October 16, 2016

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – He did it again.

Last in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings and faced with an uphill struggle to make the Round of 8, Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team did what they do best—win with their backs to the wall.

Moments after a restart on Lap 238 of 267, Harvick cleared Carl Edwards for the lead through Turns 1 and 2 at Kansas Speedway and pulled away to win Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 by 1.183 seconds.

With his second victory at Kansas, his fourth of the season and the 35th of his career, Harvick joined last week’s Charlotte winner, Jimmie Johnson, in the Chase’s Round of 8 and erased the specter of racing under pressure next Sunday in the crapshoot that is Talladega.

With his team chanting “I believe that we will win” in unison behind him, Harvick climbed from his car and thrust his fist into the air in triumph.

“These races are hard to win, and these guys are just so good at the details,” said Harvick, who won elimination races at Phoenix during his championship season in 2014 and at Dover last year. “You put their backs against the wall, and they get better. Really proud of them…

“I just got two good restarts against the No. 19 (Carl Edwards). He didn’t have a car quite as close to him, and I was able to break that draft before I got to the middle of one and two and get away from him, so that was pretty awesome. I just needed to go for it, and that’s really the mind-set we go into every race in the Chase (with)—to go for, and we did.”

Edwards, who covets a win at the track closest to his Columbia, Missouri, home, was delighted with the way his No. 19 Toyota ran, but he was frustrated with his second runner-up finish at the 1.5-mile speedway.

“We ran well,” Edwards said philosophically. “That was really fun, getting to race up front. It is really tough for me to finish second here. It’s happened twice. Both of them were pretty painful. The bright side is that, yes, we raced up front. Got a lot of support from a lot of people here. Hopefully, they enjoyed that part of it.

“That last restart, Kevin and Jimmie just lined up at the bottom, and they just got far enough ahead, I couldn’t hang on the outside. Then I ended up having to race Kyle (Busch) really hard there for a few laps. It let Kevin get out ahead.

“But, man, we’ll just move forward. A day or two will pass, maybe the sting will wear off, and I’ll be more excited about the points situation going into Talladega, because that’s the bright side. We’ve got two decent races under our belts to go to Talladega with.”

Joey Logano ran third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford, an excellent recovery from last week’s 36th-place finish at Charlotte in the open race of the Round of 12. Logano enters the cutoff race at Talladega tied for eighth in the Chase standings with Austin Dillon, who finished sixth on Sunday after gaining track position with a late two-tire call.

Johnson was fourth at Kansas, followed by Kyle Busch, who leaves his former “Waterloo” track 27 points above the cut line for the next round.

Pole winner Matt Kenseth finished eighth behind non-Chasers Alex Bowman and AJ Allmendinger and is 29 points to the good heading to the elimination race. Among other Chase drivers, Martin Truex Jr. ran 11th, Kurt Busch 13th and Denny Hamlin 15th. From that trio, Truex and Busch remained inside the cut line, with Hamlin falling to 10th, six points behind Logano and Dillon.

But the real Chase casualties at Kansas were Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski. Six laps after passing Harvick for the lead on Lap 169, Elliott returned to pit road after a green-flag stop with his left rear tire down.

That and two subsequent brushes with the outside wall relegated the Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader to 31st at the finish, leaving him 25 points behind Logano and Dillon and likely needing a victory at Talladega to advance.

Keselowski was a victim of his own mistake. On Lap 190, he joined the growing club of Chase drivers who have experienced major trouble in the Round of 12.

Roaring through Turn 4, Keselowski moved up the banking in front of Denny Hamlin. But Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford got loose and slowed exiting the corner, and Hamlin had no room to brake in time to avoid tapping the 2 car.

After repairs, he attempted one futile lap but retired in 38th place, dipping to 11th in the standings, seven points out of eighth.

“I spun and got in the grass and tore the nose off,” Keselowski said. “I probably could have raced less hard with a big points gap coming in. With this format, it’s probably the smart thing to do, but I don’t want to race like that.

“I want to race my guts out and go for wins. I don’t want to points-race. I don’t care what the damn format is—I’m going to give it my best.”

Race Weekend Preview

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Race: Hollywood Casino 400
Place: Kansas Speedway
Date and Time: Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2:15 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 400.5 miles (267 laps)
What to Watch For: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for its second race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Round of 12. Jimmie Johnson leads the Chase Grid due to his win at Charlotte. He is followed by Matt Kenseth (31 points above Austin Dillon on the cutoff line), Kyle Busch (+27), Brad Keselowski (+25), Kurt Busch (+24), Carl Edwards (+20), Martin Truex Jr. (+19), Denny Hamlin (+3), Austin Dillon (three points behind Denny Hamlin on the cutoff line), Chase Elliott (-3), Joey Logano (-6) and Kevin Harvick (-8). … Jimmie Johnson attempts to take sole possession of the Kansas Speedway wins lead. Johnson and Jeff Gordon both have three victories at the 1.5-mile track. Four drivers each have two wins at 1.5-mile tracks this season – Brad Keselowski (Kentucky and Las Vegas), Jimmie Johnson (Atlanta and Charlotte), Kyle Busch (Kansas and Texas) and Martin Truex Jr. (Charlotte and Chicagoland). … Non-Chasers Greg Biffle (twice), Tony Stewart (twice) and Ryan Newman have all won at Kansas and will try to spoil an automatic bid to the next round.

NASCAR XFINITY Series
Race: Kansasa Lottery 300
Place: Kansas Speedway
Date and Time: Saturday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300 miles (200 laps)
What to Watch For: The NASCAR XFINITY Series kicks off the Round of 8 of its inaugural Chase. The eight drivers remaining are Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler, Justin Allgaier, Erik Jones, Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Reed, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Blake Koch. … NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers competing in the Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race include: Austin Dillon, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, Josh Wise and Matt DiBenedetto. … Kyle Busch is the defending race winner.

