A late restart was all Ryan Blaney needed to clear Kevin Harvick and speed to victory in an action-packed Hisense 4K TV 300 on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Blaney led a race-high 107 of 200 laps and joined his father, Dave – who won in 2006 – as the first father-son duo to win NASCAR XFINITY Series races at Charlotte, and the sixth combination to win XFINITY Series races.
Harvick completed a one-two finish for Ford with Austin Dillon third, rookie Christopher Bell fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.
Seven different drivers traded the lead on a slick track that provided multiple grooves for racing – and which led to 12 cautions when drivers raced two- and three-wide.
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Snap-On Ford (Winner): “It’s pretty neat to win here. … We had a really awesome race car all day. We had to start in the back and I thought that was pretty impressive thing to do to get up front. After we got the lead, we were able to control the race. I lost the lead there on the last pit stop. We had a good pit stop, I just kind of got boxed in. We didn’t get the angle there and that was on me. Luckily, we were able to get back up front and give ourselves a shot. Starting third, we only had a couple of laps to get back up front and try and make it happen. We were getting really good restarts all day. So, my hat’s off to the Penske group.”
KEVIN HARVICK, No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford (Runner-Up): “If I could do (the final restart) again I would probably do it differently. I felt like the 12 (Blaney) had the best car on restarts. He was the one who helped us get the lead. Just wasn’t able to get going through one and two. I needed to be clear by the time I got to three and four. I hadn’t been taking the top but I felt if the 12 and 22 got paired up on the top, I would be in double trouble. I had a heck of a time today. All in all, I just got beat there by the 12. He did a good job all day there on the restarts. I’m really proud of everybody on the team. We ran well and led a bunch of laps.”
AUSTIN DILLON, No. 2 Rheem Chevrolet (Third-Place Finisher): “We did a really good job. Our Chevy really came to us. I hate it for our pit crew there. I messed up on the start. There at the end, I had a Penske sandwich. I couldn’t do much about it. I got hit on the restart but it wasn’t enough to carry me to the front. We had a lot of fun today. The track changed and we are trying to figure out what we need here. We’re getting closer.”
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