ditech Driver Finishes 21st in Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Date: Sept. 27, 2015
Event: Sylvania 300 (Round 28 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon (1.058-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 2nd/21st (Running, completed 299 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 15th (2,034 points, 65 points out of first)
Winner: Matt Kenseth of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 ditech Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), was the dominant car for the majority of the day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. But while leading the race with three laps remaining, Harvick ran out of fuel and needed a splash-and-go to bring home a 21st-place finish.
Harvick started on the front row in the second position and looked strong right from the start. He took the lead for the first time on lap 20 and remained at the front of the field for all but four laps until giving up the lead to pit under caution on lap 192.
The Bakersfield, California, native stopped for four tires and fuel, while several other teams attempted varying pit strategies. Harvick returned to the racetrack in the seventh position as the first car on four fresh tires on lap 197, which allowed him to race his way back to the lead by lap 211.
The defending Sprint Cup champion brought the No. 4 Chevrolet to pit road for fuel only under caution on lap 212. As Harvick was pulling out of his pit stall, his exit was blocked by driver Kyle Larson as he pulled his No. 42 into his pit box. While the cars never made contact, the incident slowed Harvick’s progress off pit road, and the No. 4 restarted 12th on lap 219.
Harvick had raced his way back up to fifth by the following caution on lap 239. The team opted to stay out under the caution and restart in the third position on lap 243. By lap 252, Harvick had the No. 4 Chevrolet back in the lead and was doing his best to save fuel while holding off Matt Kenseth and working his way through lap traffic. With just three laps remaining, the No. 4 Chevrolet ran out of fuel and was forced to pit road for a splash of fuel to finish the race in the 21st position.
“The good thing about these days is you have EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) data to go back and look at,” crew chief Rodney Childers tweeted following the race. “By the data, (Harvick) saved double what we needed to make it to the end. It should have been a non-issue. Which is why we weren’t worried. It looked like for some reason it must have not got full on our last stop of the race or the fuel cell bladder is coming apart. All in all my engineers do a great job for me and hardly ever make any mistakes. They work their butts off to make sure this doesn’t happen. If anything showed we were taking a chance we would have pitted. On to Dover. It’s not over.”
Harvick led six times for a total of 216 laps to increase his season total to 1,676. He has led more laps than that in a single season just once – in 2014 when he led 2,137 laps en route to the Sprint Cup championship. He has led a lap in 22 of the 28 Sprint Cup races contested in 2015.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Code 3 Associates/ Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, led the four-car SHR contingent Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon by finishing 11th. Stewart overcame a flat tire early in the going to score his seventh top-15 finish of the season and his 23rd top-15 in 33 career Sprint Cup starts at New Hampshire.
Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet for SHR, was in contention for a top-five result but ran out of fuel on the final lap around the 1.058-mile oval and finished 19th.
Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 40th after being involved in an accident that forced her out of the race 97 laps shy of its 300-lap distance. Patrick was unhurt, but her racecar was not. She was one of five drivers unable to finish the race.
Kenseth won the Sylvania 300 to score his 36th career Sprint Cup victory, his fifth of the season and his second at New Hampshire.
Denny Hamlin finished 8.941 seconds behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were nine caution periods for 41 laps.
Busch and Harvick are representing SHR in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and they entered the second race of the 10-race Chase fifth and 16th, respectively, among the 16 Chase drivers in the Challenger Round. Busch leaves New Hampshire in seventh, 26 points behind Chase leader Kenseth. Harvick leaves New Hampshire in 15th, 65 points out of first. Following the third race of the Chase next Sunday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, only those Chase drivers who have won a race or are among the top-12 in points will advance to the Contender Round.
With one race remaining before the Contender Round begins, the top-16 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:
1. Matt Kenseth (2,099 points)
2. Denny Hamlin (2,093 points, -6)
3. Carl Edwards (2,089 points, -10)
4. Joey Logano (2,089 points, -10)
5. Jimmie Johnson (2,083 points, -16)
6. Ryan Newman (2,074 points, -25)
7. Kurt Busch (2,073 points, -26)
8. Brad Keselowski (2,072 points, -27)
9. Martin Truex Jr. (2,071 points, -28)
10. Jeff Gordon (2,068 points, -31)
11. Jamie McMurray (2,058 points, -41)
12. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,057 points, -42)
13. Kyle Busch (2,056 points, -43)
14. Paul Menard (2,056 points, -43)
15. Kevin Harvick (2,034 points, -65)
16. Clint Bowyer (2,018 points, -81)
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Oct. 4 AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. The race starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN.
-TSC-