Moments that changed the course of the 35th race of the 2014 season
HARVICK WINS HIS WAY INTO CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENTION
A victory at Phoenix -- and a dominating one at that -- was exactly what Kevin Harvick needed to keep his hopes for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship alive.
"Wow, I guess that's what it feels like to hit a walk-off in extra innings there," said Harvick, who completed the season sweep at Phoenix with his fourth victory in the last five races there. "I could tell that we were probably going to have to win, because everybody was running up in the front of the pack that we were racing against. That was our goal coming in here and that's really the goal every time you come to Phoenix.
"This place has just been phenomenal for me personally and for this team this year. To do that in front of all your almost hometown fans (Harvick is from Bakersfield, California) and all these people who have been rooting for me since the mid-‘90s is pretty unbelievable. Man, I think this says a lot about our team. I think we have been through a lot this year. They put our backs against the wall. We put it in Victory Lane and get to go on."
As such, Harvick goes from desperation mode -- needing a victory at Phoenix to advance to the season finale -- to the role of favorite at Homestead, given the speed his cars have shown all season long.
NEWMAN BUMPS LARSON TO MAKE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE
A second-place finish in Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 did Jeff Gordon no good, thanks to a final-lap banzai run by Ryan Newman, who passed rookie Kyle Larson for the 11th position on the final lap to eliminate Gordon from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by a single point.
"I did what I had to do as clean as I could do it," Newman said. "I'm not the kind of guy to turn somebody, so I just drifted as much as I could to get in there. My Cat Mining Chevy stuck on the apron and we made it.
"I just gave it my all. They paved that down there I guess for a reason. They didn't make any rules that said we couldn't use it. A great team effort today, we did not have the race car."
Amidst all the uncertainty, one thing is guaranteed at Homestead: with Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Newman competing for the title, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will have a first-time champion.
HAMLIN, LOGANO OVERCOME PIT MISCUES TO ADVANCE IN CHASE
Polesitter Hamlin and Logano, who shared the Chase lead entering the Eliminator Round's final event, both recovered from bizarre errors on pit road to join Harvick and Newman in next Sunday's championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The driver who finishes highest among those four will claim the 2015 series title.
Hamlin and Logano overcame potential Chase-ending mistakes to claim their positions in the final race.
On Hamlin's first pit stop, under caution on Lap 30, the rear tire changer's air gun inadvertently knocked the valve stem off and flattened the tire. Hamlin returned to the pits and restarted 36th. Twice during the race, he fell a lap down to Harvick but took advantage of two free passes as the highest-scored lapped car and ultimately finished fifth.
The crew gained three positions for Hamlin on his final stop, from 11th to eighth, even though five drivers stayed out on older tires. Hamlin parlayed his improved track position into a top five.
Logano was penalized when he dragged a fuel can that had not disengaged from the coupler out of his pit stall under caution on Lap 123. Like Hamlin, Logano lost a lap to Harvick but took advantage of being a beneficiary before a restart on Lap 206 and rallied to finish sixth.
Those comebacks gave Logano and Hamlin more than enough margin to qualify for the championship race.
"I think Denny and I had the exact same day out there," Logano observed. "Both of us had a little issue on pit road and got stuck back there, went down a lap, (and) we recovered and we finished fifth and sixth. We really kept our cool throughout the day. I think that was important. We were able to get the lucky dog, then had some damage avoiding the 18's (Kyle Busch's) crash, was able to fix that and recover again to get ourselves back in.
"Definitely a drama filled day for sure, not what we wanted. We were hoping for just a normal, uneventful day to just get a nice top 10 is all we needed -- which we ended up doing, but it was definitely eventful along the way. Proud of my team, proud of everyone to get us to this point, and we'll have some fun next week, go for a championship."
The NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.