Race 11 of 33: History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
Track Specs: 1.5-mile quad-oval / 200 laps
Weather: Sunny, 84 degrees
Race Winner: Kyle Larson
Harvick’s Finish: 4th
Kevin Harvick earned his sixth top-five finish in seven NASCAR Nationwide Series starts this season with a fourth-place effort in Saturday’s History 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The result marks Harvick’s fifth consecutive top-five at the 1.5-mile facility.
From the drop of the green flag, Harvick reported the hot, slick Charlotte asphalt was making his No. 5 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet a handful to drive. However, the loose condition was not enough to drop Harvick from the top five as he ran amongst the leaders for much of the afternoon.
Long green flag runs showcased the No. 5 car’s strength allowing Harvick to work his way to third before the race’s final caution at lap 170. The ensuing trip to pit road presented the Hunt Brothers Pizza crew an opportunity to gain their driver valuable track position and that is exactly what they did. A fast pit stop vaulted Harvick from third to second for a lap-175 restart.
A series of adjustments throughout the race to fix the loose condition Harvick reported flipped the script on the No. 5 Chevrolet leaving him with a race car that was too tight to capitalize on the newfound track position. In the waning laps, Harvick fended off a challenge from Brian Scott to score the fourth-place finish.
Kyle Larson pulled away from series veterans Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch to earn his second career Nationwide Series victory.
Kevin Harvick, driver No. 5 Hunt Brothers Pizza team
“We were just a little bit off today. We were just kind of off at the beginning, lacking grip at both ends. Then, we got it pretty good and then we just got it way too tight there at the end. I’ve got to thank everybody on my Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy. They did a good job. We’ll just put that in the notebook and do better next time.”