‘Tis the season for buzzer beaters – and not only in the NCAA basketball tournaments.
Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet) dunked the game-winner on five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) as time ran out Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. Harvick caught and passed Johnson in the third turn of the final lap around the two-mile oval to win by 0.144 seconds. Watch Kevin Harvick talk about beating Jimmie Johnson at his own game.
It may have been a shocker, not only to five-time Auto Club winner Johnson but Kyle Busch (No. 18 Pedigree Toyota) as well. Busch, going for his second consecutive weekend sweep of NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races, had been passed by Johnson three laps from the finish.
Last-lap passes have been on the rise recently:
• There have been 14 over the most recent five seasons including Kurt Busch’s (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Dodge) winning pass of Ryan Newman (No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet) in February’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.
• Harvick has been on the winning end of a last-lap pass four times in five seasons: on Sunday, last spring at Talladega, in 2009 when he beat Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Widia Chevrolet) to win the Budweiser Shootout and in 2007 when he beat Mark Martin (No. 5 Quaker State/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet) to the line to win the Daytona 500. His record is 4-1 after Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer (No. 33 BB&T Chevrolet) won last fall’s Talladega race.
Other indicators also point to 2011 as being among the most competitive NASCAR Sprint Cup seasons.
• Five different winners over the first five races are the most since 2005. Those five winners competed for five different race teams, the most since 2003.
• Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota have scored 31 Manufacturers’ Championship points apiece. The top four drivers in the points standings each drive a different brand of car.
• The new points system offers several levels of excitement. Fourteen points cover the top five positions. There’s also the opportunity to bounce back. Three drivers ranking 25th or worse after the Daytona 500 – Johnson, Harvick and Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Crown Royal Ford) – have managed to climb into the top 10 over the course of four races.
• Johnson has scored the most points over the last four races (156) followed by Newman and Harvick (154). Click here for a full list of points gained since the Daytona 500.
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