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Jimmy John's Driver Scores 10th Top-Five of 2017; Third in Point Standings

Date: Oct. 8, 2017

Event: Bank of America 500 (Round 30 of 36)

Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series

Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)

Format: 334 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/90 laps/154 laps)

Start/Finish: 3rd/3rd (Running, completed 337 of 337 laps)

Point Standing: 3rd with 3,069 points, 26 points ahead of ninth place with two races to go before the Round of 8

Note: Race ended in overtime, going three laps past its scheduled 334-lap distance

 

Race Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing (Toyota) in overtime

Stage 1 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

• Kevin Harvick started third, finished first, earned 10 bonus points and one playoff point.
• The Jimmy John’s Ford challenged for the lead in the early going.
• The No. 4 Ford came to pit road under the competition caution on lap 35 for four tires and fuel.
• Harvick raced to the lead on lap 52 following a lap-43 caution, where he elected to stay out while running second.
• The No. 4 team pitted at the end of the stage for four tires and fuel.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-180):

• Started third, finished first, earned 10 bonus points and one playoff point.
• Harvick came to pit road for four tires and fuel on lap 118 and took the lead on the lap-120 restart.
• The No. 4 team pitted at the end of the stage for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment and won the race off pit road.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 181-334):

• Started first, finished third.
• Harvick surrendered the lead on lap 225 to pit under green-flag conditions for four tires and fuel.
• The Jimmy John’s Ford was too loose on exit late in the run as the team worked to adjust to changing track conditions.
• The No. 4 Ford came to pit road under caution on lap 267 for four tires, fuel and adjustments aimed to regain rear grip.
• Harvick came to pit road under caution on lap 280 for four tires, fuel and small adjustments and came out in the second position.
• He came to pit road under caution on lap 327 for tires but fell to the sixth position following the pit stop.
• The team restarted sixth on lap 328 and raced to fourth before another quick caution on lap 331.
• Harvick stayed out under caution, restarting fourth for the overtime attempt and gaining a position in the closing laps.

Notes:

• Harvick scored his 10th top-five and 18th top-10 finish of 2017.
• This was Harvick’s eighth top-five and 16th top-10 in 34 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Charlotte.
• Harvick finished first in both stages to collect the maximum amount of bonus points (20) and two playoff points.
• Harvick led four times for a race-high 149 laps to bring his laps-led total at Charlotte to 528.
• With his laps-led tally from the Bank of America 500, Harvick surpassed 11,000 laps led in his NASCAR Cup Series career. He is the 17th Cup Series driver to lead 11,000 or more laps and one of only four active drivers to accomplish this feat, joining Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth.
• There were 10 caution periods for a total of 44 laps.
• Only 24 of the 40 drivers in the Bank of America 500 finished on the lead lap.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“That’s about where we were going to run, second or third. We just kind of lost a little bit of the track there as the VHT started to wear off in the second half of the race. But they did a great job all day. For the most part, we had good stops all day – just the timing of the bad one came at the end, but, for the most part, they did a great job. Everybody in the field had a bad stop at some point today, so it was a good day for our Jimmy John’s/Busch Ford, and everybody is doing a good job with the speed of the cars.”

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before the Round of 8):

1.   Martin Truex Jr. (3,106 points) 1 win

2.   Kyle Larson (3,072 points, -34) +29 points

3.   Kevin Harvick (3,069 points, -37) +26 points

4.   Chase Elliott (3,059 points, -47) +16 points

5.   Denny Hamlin (3,056 points, -50) +13 points

6.   Kyle Busch (3,055 points, -51) +12 points

7.   Jimmie Johnson (3,051 points, -55) +8 points

8.   Jamie McMurray (3,044 points, -62) +1 point

9.   Matt Kenseth (3,043 points, -63) -1 point

10. Brad Keselowski (3,042 points, -64) -2 points

11. Ryan Blaney (3,039 points, -67) -5 points

12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3,034 points, -72) -10 points

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Alabama 500 on Sunday, Oct. 15 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC beginning at 1 p.m.

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