Kevin Harvick's bid for Kansas victory runs dry

Posted on May 11, 2014 by

Stewart-Haas Racing’s highest finisher led 119 laps en route to runner-up finish

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kevin Harvick had a dominant car for much of Saturday night’s event at Kansas Speedway, but it was no match for an empty gas tank.

Harvick led a race-high 119 laps in the facility’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race under the lights, but it was time lost when he ran dry approaching the final, pivotal pit stop that may have cost him in the end. Harvick came out of the final set of green-flag stops in second place behind Jeff Gordon, and finished there when he wasn’t able to overtake the four-time champion in the end.

"For me, I made a mistake at the end and felt like that’s probably what cost us the chance to stay in front of the 24," Harvick said, referring to Gordon’s car number. "But the 24 was good all night, and the 48 (car of Jimmie Johnson) was good when he was out front, and we got in the back of the pack and couldn’t go anywhere. It came down to track position, and those guys executed a little bit better than I did."

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In many ways it came down to pit strategy, and the front-running teams using divergent tactics to try to one-up each other at a track where passing could prove difficult. Johnson forced his way into the mix by taking four tires on an earlier stop, allowing him to take just a splash of gas at the end. Gordon led just nine laps, but his team’s strategy and quick work on a four-tire stop allowed him to recycle back into the lead when those final stops concluded with eight remaining.

And right behind him was Harvick, who in spots Saturday night had looked every bit as untouchable as he did in his victories this season at Phoenix and Darlington. Harvick led the opening 41 laps, but was trapped a lap down when he was on pit road as Marcos Ambrose spun. He took a wave-around and restarted 18th, and proceeded to go — nowhere.

"Terrible," he called it over the radio, as his car slogged around in traffic. On a later pit stop, he was slowed by a dropped lug nut. "Right now is not going real good," he told crew chief Rodney Childers over the radio. "Hopefully, we can do something a little bit better."

Childers preached patience, and things turned around. Harvick gradually climbed back into the top 10, and once he returned to the front, he built a two-second lead and looked in danger of checking out again. Harvick held the lead for 30 laps, and was virtually unchallenged until he pulled off the track for his final stop with 29 laps remaining. Harvick said over the radio that the car had run dry, but later he blamed himself for not reacting to the situation as he should have. He said he was looking at the fuel-pressure gauge rather than the tachometer, and wound up going too slow.

"Even though it was out of gas, with these (electronic fuel injection) units it still runs, and I should have been paying attention to my pit-road speed lights and should have got off of pit road better," Harvick said. "I think, to win the race, I just needed to execute on pit road better the last time down."

He still seemed to have a shot at it. Harvick was roughly a second behind Gordon as the field recycled for the final time, but found a high groove that allowed him to mount a challenge at the same time the leader encountered lapped traffic. "He got right to my bumper," Gordon said. Up on the pit box, No. 24 crew chief Alan Gustafson knew Harvick wouldn’t go down without a fight.

"From the last run what I had seen and looked at on the timing and the scoring, we were better than Kevin in clean air, but it’s tough, always tough for the leader to catch traffic," Gustafson said. "… Kevin was going to go all he could do. Right at that point in time he’s just going to do everything he can to beat us and get back to the flag. It made for a great race."

Gordon was eventually able to find his own line in the high groove and build enough separation to win by a tenth of a second. "I actually was able to pull away from him, and I was like, ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that,’ " Gordon said. "He’d been so good all night."

Driving the same car he had used to win at Phoenix earlier in the season, it was no surprise. But with two race victories already to his name and a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup virtually assured, Harvick was sanguine about the first race this season where he led the most laps yet didn’t end up celebrating in Victory Lane.

"I think we had a good night," he said. "You can’t win them all."

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Posted on May 11, 2014 by Nascar

No. 10 driver finishes a career-best seventh place

RELATED: Full race results | Series standings

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Danica Patrick, chided by some for being more style than substance during her brief NASCAR career, took a giant step toward silencing her critics Saturday night with an impressive seventh-place finish in the 5-hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway.

It was a career-best for the diminutive Patrick, eclipsing an eighth-place finish in the 2013 Daytona 500. It was the fourth-best finish by a female driver in NASCAR’s top series, trailing fifth- and sixth-place finishes by Sara Christian in 1949 and Janet Guthrie’s sixth at Bristol in 1977 (see the table below).

Patrick ran as high as third in the 267-lap event, held for the first time under the lights at the 1.5-mile track, and was rarely outside the top 12.

Finish	Driver	Track	Date
5th	Sara Christian	Heidelberg	Oct. 2, 1949
6th	Sara Christian	Langhorne	Sept. 11, 1949
6th	Janet Guthrie	Bristol	Aug. 28, 1977
7th	Danica Patrick	Kansas	May 10, 2014
8th	Danica Patrick	Daytona	Feb. 24, 2013
9th	Janet Guthrie	Charlotte	Oct. 9, 1977
9th	Janet Guthrie	Rockingham	Oct. 23, 1977
10th	Janet Guthrie	Michigan	Aug. 22, 1977
10th	Janet Guthrie	Atlanta	March 19, 1978

"I was like, ‘no yellow!’ Patrick said of her charge from fifth to third, which came when she shot past Dale Earnhardt Jr. and her team owner and teammate Tony Stewart on Lap 173. "When I was fifth, I was thinking, ‘this is good … I feel faster than them.’ They got caught up in traffic in (Turns) 3 and 4 and got checked up and I got underneath them.

"But when I’m running third, I’m honestly trying not to think about the fact that I’m running third. I’m trying to think about the fact that I’ve been looking at that car in front of me for the whole race and I’ve been passing that car and I need to go do that. It’s probably best to really think about it like ‘pass the next car’ than being in a place that I’m not normally in."

Focusing on one car at a time, she said, "is a little bit more calming.

"The last thing you want to do is get excited out there and start overdriving it and making mistakes."

It was a "complete" weekend for Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy team fielded by Stewart-Haas Racing. Although no higher than 23rd in the two practices, she made the cut for the final 12 in qualifying and earned the ninth-place spot on the starting grid.

A new car and conversations with teammate Kevin Harvick were also instrumental.

"We talk a lot, and I think for her it’s just the confidence in knowing exactly what the car is going to do," said Harvick, who led 119 laps and finished just behind race winner Jeff Gordon. "She kept track position on the restarts. That’s probably the biggest thing.

"But I guess the one thing I did tell her was just to quit thinking about it and mash the gas."

Crew chief Tony Gibson said it took the whole package, but gave most of the credit to his driver.

"That’s the night we’ve been waiting on," Gibson said. "We were solid all day, she did great restarts, ran hard, was up on the wheel."

And that, he said builds "confidence for the team, confidence for her.

"We want to be able to carry this over into Charlotte and hopefully it’s a trend — the way we’re going to run from here on out. We can definitely do it and she can do it, we just have to get the right combination and I think we’ll be fine."

In a race that saw eight caution flags slow the pace, Patrick found herself outside the top 15 after pitting under green for the final time on Lap 237. As others ahead of her began to peel off the track and pit as well, Patrick began her move back through the field.

"I knew everybody had to stop," she said, "it was just a matter if a yellow came out."

The result moved her up two spots in the points standings, but a less-than-stellar start to the season has her just 27th overall. Still, Saturday night’s effort and result may bode well for the No. 10 team.

"I’ve always believed in myself," she said. "I’ve always believed that in the right situation with the right car that I can do it. I say with all respect it’s little moments like when you drive by Jimmie Johnson on the outside, stuff like that is what makes me really proud of myself and … gives me a little bit more confidence."

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