CONCORD, N.C. - After being the dominant force in NASCAR over the first portion of the season, there didn’t seem to be any way of stopping Kevin Harvick.
Then came the Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The problems started for the two-time event winner on Thursday, when his team failed three times to get his No. 4 Ford through technical inspection. That meant he was not allowed to qualify, would lose his car chief for the weekend and would have to start Sunday’s race at the rear of the field.
On the start of the race, Harvick characteristically began cutting his way through the field. As the event began to reach the end of the first segment, he was working his way into the top five.
That’s when it all went south.
A cut tire sent Harvick’s car hard into the outside wall in turn four in a shower of sparks. The damage to the right side of his Ford was enough to send him to the garage, ending his night.
He would be credited with a 40th place finish, his worst result of the 2018 season.
Harvick said there was no indication of why the tire went down.
“No, we stood in the garage and looked at it and I can’t tell if we ran something over. There’s enough things that could have happened right there, but I’m just really proud of everybody on our Mobil 1/Busch Ford. The car was really, really fast. We came all the way through the pack and made it up into the top three there and sometimes those things happen. I can’t complain about anything that’s happened this year. We have to take the good with the bad.
“The guys did a great job in basically guessing at where the car needed to be today with all the penalties, no practice and starting in the back. To come out and have the fastest car again was quite an honor to drive and they’re doing a great job. It was just bad luck.”
As to his charge through the field, Harvick said that traffic was “pretty tough.”
“Getting through traffic you had to really pick-and-choose your lanes, but our car could go in multiple lanes and we were able to really make ground the second half of those runs, so it was fun to come up through there.”
Jimmie Johnson Rebounds For Top Five Finish
For a driver with eight career wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a fifth place finish might seem like a let down for Jimmie Johnson.
But considering everything the driver of the No. 48 Chevy went through on Sunday night, it can be counted as a solid effort.
Johnson almost saw his night go away on lap 121, when contact from Denny Hamlin sent Johnson spinning off turn four. With cars dodging left and right, Joey Logano spun as well due to contact from Eric Jones as both drivers tried to slow down.
Miraculously, every one avoided hitting Johnson, who escaped relatively unscathed.
Johnson and his team spent much of the middle portion of the event fighting the handling on the car.
Over the final segment of the race, Johnson was able to race his way into contention to finish fifth.
It marks only the second top five finish of the season for Johnson, with the first coming in April at Bristol, where he finished third.
“It feels good, but damn I want to win,” Johnson said. “I’m tired of running fifth, I’m tired of running whatever it is. We got off on some adjustments today and it was amazing how sensitive the car was with some minor adjustments the car just lost half a second.
“We had a hard time trying to grasp it and understand it and communicate about it. We put it back to the way it was and it took off and I drove right back up into the top three. Just a very small sweet spot with the car. Luckily, we finished in that sweet spot and got a good finish out of it, including a spin and we had a jack break on a stop. We had to overcome a lot tonight. Really proud of these guys.”
Blaney’s Night Goes Up In Flames
Ryan Blaney’s Coca-Cola 600 ended in a blaze, with no glory to be found.
Blaney encountered engine issues, and was trying to nurse his No. 12 Ford home when his engine exploded on a lap 280 restart. As his car went into turn one, heavy flames began shooting from underneath. Blaney was able to stop his car and exit uninjured in turn two.
His car, however, was heavily damaged, and his night was over.
“We had a cylinder let go maybe around lap 150 and we were just trying to limp it home,” he said. “When they go that early you don’t expect it to last all race, but it lasted a lot longer than I thought and then it finally let go into one there. That stinks. I thought we had a really good car. I would have liked to see how the race would have progressed for us, but we won’t see that anymore. Hopefully, we can go out and have a good run at Pocono and then at Michigan.”
Blaney said fire in the car “looks worse than it is.”
“It gets hot. You can’t see anything. That’s one of the biggest things is you can’t see where you’re going, but it looks a lot worse than what it is. The safety stuff keeps the fire away from us.”
