Kevin Harvick Owns the Night…and Day…and Night Again in Bristol Win
Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, allegedly needed 3 hours, 25 minutes, 5 seconds to win the alleged Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, a span of nearly 24 hours encapsulated that relatively modest expenditure of time.
What a shame that Mother Nature was apparently miffed. With thunderous might, she allowed only a night-and-day-and-night-again race.
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The spectacle of man, machine and the elements profoundly shaped the upcoming Chase, which begins the process of determining the champion on September 18. Harvick's Chevrolet qualified 24th, and his rise to the top embodied the success of changes made to the track since Carl Edwards won the Food City 500 there on April 17.
"Qualifying in the back kind of motivates me," Harvick said. "I know it frustrates [crew chief Rodney Childers], but it's kind of exciting. I like to pass cars."
That Harvick—point leader, race winner—had a secure spot in the Chase didn't mean he wasn't hungry. He'd finished second three times and in the top five four more since his early-season victory in Arizona. He said:
"It's all about confidence, and it's all about momentum. I think we've been confident in our cars, just not confident in closing everything out, from myself to, is it ever going to happen again? I think that goes away tonight, and you just get back into it. We know we have fast cars, know we can win [the championship] again...and it finally all just came together.
"
What Bristol officials used to improve adhesion at the bottom of the Bristol banking was variously described as syrup, goop, "rosin" and finally, correctly, resin. For the most part—Joey Logano appeared to be the only public critic ("I'm not a fan of it. I'd rather we all run the top like we used to," he said aftewards)—it worked.
In what is widely considered to have been the Bristol heyday, the fastest way around the .533-mile oval was at the bottom. Then track officials ground the concrete surface as a means of improving the top. That made the high lane faster...and many fans disgruntled. The resin was designed to restore a balance, and in spite of the power wash of torrential downpours, it held and enhanced the racing for what few were still around to watch.
"I'm glad that Bristol tried to get that bottom working," Austin Dillon, who finished fourth, told NBC Sports. "It was fun racing, man. It reminded me of the dirt (track) days, just trying to chase that grip."
Rain limited the scheduled Saturday night of excitement to 31 laps of green-flag racing and 17 under yellow. The race was scheduled to resume Sunday shortly after 1 p.m. ET, but the rain intruded again. Even after restarting in the late afternoon, another rain delay postponed the grand finale for a while. No matter, except for the fans who wanted to stay but had to get home for work on Monday.
The rain detracted from the spectacle, which was a shame, but the series will not return to Bristol until next spring, and what happened there Friday and Saturday will cast a shadow across what happens in the next three weeks to finalize the Chase field of 16 drivers.
| Driver | Points Rank | Wins | Most recent | Track |
| Kevin Harvick | 1 | 2 | Aug. 21 | Bristol |
| Brad Keselowski | 2 | 4 | July 9 | Kentucky |
| Kurt Busch | 3 | 1 | June 6 | Pocono |
| Carl Edwards | 4 | 2 | April 24 | Richmond |
| Joey Logano | 5 | 1 | June 12 | Michigan |
| Kyle Busch | 6 | 4 | July 24 | Indianapolis |
| Denny Hamlin | 7 | 2 | Aug. 7 | Watkins Glen |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 8 | 1 | May 29 | Charlotte |
| Jimmie Johnson | 9 | 2 | March 20 | California |
| Matt Kenseth | 10 | 2 | July 17 | New Hampshire |
| Tony Stewart | 27 | 1 | June 26 | Sonoma |
| Chris Buescher | 30 | 1 | Aug. 1 | Pocono |
As a practical matter, the Chase now has 12 eligible race winners. Tony Stewart, who missed eight races due to injury, and Chris Buescher, the long-shot winner at Pocono, are now safely in the top 30 in points, which, in addition to their respective wins in Sonoma, California, and Long Pond, Pa., is required for inclusion.
Buescher placed fifth at Bristol. He has a win and a fifth. They are his only top-10 finishes. Stewart has 400 points in 15 races. Buescher has 328 in all 23. A 16-driver Chase affords room for a miracle. Buescher being in it is a miracle. He's not in it yet, but it's likely.
"That's Chase eligibility in one race out of the four we had to do it," he told NBC Sports. "Now we have to hold onto it."
Exempting "rain," the most apt single word to describe what happened over the weekend at Bristol was "attrition." By race's end, Harvick didn't have many familiar faces chasing him. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished second.
Oh, sure, Kyle Busch led more than half the distance (256 laps). Something strange broke in his Toyota, and its gyrations caused Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Larson to be collected, among others, in the melee behind.
Kurt Busch crashed while battling Logano for the lead. Matt Kenseth, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson (who recovered to finish seventh) were among 11 littering the front straight in a Lap 373 fracas.
Kenseth observed:
"Well, I'm a bad guy to ask because I ran really bad, bad as we've run here since I've been at [Joe Gibbs Racing]. We were just way off, but the track definitely seemed more competitive, seemed like you could hold your own position on restarts whether you were on the top or the bottom, so it seemed like it was plus.
"
A few fans will wring their hands and say the 24 Hours of Bristol was an unseemly spectacle, but the great majority is in the pro-unseemly-spectacle caucus, and action will rival rain in their memory banks.
Carl Edwards, who would finish sixth, had said during a Friday media conference, "It makes it more interesting. The problem solving of this sport and what we do, that's really a lot of the fun. If they put jumps and fiery rings out there, it would be a blast to try to navigate it."
The perils will persist as Harvick, Buescher and all the others race into and out of the Chase over the next three weekends, beginning at Brooklyn, Michigan, on (weather permitting) next Sunday. The two-mile, moderately banked track in the Irish Hills fell to Logano's assault on June 12.
Darlington Raceway, whose only race is on Labor Day eve, September 4, is as tight as Bristol but faster and longer. Richmond, traditional site of the regular-season finale, is what passes for that great contradiction in terms, the "moderate" short track. A moderate short track still looks raucous in comparison to, say, Michigan.
Raucous is what NASCAR wanted in a Chase. Raucous is what it will get.
Follow @montedutton on Twitter.
All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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