Winners and Losers from the Kobalt 400 in Las Vegas
It’s a Kevin Harvick world with a forecast of sunny and a chance of Budweiser showers. It rained corn-based beer down on Victory Lane on a picture-perfect day in Vegas.
His dominating win—where he led 142 laps—in the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas left little doubt that this man is the best driver on the entire circuit. Dating back to last year, he hasn’t finished worse than second.
It was a day that saw a few accidents, some blown tires and a whole lot of Harvick.
Read on to see this week’s winners and losers.
Loser: Jimmie Johnson's Tires
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Jimmie Johnson, who finished 41st after leading 45 laps, had a strong car early this race. He was riding high on the confidence of being a four-time winner at this track. That came crashing down in a cloud of burnt rubber.
He cut a tire and hit the wall, which sent him to the garage and ended his day.
“It’s disappointing,” Johnson said during the Fox broadcast. “We had an awesome race car. It would’ve been nice to win the Kobalt race in a Kobalt car.”
The field heads to Phoenix next week, where Johnson also has four wins. That’s a solid track to rebound from his lackluster effort in Las Vegas.
He wants this effort to stay in Vegas.
Winner: Brian Vickers' Return
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Mea culpa, totally dropped the ball on Brian Vickers this week. Vickers’ return to the track after having another heart surgery is, pardon the pun, one of the more heartwarming stories we’ll see all year. Didn't catch it for this week's storylines.
He told FoxSports.com, "The first two times I've put this (fire) suit on, it's been for photo shoots or commercials or media. Today it's to actually use it, and it felt a little better zipping it up today than it did the first two times, because it's here. It's real, and I can't wait to get in that car here in a few minutes."
And he ran a solid race!
Vickers finished No. 15 for Michael Waltrip Racing.
"It was awesome, in a lot of ways it was a victory," he said on the Fox broadcast. "I’m so thankful to be back in a race car. In so many ways this was a victory for me from where I was three months ago."
Loser: Jeff Gordon's Farewell Tour
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Jeff Gordon’s farewell tour has led to terrible results. He’s been honored in some capacity in every race this year, and in every race he’s been bitten by the crash bug.
He has won two poles so far, but he had to start at the back in Las Vegas after needing to go to a backup car. On the final lap of practice, Danica Patrick spun out and caught Gordon in the mess.
"Danica spun out, and we hit her," said over the radio (h/t ESPN.com).
Gordon has had fast cars in qualifying and even during the Kobalt 400. He made strong moves to reach mid-pack and then dinged his car up a bit. He fell out of contention for good.
Gordon may want to reconsider retiring. He’s had nothing but bad luck in the first three races. He got into the back of Jeb Burton once Jimmie Johnson blew a tire. Gordon said during the Fox broadcast:
"I guess Jimmie blew a right front tire. I was right behind Jeb trying to make a move on him. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go inside or outside. All of a sudden he’s checking up and I thought he was going it to let me go by him. I didn’t realize until at that moment. I ruined our day.
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Here's a strange fact: Gordon's 18th-place finish was his best of the season so far. Obviously the season is still young and he has really fast cars, but this luck needs to turn around.
"I can’t believe the way these days are going," Gordon said on Fox.
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Winner: Martin Truex Jr.'s Third Top-10
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Runner-up this week has been the resurgent Martin Truex Jr. The Furniture Row Racing driver has three top-10s to start the year. He even led three laps in Las Vegas. He led one lap all of last year.
“I really can’t put it into words,” Truex said during the Fox broadcast. “Just really proud of everyone. It’s a solid weekend. We’re not having any terrible luck. We’ve got to find a bit more speed and we’ll be able to challenge those guys.”
This season so far has proved that Truex could be Chase-worthy. His cars may not be able to run with most big drivers like Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano, but as long as he’s in their orbit, anything can happen.
“Harvick was just so fast all day,” Truex said on Fox. “Got the lead on him once during a restart and thought, 'This is pretty cool,' but didn’t have anything to hold him off. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.”
Absolutely. Will he win at Phoenix? Nope, that’s a veritable walkover for Harvick.
Loser: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Gamble
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. just nabbed his third top-five in as many starts. Though his teammate Jimmie Johnson has won a race this year, Junior has been the most consistently good through three races for Hendrick Motorsports.
Gordon has been consistent, just consistently bad (by his standards). Alas, this is a Junior slide.
Junior was in the thick of this race the entire time. He led four laps in Vegas, but once Harvick made a powerful move on Earnhardt’s outside, there was no catching the No. 4 car.
Then late in the race, the No. 88 car took two tires instead of four in an effort to make up ground.
“I don’t really know,” Earnhardt said during the Fox broadcast. “We didn’t put lefts on it, made it a gamble. I like to gamble. I like the call, love being aggressive. I wasn’t going to drive up there to pass that [No.] 4. Had to take a chance. Second, fifth, fourth, it don’t matter unless you win.”
It was a gamble worthy of the locale.
“We’re gonna get one, I wanna win!” he said on Fox.
Winner: JGR's Two Sneaky Top-10s
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Joe Gibbs Racing managed one of the more quietly successful days at Las Vegas.
Denny Hamlin, while never leading a lap, finished fourth for his second top-five in three races.
Matt Kenseth, who barely made a peep all race, finished a discreet ninth. JGR needed those finishes since Dave Ragan and Carl Edwards finished 22nd and 42nd, respectively.
Hamlin said during the Fox broadcast:
"We got better, Daytona we ran fourth, Atlanta we probably should’ve run fourth if I didn’t wreck. Here we’re fourth to fifth. I think we know where our program’s at right now. We just need to get more speed and be able to race these guys. We need to optimize our weekends and finish where we’re supposed to.
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JGR needs Edwards to step up his game. He’s widely considered one of the best drivers on the circuit, but you wouldn’t know it this year. With an average start of 8.3, his average finish is 25.7.
Loser: Team Penske
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No one spoke to either Joey Logano or Brad Keselowski after the race, so there’s no insight into what went wrong for these two cars.
Logano, who finished 10th, got out front in the race’s opening laps and led 47 laps—the second-most of any driver—but a couple of pit-road penalties ruined his day.
Speaking of pit-road penalties, Keselowski’s tire men lost the handle on one and it rolled ever so slowly across pit road and into the grass. He was rightly penalized. He battled his unsteady car all day and managed an impressive seventh at the track where he won the first of six races a year ago.
Both recovered well, but it could have been so much better for this powerful duo.
Winner: Kevin Harvick's First Win in Vegas Is a Big One
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New hashtag: FTBW—for the big wrench. No? Didn't think so. That is one sweet trophy.
Anyway, Harvick destroyed this field and proved yet again why he's the best driver on the circuit. The win made it six consecutive races in the top two.
This was also a race where something could have gone horribly wrong for the No. 4. With 20 laps remaining, Harvick felt some vibrations coming from his tires. These similar vibrations sent many drivers to pit road, but with 20 laps to go Harvick—in Vegas fashion—gambled.
"It’s so cool to win here in Las Vegas and start this West Coast swing," Harvick said during the Fox broadcast. "I don’t know, but it wasn’t right. Luckily we were able to hang on to it and have a good enough lead to where we were able to pace ourselves to keep the lead."
What's next?
Phoenix, a place where Harvick may as well pay rent. According to the Fox broadcast, Harvick has won four of the last five races at Phoenix. Shake up the tall boys, Harvick's going for two in a row.
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