Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 Bad Boy Buggies team brought home a disappointing third-place finish in the NRA American Warriors 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway after leading 157 laps and dominating the 300-mile event Saturday night. The Bakersfield, Calif., native started the NASCAR Nationwide Series event from the third position and worked his way to the front of the field by lap 18. As the race progressed, Harvick continued to extend his lead over the field creating a 15-second gap over the second-place car when NASCAR officials displayed the yellow flag for the third caution period on lap 66. As green-flag racing resumed, the two-time Nationwide Series champion continued to lead the field around the 1.54-mile track until lap 120 when Harvick brought the Bad Boy Buggies Chevrolet down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. Multiple cars opted to stay on track during the caution period, positioning Harvick sixth for the lap-126 restart. With a bold move on the race track, Harvick regained the lead by lap 127 and maintained his position until the green-white-checkered finish when a two-car tandem with new tires slid by the Bad Boy Buggies machine on the final lap, leaving Harvick to settle for a third-place finish.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
“We obviously had the dominate race car tonight, but didn’t get the finish we should have. The Bad Boy Buggies team worked hard all weekend and deserved the win. We’ll move on from this and turn our focus to next week’s race at Richmond (International Raceway).”