Date: March 9, 2014
Event: Kobalt 400 (Round 3 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 16th/41st (Running, completed 237 of 267 laps)
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), appeared to be on his way to his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory when a left-front hub failure on lap 193 sent him behind the wall for lengthy repairs, relegating him to a 41st-place finish.
“It looks like the left-front hub locked up,” Harvick said. “The car just kind of lost the handling in the last 15 or 20 laps before we went behind the wall. It started to get really loose, which makes sense with that left-front brake dragging like that. I have to thank everybody on this team. They have done a great job, and our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was ‘Freaky Fast’ again today. We’ve just got to keep doing what we are doing and everything will be fine with cars like that.”
Harvick started 16th in the 43-car field and, despite battling a loose-handling racecar, was able to hold his position until he came to pit road under the first caution of the race on lap 21. Crew chief Rodney Childers called for air pressure and chassis adjustments. Despite needing more fine-tuning on his black-and-white machine, Harvick was able to advance his position and shave time from his deficit to the race leader.
Childers continued to make minor adjustments each time Harvick hit pit road, which allowed the Bakersfield, Calif., native to continue advancing toward the front of the field.
As the race continued under green-flag conditions, Harvick was able to race his way to the front on lap 130. He was forced to relinquish the spot 10 laps later when he had to make a scheduled green-flag pit stop, but as the cycle completed, Harvick was once again posted as the race leader.
As the laps clicked off, Harvick began to develop a handling issue that saw him slow drastically on the racetrack. He was able to bring the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet to pit road without incident, where the crew immediately diagnosed suspension failure. The team was forced to push the car behind the wall, where they made the necessary repairs that allowed Harvick to rejoin the field – albeit 30 laps behind the race leader – to avoid being credited with a DNF (did not finish).
Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 Aspen Dental Chevrolet SS, led the four-car SHR contingent by finishing 21st.
Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 26th, while Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS, finished 33rd.
Brad Keselowski won the Kobalt 400 to score his 11th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his first at Las Vegas.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished 1.530 seconds behind Keselowski in the runner-up spot, while Paul Menard, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five. Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were four caution periods for 18 laps, with only one driver failing to finish the 267-lap race.
With round three of 36 complete, Harvick leads the SHR contingent in the championship point standings. He is 14th, 50 points behind first-place Earnhardt. Stewart is 27th, 85 points out of first. Busch is 28th, 86 points out of first, and Patrick is 33rd, 97 points behind Earnhardt.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 16 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its prerace show at 12:30 p.m.
-SHR-