Kevin Harvick Finds a Way out of Dover; Jimmie Johnson Finds a Way out of Chase
Kyle Busch knew the frightening significance of Kevin Harvick's Sprint Cup victory at Dover International Speedway.
Oh, yeah. Busch finished second. He choked on the exhaust of Harvick's Chevy all Sunday long, or at least for a few laps before the winner's red-and-white No. 4 streaked out of range. Every driver on the track experienced the warm breeze of Harvick swooping past.
For the other 11 drivers who advanced into the second three-race round of the Chase, it was bad news.
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| Wins | Matt Kenseth | 5 |
| Top-5 | Kevin Harvick | 19 |
| Top-10 | Joey Logano, Harvick (tie) | 23 |
| Poles | Logano | 5 |
| Laps Led | Harvick | 2,031 |
| Earnings | Harvick | $6,973,922 |
| Avg. Start | Logano | 6.9 |
| Avg. Finish | Logano | 8.4 |
"The way he ran? Hell, yeah," Busch said in a media conference. "That was a guy we wanted to knock out, you know. That's a guy [who] can win all these races, and you don't want to have to compete against a guy like that.
"That's why they're as good as they are, and why they were last year's champion, so they're going to have an opportunity to continue on."
Harvick, who has inexplicably won only three races this year, could have won each of the three in the Chase's first round. He crashed senselessly—a tire rub caused a crash—in the Joliet, Illinois, opener. He ran out of fuel senselessly in the second one, in Loudon, New Hampshire, and the only way he could possibly advance was by winning at the strange, high-banked, concrete-paved, mile oval where he had never before won.
Which he did. As if he owned the place. As if winning there was a twice-annual thing. It was his 30th try.
In each of the three rounds, winners advance. The 16 Chase qualifiers have been whittled down to 12, all even at 3,000 points apiece, for next Saturday night's race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Three more races, eight will remain alive. Three races after that, and four drivers will compete at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 22 for the championship.
Harvick's task at Dover International Speedway might have seemed daunting, but it didn't look that way. He led 355 laps, for gosh sakes. They ran 400.
Harvick didn't lead the first 23 laps. He had to start 15th because rain washed out qualifying. He led the final 43. He also led in bunches of 82, 70, 65, 41 and 18. Only three drivers—Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Busch—ever led.
Then was there the sad story of the last driver one would ever expect never to lead at Dover. The six-time champion. The winner of 10 races at the so-called Monster Mile, including the previous one.
Because of a freak part failure, for 36 laps—or at least the period other drivers were turning 36 laps—Johnson's Chevrolet sat idle, his team working around its axle. With grease, presumably.
Entering the race, Johnson's status for advancing to Round 2 seemed secure. Then, early on and against all odds, suddenly his No. 48 was in the garage. Johnson was out of the car. A chance for a seventh championship—the standard only reached by Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt—was gone until next year.
The six-time champion will Chase no more. His is now an uncapitalized chase. He'll be around, but he won't be relevant.
Brad Keselowski, who managed to muddle his way in, said afterward, "I'm kind of shocked. I don't know what to think, really."
"It's tough having a very inexpensive axle seal be the culprit and take your championship hopes away," Johnson said on the NBC telecast. "It's racing. I've had mechanicals take me out of championships growing up that led to some success for myself [later], and I'm sure it helped me with a championship or two. It's just part of racing.
"It just shows how critical everything is on a race team, and how important every component is, and you can't take anything for granted. Heartbreaking, for sure, but I don't know what else we can do about it other than go out and win races and close out the season strong."
The third Chase race, second NASCAR Sprint Cup visit to Dover and 29th race of the season overall was a strange dichotomy. The actual racing was unspectacular, mundane even, because of Harvick's total domination.
The narrative was fascinating. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third and advanced to the next round by virtue of a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was that Jamie McMurray finished fourth. The late move that enabled Earnhardt to pass McMurray and avoid extinction was more exciting than any of the occasional moments when Harvick effortlessly reclaimed the lead.
"Well, it was a great move that Dale Jr. made on the outside," McMurray admitted on television, adding at the end, "We just needed one more spot."
The spot Earnhardt got.
"I just drove it in there and it stuck," Earnhardt said, simple as that. "I hate some guys don't get to make it and some guys do, but I'm glad we're able to move on to the next round."
Harvick, 39, had finished 42nd and 21st in the previous two races. He got away with it.
Is Harvick a prime contender? Is he the favorite? Judge for yourself. He has finished second 10 times, third three times, fourth twice and fifth once. He's had five finishes outside the top 15, two of them in the previous two races.
He looks as if he's gotten it out of his system.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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