Kevin Harvick wins Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway – NASCAR news
The Auto Club Speedway at Fontana is home ground to the winner Kevin Harvick who grew up at Bakersfield.
Harvick made a last lap pass to rule the crown for the Auto Club 400 on Sunday and bagged his first victory at the 2-mile track after 18 attempts.
Harvick boosted his No. 29 Chevy Impala to beat Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevy Impala. He passed Johnson from the outside on turn 3 and 4 beating him to the final lap with a lead of 0.144 seconds.
After the last caution, he restarted in fifth place with nine laps on the countdown and headed to the lead crossing Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson. He claimed his season’s first victory and 15th of his career. He is now placed on ninth
place on the points table shifting up six places.
Kyle Busch led 151 laps of the 200-lap race, finishing third with the chequered flag, Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman followed to the end. The rest completing the top-ten were Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, and the pole winner
Montoya. Busch was the leader until lap 189 but by then Johnson passed him from the inside. Harvick benefited himself from Busch and Johnson’s battle and gained the lead.
The last caution was declared at lap 186, when Bobby Labonte busted his right front tyre and headed into the wall of turn 2. His wrecked car blocked the pit road and kept it until lap 189.
Labonte’s car was on fire and due to blocking the pit lane entry it was difficult for other to go for a pit stop. After clearing the pit lane Matt Kenseth entered the pit lane followed by other cars. While Kyle Busch, Johnson, Stewart, Bowyer, Harvick,
Edwards, and Newman were the drivers who continued on the track during the caution.
“Those guys just started to race,” Harvick said. “They got side by side, and we were able to pull up in there. The more laps we got on our tires, the better we were, but I was really nervous about that last call -- staying out -- but it all worked
out in our favor, and we were able to make up ground.”
The battle between Johnson and Busch was a good opportunity for Harvick and he was in lead at the most important lap of the race, the chequered lap.
Johnson explained that if he could catch Busch a bit sooner by a lap or so, he would have left a bigger gap between him and Harvick, but Harvick was in the lead and won the race.
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