FORT WORTH, Texas — For winner Kevin Harvick, Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway was an opportunity capitalized: He ran a strong race and punched his ticket to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
For other NASCAR Playoffs contenders, the overtime event was a series of struggles, mistakes and, ultimately, missed opportunities with only one race remaining until Miami.
Call it pressure from the playoffs, or simply human error, that led to mistakes. But they hurt — and some worse than the others.
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“We had two mistakes today and they were a driver error and a pit crew error,” said No. 18 crew chief Adam Stevens, whose driver Kyle Busch finished 17th. “Mistakes happen. There’s never a good time for them and we had two of them today.
“You speed on pit road, you go to the back and you have a loose wheel under green then lose a couple laps and we just couldn’t get back on the lead lap. Obviously at the very end we did, but it didn’t matter at that point with only a green-white-checkered to finish. Felt like we had something we could have raced for.”
Fellow playoff contender Martin Truex Jr. also made a crucial mistake when he drove through too many pit boxes after pitting for a loose wheel. The No. 78 team had been looking for redemption after last week’s heartbreak at Martinsville Speedway. Instead of battling up front for the win, Truex finished ninth and sits 25 points above the cutline.
“I’m telling you, God is testing us,” Truex said. “There’s no question. Had to start at the back, got to the front, hung around there for a while and then had a loose wheel there again. Just a tough day. …Proud of everybody on this Bass Pro/5-hour ENERGY Toyota and feel like we’re in decent shape going to Phoenix. We’ll go there and race hard again and see what we can do.”
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While Truex was able to maintain a decent position in the standings despite the mishaps, Clint Bowyer wasn’t as fortunate. The No. 14 driver experienced problems early when he made contact with Denny Hamlin in the opening laps, putting the team two laps down. After using strategy to gain back a lap, his day worsened when he was penalized for a crew member over the wall too soon at Lap 164. Six laps later, he was penalized again for pitting before pit road was open.
The mistakes put Bowyer last in the playoff standings – 73 points from the cutline – and in a must-win situation heading into the penultimate race at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona. After finishing 26th, the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing driver was visibly frustrated.
“It was a good weekend for us and bad day,” he said.
Next week’s race at ISM Raceway is a chance for Harvick and Logano, who was locked into the Championship 4 at Martinsville, to gain another win and perhaps some good, old-fashioned momentum heading into the finale.
For the six other Championship 4 hopefuls, next Sunday’s event is a last-chance, all-or-nothing opportunity to battle for the title at Miami.
As Bowyer said walking away at Texas, “Go get ’em.”