It’s happened again.

Kevin Harvick finds himself in poor position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup following his 38th-place finish at Charlotte, caused by a blown engine.

He’s been able to overcome Chase adversity by winning in a dire situation in each of the past three seasons: New Hampshire this year, Dover last season when he finished championship runner-up and Phoenix in 2014 on his way to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Right now, Harvick sits last in the Chase’s Round of 12 standings – eight points behind Denny Hamlin on the cutoff line, while also trailing three other drivers for the final spot in the Round of 8. He’ll try to produce another stellar performance under pressure in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:15 p.m. ET on NBC) where he has logged one win (fall 2013) and three runner-ups in his last six races.

“The repave is definitely what changed and turned things around for us at Kansas,” Harvick said of the 2012 resurfacing. “Really, I liked the race track the way that it was before with the asphalt really worn out and cars sliding all over. But once the repave happened we were able to really hit on some things and for whatever reason it kind of fits my driving style and we have got some good results out of it. It has been a really good performing race track for us and one that we look forward to going to and hopefully continue to get good results out of because it’s been so good for us in the past.”

Harvick doesn’t believe he has to win at Kansas or the next race in Talladega to advance like he has had to do in the past.

“You at least have another option,” he said. “As crazy as this thing can be, anybody can have trouble so it can even up pretty fast.”

Oct. 13, 2016

Staff Report
NASCAR Wire Service

All eyes were on rookie NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Chase Elliott, before he ever gripped the wheel of the famed No. 24 Chevrolet this season. As the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott and the successor of four-time champion Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports in the 24, the shadows of past racing legends and fan expectations loomed for the young talent even during his reign as the 2014 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion.

The younger Elliott grew up racing go-karts and late models while watching his father compete in NASCAR-sanctioned events long after his 1988 championship. But for the 20-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia, native, the realization that the baton had officially been passed didn’t set in until he headed to Daytona International Speedway in early 2016.

“I think a lot of it kind of sank in going to Daytona, and heading down to the Daytona 500 to not watch him race was weird,” Elliott said. “It was interesting to go through all the same motions, except knowing I wasn’t there just to watch.”

So far, Elliott has lived up to the expectations by becoming one of only three rookies to ever make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. He has yet to win his first race, but claims nine top-five showings – the most by a rookie since Carl Edwards scored 13 in 2005.

“I think I’ve been lucky to have some good moments over the racing I’ve done to this point, and I think a lot of the things we went through have led to the opportunities we have today,” Elliott said.

Bill Elliott had a knack for winning the biggest of races. He visited Victory Lane in the Daytona 500 twice, as well as the Southern 500 three times. On Sunday, Chase Elliott can prove he received the “clutch gene” in arguably the most important race of his life to this point – the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:15 p.m. ET on NBCSN; NASCAR.com/tickets) – the halfway mark in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Though Sunday’s race doesn’t carry the prestige of a Daytona 500, it’s become absolutely vital to Elliott’s season. He needs to produce a strong performance to make up ground in the Chase. After a late-race wreck at Charlotte, he currently sits three points below Denny Hamlin for the final transfer spot to the Chase’s Round of 8.

Elliott’s accomplishments up to this point of the season show the task is possible. Right off the bat, he became the youngest driver ever to capture the Daytona 500 pole. He reeled off 12 top 10s in the first 15 races, and although he hasn’t won yet, proved he’s a threat for the checkered flag every weekend with some near misses at Pocono and Michigan.

In the Chase, Elliott has led the second-most laps in two of the four races, trailing only six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson both times.

“I’m proud of a lot of moments that we’ve had,” Elliott said. “I’m not so proud of some, like anybody else, but I definitely don’t like to narrow it down to one thing, because it wasn’t one thing that made everything happen just in the flip of a switch.”

Some might say Elliott’s success is largely attributed to growing up in a “racing family,” but the feats he’s achieved a mere 30 races into his rookie season demonstrate his talent and indicate greater success to come.

“There’s definitely no certainty, and I think that’s the biggest challenge as you grow up and are trying to race. You just never know what’s going to happen or how things may play out,” Elliott said. “I couldn’t be any luckier for how things did work out, but there was definitely no certainty along the way.”

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Where Jimmie Johnson is concerned, last week’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup victory at Charlotte means more than the end of a 24-race dry spell and a ticket into the Chase’s Round of 8.

Guaranteed to be one of the final eight drivers eligible for the series title this year, Johnson can start to entertain the possibility of a seventh championship that would tie him for the all-time record with two icons of the sport—Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

“Yeah it’s definitely more realistic, because we are alive and transferring to the Round of 8,” said Johnson, the only driver to qualify for the Chase every season since the inception of the playoff format in 2004. There is still so much racing between now and then. We’ve had some consistent runs, so definitely building confidence in that.

“The victory is a huge boost. We’re definitely building momentum at the right time. It’s probably later than we would’ve liked, but at least it’s going in the right direction. We’ll see where it goes from here.

Though Johnson won a record five straight titles from 2006 through 2010 and added another in 2013, he has yet to win under the elimination format that debuted in 2014. In fact, he failed to advance beyond the Round of 12 in each of the first two years of the current system.

That all changed at Charlotte.

“We clearly are in that Round of 8, but, man, this Chase… I think some felt like it got off to a calm start. Then last weekend, with half the Chasers having issues in the race (five Chase drivers finished 30th or worse), I think it just shows anything can happen.

“The guys that are living it day in and day out—we don’t take it for granted. I’m certainly not taking it for granted and don’t think I’m in a layup situation for Homestead (the Championship 4 race) by any stretch. We need to make sure we’re part of that final four, and there is a lot of work between now and then.”