In a race that set Cup Series records for the number of leaders (29) and lead changes (88)—and fanned the flames of the increasingly combustible rivalry between teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon—Kevin Harvick broke a 115-race winless streak in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Less than a week after sponsor Shell/Pennzoil announced its departure from Harvick’s No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at the end of the season, Harvick won his first points race in the series since his first event in Shell colors—the 2007 Daytona 500. NASCAR.com
It was the first time in NASCAR’s premier series that drivers raced through three green-white-checkered situations to finish an event.
“Everything just played out perfect for us,” Harvick said. “We broke that drought.”
Harvick had hung around the back of the pack for most of the race before moving towards the front by drafting with Jamie McMurray with about 50 laps to go. And on the third of the green-white-checkered restarts he found himself locked on to McMurray’s No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s Chevrolet going into the final lap.
After he had helped McMurray by forming what was a two-car breakaway, he moved out from behind and made a pass with the finish line in sight.
“We knew coming into the tri-oval we needed to be second and (McMurray) moved right and I moved left and that was it,” Harvick said. Toronto Sun
McMurray said he thought Harvick would try to pass on the outside in the trioval, so he protected that area.
“When he went left, it really loosened the car up,” McMurray said. “When there’s somebody directly behind you and they pull their car out really fast, it feels like you opened a parachute behind the car, and you lose 3 to 5 miles per hour immediately. Once he got underneath me, all I was doing was side-drafting and hoping I could stall him some.” FOXNews
“I really thought that Kevin was going to go high,” McMurray said after his second-place finish. “I felt like I was close enough to the yellow line that there was a lot more racetrack to the right. I was really guarding against the outside.”
The margin of victory of 0.011 seconds was the eighth-closest in NASCAR since it began using electronic scoring in 1993.
The race was fairly clean for the first 465 miles, as drivers simply tried to ensure they’d be around at the end. That’s when the chaos usually breaks out at Talladega, and Sunday was no exception.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson tangled on the track in the second consecutive race. Gordon believes Johnson squeezed him down the track late in the race, triggering a crash that took Gordon out of contention, and Gordon didn’t mask his anger after the race.
“The 48 is testing my patience, I can tell you that,” said Gordon, who finished 22nd. “It takes a lot to make me mad. I am (mad) right now. I don’t know what it is with me and him right now.”
Johnson was later involved in his own accident, wrecking with Greg Biffle on the second attempt at overtime.
Juan Pablo Montoya finished third, Denny Hamlin was fourth and was followed by Mark Martin, David Ragan and Clint Bowyer. Kurt Busch was eighth, while Kyle Busch and Mike Bliss rounded out the top 10. MiamiHerald.com
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Aaron’s 499 at Talladega - Race Results
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