Harvick Finishes Eighth at Richmond Mobil 1 Ford Driver Clinches Spot in Round of 12

Race Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Ended at Lap 100):

● Kevin Harvick started second and finished fifth, earning six bonus points.

● The No. 4 driver reported his Mobil 1 Ford was a little loose.

● Harvick did not pit during the first stage, which ran caution-free.

 

Stage 2 Recap (Ended at Lap 200):

● Harvick started fifth and finished seventh, earning four bonus points.

● The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford pitted on lap 104 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment.

● On lap 142, Harvick was fourth, 3.7 seconds behind leader Kyle Busch.

 

Stage 3 Recap (Ended at Lap 400):

● Harvick started seventh and finished eighth.

● The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford pitted on lap 204 for four tires, fuel and a chassis and tire pressure adjustment. Harvick said car needed to turn better.

● On lap 244 Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. He was running in seventh.

● Harvick pitted on lap 317 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. He finished the race eighth.

 

Notes:

● Harvick earned his 19th top-10 of the season and his 25th top-10 in 38 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond.

● This is Harvick’s third straight top-10 at Richmond. He finished fourth in the series’ last visit to Richmond in April.

● This is Harvick’s fourth consecutive top-10. He finished second in the series’ last race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

● Harvick’s 25 top-10s at Richmond are the most among active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Next best is Kyle Busch with 22 top-10s.

● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has never finished outside the top-15 at Richmond.

● Martin Truex Jr. won the Federated Auto Parts 400 to score his 25th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading sixth of the season, his second in a row and his second at Richmond. His margin of victory over second-place Kyle Busch was 2.63 seconds.

● There were five caution periods for a total of 32 laps.

● Only 13 of the 38 drivers in the Federated Auto Parts 400 finished on the lead lap.

 

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“It’ll be a nice week at home (at Charlotte Motor Speedway). I think it allows everybody to really go and the biggest thing is you want to go try and learn what you need to do to run fast there, so this week we’ll go to the simulator and try to transfer that to the race track and see how practice goes and then we’ll see how the weekend goes. You definitely still want to go there and get a race win or something that will go forward with you and also learn something for the future.”

                                                                                                               

Playoff Standings (with one race to go before Round of 12):

1.    Martin Truex Jr. (2,141 points) 2 wins; clinched spot in Round of 12

2.    Kevin Harvick (2,118 points) +68 points; clinched spot in Round of 12

3.    Kyle Busch (2,117 points) +67 points; clinched spot in Round of 12

4.    Denny Hamlin (2,105 points) +55 points

5.    Brad Keselowski (2,104 points) +54 points

6.    Joey Logano (2,100 points) +50 points

7.    Chase Elliott (2,086 points) +36 points

8.    Kyle Larson (2,074 points) +24 points

9.    Ryan Newman (2,063 points) +13 points

10.  Ryan Blaney (2,058 points) +8 points

11.  Aric Almirola (2,053 points) +3 points

12.  William Byron (2,052 points) +2 points

13.  Alex Bowman (2,050 points) -2 points

14.  Erik Jones (2,049 points) -3 points

15.  Clint Bowyer (2,047 points) -5 points

16.  Kurt Busch (2,037 points) -15 points

 

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bank of America Roval 400 on Sunday, Sept. 29 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. It starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

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