NASCAR at Bristol 2016: Winners, Losers from the Bass Pro Shops NRA 500

It had been a while, but Kevin Harvick finally reached Victory Lane for a second time in 2016 by winning the Bass Pro Shops/NRA Night Race 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The weekend was marred by rain, rain that postponed the race late Saturday night and delayed Sunday’s start by close to five hours.

In the end, Harvick won his first race since Phoenix back in March and showed his incomparable ability to close out a race when he has the hardware to do it.

Now as the Chase looms, locking down a win at this point on the calendar carries with it a tank full of Sunoco-sponsored momentum. Harvick’s loaded up for a second championship in three years.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's take a look at the winners and losers from Bristol.

Loser: The Misplaced Speed of Denny Hamlin

Wade Payne/Associated Press

Denny Hamlin misplaces his speed. Often Hamlin, who finished third on the day, takes his speed from the race track, and then he carries it onto pit road. He does this with lunar regularity.

Hamlin got busted yet again for speeding on pit road, his 12th pit-road penalty and eighth time speeding.

“That’s something he has to get cleaned up,” NBC’s Jeff Burton said during the broadcast. “When the Chase starts, points matter. You can’t be too aggressive and give away points.”

You can make a case for excusing Hamlin in the middle of the season. He won the Daytona 500, so his Chase standing was secure way back in February.

The Sprint Cup Series has three races remaining until the playoffs. This is the time to get sharp.

Mistakes like speeding penalties that can vault a driver off the lead lap will be the difference between advancing through the tournament.

Hamlin is a championship-caliber driver, but these rookie mistakes will cost him if he doesn’t clean them up, as Burton said.

Winner: Chris Buescher Joins the Top 30

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Welcome to the top 30 and to the Chase Grid, Chris Buescher.

After Buescher’s fifth-place performance, the rookie officially eclipsed the top 30 and landed inside the Chase Grid.

That slid everyone down a slot and made the Chase picture a lot messier and pressure-packed for the non-winners.

“It was an awesome run for us,” Buescher told CNBC after the race. “I had a blast out there. That’s the most fun I’ve had this year. We kept working our way forward.”

Buescher has two top fives in his last three races and drives with the confidence of someone who belongs in the playoffs. He’s summoning the power that won him the Xfinity Series title a year ago.

“It was tight there at the end,” he said. “I got to the bottom and got hung up. I’d be kicking myself if we lost points.”

With three races to go, Buescher needs to maintain his edge and finish races. With the help from his partners at Roush Fenway Racing, it appears he’ll stay on the Chase Grid for Chicagoland.

Loser: Kyle Busch's Broken Parts

Wade Payne/Associated Press

Kyle Busch led a salty 256 laps with a car that was breaking below him. The spinout itself wasn’t A-grade problematic, but Justin Allgaier in the No. 46 car smashing Busch punched Busch’s ticket to the garage and out of the race.

“The person is the biggest moron out there is the spotter of the No. 46 and the driver of the No. 46, Busch told CNBC during the broadcast. "I’d been wrecking for half a lap and they just come on through and clean us out. That’s stupid. I don’t know. Frustrating day. Let’s go home.”

Be that as it may, Busch’s car was in dire straits, atrophying over the course of the his final 20 laps or so. Something bad was on the horizon.

“It’s a shame. The last few times we’ve been here we’ve had fast (cars) and we haven’t been able to finish. We’ve been having parts failures here,” Busch told CNBC. “It’s something that we have to address and fix. I’m really tired of losing races here with parts falling part. They’ll hear about it on Tuesday (in the competition meeting).”

The only cause for alarm is the integrity of the car’s hardware. He’s one of the top four who can win the Sprint Cup, but only if his car stays together.

Winner: The Solid Points Day of Austin Dillon

Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Austin Dillon needed a points day, and that’s exactly what he got.

Dillon finished in fourth place and can boast that he’s No. 1 in points from all the non-winners, 55 points to the good.

“It was challenging,” Dillon told CNBC after the race. “We didn’t have a car that could win the race, but I’m proud of the adjustment the guys made. They gave me a heck of a pit stop to have that outside restart. I was tighter than Harvick on the bottom.”

Harvick was a runaway freighter, but for Dillon to keep pace when he knew he could rack points was a big step forward for his maturity as a driver.

“We had to adjust the car to get it free for the top and tight for the bottom,” he said. “Reminds me of the dirt days, looking for grip. What we call brown, now it’s black. Solid points day.”

Earlier this year, Dillon dished out a lot of blame, often chastising his team. He has since come down from that lofty perch and put himself in better position to score points.

Dillon has three finishes inside the top 15 over his last four races, which signifies a greater focus as we near the playoffs.

Loser: Ryan Newman's Slip Down the Standings

Mel Evans/Associated Press

Ryan Newman had a 50-point cushion in the driver standings while sitting in 11th entering Bristol.

The last great coliseum was unkind to the No. 31 car.

With the top five from Buescher, combined with Newman’s poor finish (P28), Newman now sits on the Chase cutline where he formerly had a cushion.

It was not the points day Mr. Point-into-the-Chase needed.

That said, it could have been far worse for Newman, who now sits 35 points to the good over Trevor Bayne.

Newman found himself down five laps mid-way through the race, and as a result missed a massive wreck that took out many drivers in his strata. He successfully picked up an extra 10 points thus keeping a bad day from becoming far, far worse.

Where does this team go? A 35-point lead with three races to go isn’t safe, but it’s decent. His experience will keep him in the clear as he’s done most of the season.

Winner: Synchronized Donuts

Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

It's hard to believe that Harvick hasn’t won a race since Phoenix in March, since he has spent the majority of this season atop the driver standings.

The No. 4 team has been quietly consistent all year, rattling off top 10s and fives, as it watched other teams burn down their Goodyears. That all changed Sunday at Bristol when Harvick invited his teammate and boss Tony Stewart along for synchronized donuts.

“I wanted him to go on a victory lap with me,” Harvick told CNBC during the broadcast. “That was pretty cool doing burnouts with him.”

This race served as a signifier—and perhaps a harbinger—of things to come. While drivers like Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch have won a bunch of races, Harvick wins one on the cusp of the Chase.

“We should have won a lot of races this year,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of things go our way. We knew we had the performance in the cars every week. It’s one of those deals where things have not gone exactly right. Now we get that momentum into the Chase. That is really what we needed.”

This team, like all championship teams, peaks at the right times. This win means more than Monday’s complimentary bloomin’ onion at Outback Steakhouse and more than the requisite shower of Busch beer in Victory Lane: This win could launch them into title contention.