Kevin Harvick's top-two finishes streak ends

It's a measure of just how dominant the 2014 series champion has been over the past nine races, with his clipped post-race comments providing the proof of a frustrated feeling following a day that nearly every other driver would celebrate.

"Everybody did a good job, just lost track position at the wrong time," Harvick said before power-walking down pit road toward his hauler.

The top-10 result ended a streak of eight consecutive races in which Harvick finished in the top two. Richard Petty still holds the all-time such streak at 11 consecutive races.

For a while, it looked like "The King" was closer to having some company. Harvick, who started 17th, drove through the field -- no easy feat at the tight 0.526-mile oval -- and cracked the top five by Lap 50. He stayed in the top five through the next 400 laps, with most of that stretch resulting in a top-two position.

Harvick didn't slip out of the top five until the laps following a caution for a Carl Edwards spin on Lap 434. Coming off pit road third, heavy congestion on the ensuing restart shuffled Harvick down to 10th place.

The day's 16th and final caution came shortly thereafter on Lap 461, and Harvick came out poised to make a run on the inside. But Jeff Gordon was issued a penalty for speeding on pit road, shuffling the running order and putting Harvick in 10th -- in other words, putting him on the non-preferred outside lane of the fifth row.

"I think that'll get us," crew chief Rodney Childers said over the radio. "… Yeah, that'll screw us."

On an outside lane that wasn't gaining ground, Harvick eventually slipped down to the bottom groove and made up two positions over the final 30 laps.

"I just got hung on the outside and couldn't get back down," Harvick said. "By the time I got down, I was 10th or 11th. It still was a good day."

Good for him, but perhaps great for anyone else.


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