Outback Steakhouse Driver Scores Ninth Bloomin’ Monday of 2015
Date: May 3, 2015
Event: Geico 500 (Round 10 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2.66-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 24th/8th (Running, completed 188 of 188 laps)
Point Standing: 1st (394 points, 40 ahead of second place)
Winner: Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished eighth in the Geico 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. In the 10 races run this season, Harvick has finished among the top-10 nine times. This was his 13th top-10 in 29 career Sprint Cup starts at Talladega.
Every time Harvick scores a top-10 in a Sprint Cup race, Outback Steakhouse offers guests the chance to receive a free Bloomin’ Onion the Monday following the race. Harvick has been generous with Outback Steakhouse Bloomin’ Onions since joining SHR at the beginning of the 2014 Sprint Cup season. He has scored 29 top-10 finishes in 46 Sprint Cup points-paying races since joining the team, including all three of his Sprint Cup starts at Talladega. Only Joey Logano with 30 top-10 finishes has scored more top-10s since the start of last season.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion started 24th and showed speed in the early going but unfortunately was collected in a 15-car wreck on lap 48. The wreck started just in front of the No. 4 Chevrolet, and Harvick looked to have cleared the carnage until Greg Biffle’s No. 16 came back across the racetrack, making contact with the front-right fender of the Outback Chevrolet.
Harvick brought the No. 4 to pit road multiple times for the team to assess the damage and make repairs to the front fender. Upon review the team noticed that almost all of the damage to the No. 4 car was cosmetic, and they made the necessary repairs to return Harvick to the racetrack with a competitive car.
The Sprint Cup Series points leader restarted in 30th position on lap 52, and then the No. 4 Chevrolet found new life. The car immediately took off for the front of the field, and by lap 67 Harvick had raced his way back into the top-five, where he stayed for the majority of the race.
The final caution of the day came on lap 159 while Harvick was racing in the third position. He brought the No. 4 Chevrolet to pit road for two tires and fuel, returning to the racetrack in the fourth position. On the lap-162 restart, Harvick stayed in the top lane as the field became single file. He raced in the fifth position until the final lap, when he followed Denny Hamlin to the bottom and tried to win the race. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t play out in Harvick’s favor, and he crossed the finish line in eighth place.
“They did a good job fixing the Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet, and it really didn’t slow the car down any,” Harvick said, who won the Sprint Cup race at Talladega in April 2010. “We had to make some handling adjustments, but all in all I wanted to make something happen there at the end, and it just didn’t work out.”
Harvick was credited with leading lap 20 to bring his laps-led total at Talladega to 174. Harvick has now led 953 total laps through the first 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup races of 2015. He has only led more laps than that in a single season once – his championship season one year ago with 2,137 laps led.
Harvick’s eighth-place finish led the four-car SHR contingent Sunday at Talladega.
Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 12th. It marked the seventh-straight race Busch has finished among the top-15.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 19th after leading twice for six laps.
Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 21st.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Geico 500 to score his 24th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his sixth at Talladega.
Jimmie Johnson finished .158 of a second behind Earnhardt to give Hendrick Motorsports a one-two finish. Third place went to Paul Menard, while Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five. Sam Hornish Jr., Ryan Newman, Harvick, Hamlin and Josh Wise comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were six caution periods for 23 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 188-lap race around the 2.66-mile oval.
With round 10 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He is first with 394 points, 40 ahead of second-place Truex. Busch is 15th with 255 points, 139 out of first. Patrick is 16th with 253 points, 141 out of first. Stewart is 30th with 174 points, 220 out of first.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 on Saturday, May 9 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX Sports 1 beginning with its prerace show at 7 p.m.
-TSC-