JR Motorsports Race Report
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2015
Race 31 of 33: Texas 300 at Texas Motor Speedway
Track Specs: 1.5-mile oval / 200 laps
Weather: 60 degrees; sunny
Race Winner: Brad Keselowski
Harvick’s finish: 2nd
It was a solid day for Kevin Harvick and the Hunt Brothers Pizza team as they drove to a second-place finish in the Texas 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. Harvick started the race in eighth place and moved up to second before a competition caution on lap 25. The Chevrolet Camaro was fast but loose and the crew took advantage of the pit stop under the caution to tighten up the car with a track-bar adjustment. The change improved the handling slightly and the car came to him after a few laps into the next run. By lap 60, the veteran racer took the lead in the 200-lap event.
The second caution of the day waved at lap 77 and Harvick led the field down pit road. However, the team faced adversity as there was a problem with a loose wheel during the pit stop. Harvick had to pit two additional times to correct the issue and restarted 16th. He steadily worked his way back through the field and managed to retake the top spot after leader Kyle Larson cut down a tire. Larson’s tire issue caused the No. 42 to spin, bringing out the final yellow of the day with 23 laps to go. As the field hit pit road for one last set of stops, the Hunt Brothers Pizza crew went to work on the No. 88, but lost two positions. Harvick restarted the race in third with 16 laps remaining and managed to move up one spot to second before the checkered flag flew.
Brad Keselowski won the Saturday afternoon NASCAR XFINITY Series race. Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Ty Dillon followed Harvick across the stripe to round out the top five.
Kevin Harvick, driver No. 88 Hunter Brothers Pizza team
“To come out today and run as fast as we did in the Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy was really fun. So I’m just proud of that. We had a little trouble on that last restart there and got behind and just took too long to get the track position back to where it needed to be. It was fun racing there at the end and we just came up one short.”