Kevin Harvick lived up to an old nickname of “The Closer” on Sunday at Bristol, taking command in the second half of the race and leading the final 71 laps to notch his second victory of the season.
The race ended some 23 hours after it originally started on Saturday night, when just 48 laps were run before rain moved in and pushed the event to a late afternoon green flag on Sunday. Kyle Busch started third and was dominant throughout the first half of the race, leading 184 of the first 250 laps. But what appeared to be a broken part on the suspension of his #18 Toyota sent the car spinning across the track. Contact from Justin Allgaier ended Busch’s day with a 39th place finish. Harvick entered the fray soon after, charging from his #24 starting spot to grab his first lead at Lap 286 of 500. Harvick ran consistently among the top five the rest of the way, passing Denny Hamlin 71 laps from the finish and never looking back to record his 33rd career win – loosening Joe Gibbs Racing’s tight hold on short-track competition in 2016. Before Sunday, J-G-R had won all three races run on ovals less than one mile in length.
Harvick’s margin of victory over runner-up Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was two seconds with Hamlin finishing 3rd, Austin Dillon 4th and rookie Chris Buescher 5th – which lifted him into 30th place in the point standings as he now becomes eligible for a post-season Chase berth with his win at Pocono earlier this month.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, NC
| Rank | Driver (wins) | Points | Behind | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Harvick (2) | 762 | LEADER | 0 |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski (4) | 735 | -27 | -1 |
| 3 | Kurt Busch (1) | 692 | -70 | 0 |
| 4 | Carl Edwards (2) | 689 | -73 | +1 |
| 5 | Joey Logano (1) | 684 | -78 | +1 |
| 6 | Kyle Busch (4) | 674 | -88 | -2 |
| 7 | Denny Hamlin (2) | 659 | -103 | 0 |
| 8 | Martin Truex, Jr. (1) | 630 | -132 | 0 |
| 9 | Jimmie Johnson (2) | 612 | -150 | +1 |
| 10 | Matt Kenseth (2) | 604 | -158 | -1 |
| 11 | Austin Dillon | 596 | -166 | +2 |
| 12 | Chase Elliott | 588 | -174 | 0 |
| 13 | Jamie McMurray | 583 | -179 | +1 |
| 14 | Ryan Newman | 576 | -186 | -3 |
| 15 | Trevor Bayne | 541 | -221 | +1 |
| 16 | Kyle Larson | 537 | -225 | -1 |
