Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
Budweiser Racing Team Notes of Interest
• Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet team were credited with a 39th-place finish in Sunday’s rain-delayed Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after an oil line on the car was cut late in the race.
• Rain delayed the start of Sunday’s race until just before 3 p.m. EDT. Harvick quickly began working his way toward the front of the field from his 27th-place starting position once the green flag waved. By lap 14 he was inside the top 20 and by lap 30 he was running 15th.
• NASCAR threw a competition caution at lap 52 and the No. 4 team pitted for four tires and fuel. Harvick restarted in the 11th position and was up to the fifth position by lap 90.
• The caution flag waved again at lap 119 for rain and a few laps later NASCAR officials brought the cars down pit road and threw the red flag. The race was delayed for 3 hours and nearly 19 minutes due to persistent rain. When the field went back to green-flag racing at lap 137, Harvick was scored in the fourth position.
• Racing once again on a green track, as the rain had wash all of the rubber off of the track surface, Harvick radioed to the team that “all of a sudden (the car) just won’t turn at all,” when the caution flag waved at lap 188. Crew chief Rodney Childers called him to pit road for four tires, fuel and air pressure and chassis adjustments. Harvick restarted the raced seventh and was back inside the top five in a handful of laps.
• Harvick had trouble with lapped traffic as the race approached the halfway point and thought he had a problem with the right-front tire. The team jumped up on pit wall, prepared to make a pit stop if needed, but a caution flag at lap 277 saved them from having to pit under green. Childers called for four tires, fuel and more air pressure and chassis adjustments when Harvick brought the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet down pit road during the caution period.
• Harvick remained inside the top 10 and told the team when the caution flag waved again at lap 333 that the car was “a touch too free, but way better.” Childers once again called for a four-tire stop with minor air pressure adjustments and Harvick restarted the race from the fifth position.
• Over the course of the following run, Harvick raced his way up to the second position. The caution flag waved at lap 395 and the No. 4 team elected to pit once again for four tires, fuel and a small air pressure adjustment. Fast work by the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet team got Harvick off of pit road first and he took over the race lead at lap 398.
• Harvick remained at the front of the field until Childers called him back to pit road at lap 425 under caution for a four-tire stop. Four teams elected not to pit and three teams took only two tires, so Harvick restarted eighth at lap 430 and raced his way up to fourth before the first lap was even completed.
• With 50 laps to go, smoke began to trail out from the rear of Harvick’s car. He made contact with the wall and flames became visible, so spotter Tim Fedewa directed Harvick to pull the car into the infield and the driver quickly got out as safety crews worked to put out the fire.
• Once the team got the car back to the shop to fully examine the cause of the fire, Childers said it appeared as though Harvick ran over something that cut an oil line. The issue relegated the team to a 39th-place finish.
• Carl Edwards scored the win in the Food City 500. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Aric Almirola, Tony Stewart and Marcos Ambrose completed the top-five positions.
• Brad Keselowski took over the top spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver point standings following Sunday’s race. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson complete the top-five spots. Harvick is now ranked 21st in the standings.
The following is the finishing position of the other Stewart-Haas Racing teams in Sunday's race:
• Tony Stewart and the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobile 1 Chevrolet team finished fourth.
• Danica Patrick and the No. 10 GoDaddy Get Found Chevrolet team finished 18th.
• Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet team finished 35th.
Coming Up:
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams travel out to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., this week for the Auto Club 400. On Friday, FOX Sports 1 will provide live coverage of Friday’s practice session at 3 p.m. EDT and qualifying at 7:30 p.m. EDT. On Saturday, FOX Sports 1 will air coverage of the first practice session at 12:30 p.m. EDT and the final session at 3:30 p.m. EDT. FOX will carry the live race broadcast on Sunday starting with the pre-race show at 2:30 p.m. EDT. MRN Radio affiliates and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio will air radio coverage of the race.