Defending series champion extends top-two streak to eight races
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
FONTANA, Calif. — Things are going pretty well when people wonder if you are disappointed by a runner-up finish.
Such is Kevin Harvick‘s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion led 34 laps, contended for the win and ultimately finished second in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway. He didn’t hoist the track’s cool surfboard trophy and just missed sweeping the three West Coast races by 7-tenths of a second — Sunday’s margin of victory.
All-time consecutive top-two finishes
| Streak | Driver | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Richard Petty | 1975 |
| 10 | Richard Petty | 1971 |
| 10 | Richard Petty | 1967 |
| 9 | Richard Petty | 1964 |
| 8 | Kevin Harvick | 2014-15 |
| 8 | David Pearson | 1968 |
But Harvick — who won at Las Vegas and Phoenix — did extend his streak of finishing first or second to eight consecutive races dating back to last season. The record is 11 set by Richard Petty in 1975.
“I’m not disappointed at all,” Harvick said Sunday. “I’m just glad to be a part of such a good race there. I’m really happy that all the fans got to come out and see a great finish to a great day.
“I’m just really proud of everybody on our Jimmy John’s/Budweiser team. You could have flipped a coin as to what the right strategy there was at the end with tires. Just proud of Rodney Childers (crew chief) and the pit crew and everybody for just having a solid day.”
Another solid day.
Harvick trailed his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch by less than a second in the closing laps, when a caution came out for track debris on the final lap.
Harvick got two tires on his No. 4 Chevrolet and race winner Brad Keselowski got four during the ensuing caution. Another yellow flag a lap later forced a second green-white-checkered restart and Keselowski was able to get around both Harvick and his SHR teammate Kurt Busch, leading only the last lap for the win.
“Well Rodney (Childers, crew chief) he has a lot of information up there and there were so many cars on the lead lap that you just didn’t want to get buried in there,” Harvick said of the decision to get two tires.
“If you get buried in the middle of the field and you don’t get a good restart, you are just going to have a tough time making up ground. We won the championship because of a pit call and didn’t win a race today.
“I don’t think it was because of a pit call, just dumb luck and how many times we had to restart. All-in-all just really proud of everybody.”
“You just never know how the strategy is going to work out,” Harvick said. “You are kind of on both sides of the fence there as to what you should or shouldn’t do. If the second restart doesn’t come about then two tires is the right call. But you just never know.”
The effort extended Harvick’s championship lead to 28 points over Team Penske‘s Joey Logano headed into next weekend’s STP 500 (Sunday, March 29, 1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) at NASCAR’s smallest track, the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway.
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