With a seventh-place finish in tonight’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Kevin Harvick took over the lead in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) point standings with 17 races in the books.
The race was scheduled for 160-laps but two late-race cautions as the result of multi-car accidents, extended the final distance to 170 total laps with two attempts at a green-white-checkered finish.
Harvick started the No. 29 Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet from the 31st position in the 43-car field and worked with his Richard Childress Racing teammate, Paul Menard, No. 27 Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet throughout the entire race.
Harvick and Menard were mounting a charge in the outside lane on the final restart when the caution flew again just after the white flag, freezing the field as they finished the final lap to take the caution/checkered flag. Menard finished eighth and sits 16th in the standings.
Edwards’ No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford team fell out of the Sprint Cup Series’ points lead for the first time in 10 weeks, surrendering it to Kevin Harvick. But the 25-point lead it held coming into the season’s 17th race—the start of the 10-race “Race to the Chase” that ends at Richmond in early September—was the reason he was racing so hard at the beginning of the Coke Zero 400 to begin with.
“In the big picture [losing the point lead] doesn’t mean much, you know what I mean?” Edwards said. “But there is a lot of pride in leading those points, so we’ll try to get that points lead back. But, in the end, this is one of those things that could actually be good—it could be something that pays off for us.
“That’s a pretty big lesson right there. I kind of strayed from my normal M.O. [method of operation] at these places and was being pretty aggressive at the beginning and it bit me, so we’ll go to Talladega in the fall and we’ll have a better plan.”
Click Here to Read More:
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Coke Zero 400 at Daytona - Race Results
David Ragan Finds Redemption At Daytona
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Kevin Harvick 586 Leader 2 Carl Edwards 581 -5 3 Kyle Busch 576 -10 4 Kurt Busch 570 -16 5 Matt Kenseth 564 -22 6 Jimmie Johnson 564 -22 7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 534 -52 8 Jeff Gordon 519 -67 9 Clint Bowyer 505 -81 10 Ryan Newman 498 -88 11 Denny Hamlin 495 -91 12 Tony Stewart 494 -92 13 Greg Biffle 473 -113 14 Juan Montoya 468 -118 15 A.J. Allmendinger 467 -119 16 Paul Menard 466 -120 17 David Ragan 457 -129 18 Mark Martin 455 -131 19 Kasey Kahne 452 -134 20 Joey Logano 439 -147 21 Marcos Ambrose 435 -151 22 Brad Keselowski 428 -158 23 Martin Truex Jr. 422 -164 24 Jeff Burton 392 -194 25 Brian Vickers 388 -198 26 David Reutimann 380 -206 27 Jamie McMurray 378 -208 28 Regan Smith 372 -214 29 Bobby Labonte 345 -241 30 David Gilliland 315 -271 31 Dave Blaney 249 -337 32 Casey Mears 242 -344 33 Robby Gordon 193 -393 34 Andy Lally* 186 -400 35 Tony Raines 117 -469 36 Bill Elliott 100 -486 37 Ken Schrader 73 -513 38 Terry Labonte 68 -518 39 Michael McDowell 61 -525 40 J.J. Yeley 51 -535
| 
|