Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Budweiser Racing Notes of Interest:
• After leading on four occasions in Sunday’s Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500, a last-lap wreck left Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet team with an 11th-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Harvick started the race from the 21st position and raced as high as 12th before the caution flag waved for the first time on lap 16. Crew chief Gil Martin called for Harvick to stay out when the leaders came to pit road at lap 18 so that he would be credited with leading the lap and receive a bonus point. When the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet hit pit road on the following lap, the crew changed tires and added fuel. Harvick restarted from the 30th position at lap 21.
• The field raced two-wide for several laps before Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton paired up for a tandem run at lap 36. The duo worked their way up to the top 10 before the oil and water temperatures on the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet began to climb into an unsafe range and Harvick had to back off.
• About 10 laps later the pair worked together again and Harvick pushed Burton into the lead at lap 51. Once they broke apart Harvick slipped all the way back to 18th before Martin called him to pit road for tires and fuel at lap 60.
• Harvick found himself back inside the top 15 once the field cycled through green-flag pit stops and a mere 10 laps later he’d drafted his way up into the top five. The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet was scored in the 12th position when the caution flag waved for the second time at lap 98
• The team pitted at lap 101 for four tires and fuel and came back down pit road on the following lap to top off with fuel before the field went back to green at lap 103.
• Harvick restarted in the 20th position and was running inside the top five within three laps. He took over the point position at lap 109 with the help of a push from the No. 1 Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray and held the lead until lap 117.
• The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet was running fourth when the caution flag waved again at lap 138. Harvick pitted for right-side tires and fuel at lap 140 and came back down pit road at lap 142 to top off with fuel. Martin radioed that they were approximately two laps shy of making it to the end of the race on fuel and asked Harvick to try to save gas when possible.
• The field went back to green at lap 143 and Harvick restarted from the fifth position. Three laps later Harvick was back out front and led two laps before falling back to fourth. He ran as low as fifth before getting back to the lead at lap 169 with the help of a push from the No. 14 Chevrolet of Tony Stewart.
• Harvick dropped to second on the following lap and was running fourth when the caution flag waved again at lap 183 as McMurray got loose and spun after slight contact with the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet.
• Harvick lined up in the third position at lap 187 for a green-white-checkered finish. He took the white flag in the fourth position and was pushing the No. 17 car of Matt Kenseth when cars made contact below them and came up the track. The No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet was collected in a 25-car wreck in Turn 4, but Harvick was able to keep the car rolling and complete the race before running out of fuel on the backstretch.
• NASCAR officials reviewed the final lap to determine the correct finishing order and Harvick was credited with an 11th-place result.
• Kenseth won the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500. Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, David Ragan and Regan Smith completed the top-five positions.
• Following Sunday’s race, Keselowski maintained the top spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. He holds a 14-point margin over Jimmie Johnson. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer round out the top-five spots. Harvick leaves Talladega ranked 10th in the standings. He’s 49 points back from first and just nine markers out of fifth.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway next week in the Bank of America 500 on Saturday, October 13. ESPN2 will air live coverage of theseries’ first practice session on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. as well as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying that evening at 7 p.m. ET. On Friday, teams will have two practices to prepare for the race and ESPN2 will provide live coverage of the final session at 5:30 p.m. ET. ABC will air live coverage of Saturday night’s race starting with the pre-race show at 7 p.m. ET. PRN affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will provide the live radio broadcast.