.”
Can Stenhouse repeat his championship?
“It is going to take a better race car than what we had today,” he said. “We aren’t going to be able to come back like that every week. That is two in a row we have done that. It is going to take better race cars, but I think we are capable, and I feel comfortable where we are.”
Busch was dominant in the early part of the race. He led the first 63 laps virtually without a challenge.
Harvick took over for 26 straight laps and wound up leading 35 of the first 100.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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