Race Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-105):
● Kevin Harvick started ninth and finished fifth, earning six bonus points.
● The Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang driver pitted on lap 27 for four tires, fuel, a track bar adjustment and tape on the grill. Came in fourth and came out third.
● On lap 36, Harvick got by Joey Logano and took the lead.
● Harvick brought the car to pit road while leading on lap 67 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.
● Brought the No. 4 Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang to pit road on lap 96 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 106-210):
● Kevin Harvick started seventh and finished sixth, earning five bonus points.
● The Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang driver pitted on lap 108 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment on the left side.
● On lap 159, Harvick was in fourth and pitted for four tires, fuel, along with a tire pressure and chassis adjustment.
● Harvick pitted on lap 202 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Said car was plowing tight.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 211-325):
● Kevin Harvick started third and finished first.
● The Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang driver pitted on lap 212 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. Came into the pits in sixth and left in third-place.
● On lap 268 while leading, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.
● Harvick led from lap 271 to the end of the race to score his 51st career victory.
Notes:
● Harvick’s victory in the Folds of Honor 500 marked the 75th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 57th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series win, its second of the season and its third at Atlanta.
● Tony Stewart scored SHR’s first win at Atlanta in September 2010 while Harvick won for the team in February 2018.
● This was SHR’s 21st NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. The team won its first race with Ford when former driver Kurt Busch captured the 2017 Daytona 500.
● This was Ford’s series-leading sixth NASCAR Cup Series win of the season and its 692nd all-time Cup Series victory.
● This was Ford’s 34th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Atlanta. Ford has now won the past four races at Atlanta. Brad Keselowski won in 2017 and 2019, and Harvick won in 2018.
● This was Harvick’s 51st career NASCAR Cup Series win, giving him sole possession of 12th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series win list. Just ahead of Harvick is NASCAR Hall of Famer Lee Petty with 54 victories.
● This was Harvick’s 28th NASCAR Cup Series victory since joining SHR in 2014.
● Harvick earned his second victory of the season and his third victory in 30 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta.
● Harvick scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Atlanta on March 11, 2001. He beat Jeff Gordon by .006 of a second.
● Harvick has finished in the top-10 in nine of the 10 races held this year. His lone finish outside the top-10: 11th May 31 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
● Harvick is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to have finished in the top-11 in all 10 races held this season.
● Harvick has finished among the top-11 in 15 straight NASCAR Cup Series races, a streak that began on Oct. 20, 2019 when he finished ninth in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City.
● This is Harvick’s third straight top-five at Atlanta. He finished fourth in the series’ previous visit to the track in February 2019.
● In the last 16 races at Atlanta, Harvick has finished in the top-10 13 times.
● Since 2011, Harvick has only finished outside the top-10 once at Atlanta (19th in 2014).
● Harvick finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and sixth in Stage 2 to earn five more bonus points.
● Harvick led four times for a race-high 151 laps to increase his laps-led total at Atlanta to 1,348, the most among active drivers.
● When Harvick took the lead for the first time on lap 37 of the Folds of Honor 500, he led his 10,000th lap since joining SHR in 2014. Harvick has led 14,576 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light For The Farmers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“Obviously, first win came for me here at Atlanta and this is just a race track that I’ve taken a liking to, and you always come back and have those memories and now you want to celebrate everything that Dale Earnhardt did for this sport. To come here and be able to do that with wins and go to victory lane is pretty special, so I just have to thank everybody from Busch Light. We’ve got corn all over our car this week, so Busch Light for the farmer’s campaign. Go buy those corn cans so we can donate $100,000. We struggled most of the day with our car and he (crew chief Rodney Childers) definitely earned his birthday present today. It’s one of my favorite tracks for sure and I love to win here. I was able to get track position and then once I could get through those first 10 laps and my car was freed up enough to where I could get in a rhythm and really start hitting my marks, and then by about lap 25 I could start driving away. I’m just proud of everybody from Busch Light and Ford, Stewart-Haas Racing. Thank you guys for everything. Hunt Brothers Pizza, Fields, Mobil 1, Jimmy John’s. I know I’m gonna forget somebody. Haas, everybody who helps us on this car and you the fans. We appreciate everything you guys do for us.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 on Wednesday, June 10 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race starts at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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