Harvick advances in Chase with Dover win; Johnson eliminated
Kevin Harvick is heading to the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
After two issues in the first two races of the first round, Harvick was faced with a simple situation on Sunday. He needed to win at Dover to advance to the second round of the Chase. He did just that, dominating the race and pulling away on the final restart for his third win of the year.
While Harvick made it through to the second round, a huge name did not. Six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson had a driveline issue on Sunday and was forced to head to the garage for repairs. The points he lost while in the garage were massive. He finished 41st and ended up 14th in the Chase standings.
The top 12 drivers after the first three races advance. Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer are also not moving on to the second round. McMurray (who finished fourth) tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (who finished third) for the last advancing spot in the points standings. But since Junior had the highest finish in the first three races, he’s in.
Harvick, the 2014 champion, has been incredibly fast recently at Dover. His success at the one-mile track was no surprise. But those fast runs had been foiled by problems. He was one of the best cars in this race one year ago and suffered a cut valve stem on a tire. Jeff Gordon ended up winning the race.
He was super fast in the first two races of this Chase too. He was leading when he bumped with Johnson at Chicago. The bump led to a tire rub and a crash (and a punch to Johnson’s chest after the race) when Harvick and his team elected to attempt to hope the tire rub would go away rather than pit and fix the problem. A week ago at New Hampshire, Harvick was leading with three laps to go when he ran out of fuel.
“I think we’re better than we were last year just because of the experiences and things that we’ve had,” Harvick said about the pressure to win on Sunday. “I think when we look at everything that’s gone on over the last couple of years, it’s just been a lot of fun. So, it’s just that never quit attitude. That’s what [team co-owner] Tony Stewart said when we went to Homestead last year. He said, ‘Whatever you do, do not quit until they throw that checkered flag’”.
2015 is the second year of NASCAR’s elimination Chase format and it’s now the second-straight year that a driver has won in a win-and-in scenario. In 2014’s second round of the Chase, Brad Keselowski won at Talladega to stave off elimination. And while the moments are dramatic, they’re not necessarily the best way to ensure your survival into the next round. Keselowski himself seemed prescient about Harvick’s first round when he reflected on his 2014 Chase experience before the first race at Chicago.
“We were able to kind of connect the Hail Mary pass at Talladega to make it to the next bracket and then, sure enough, we went to Martinsville and broke a rear gear in the car and played from behind and didn’t quite connect on the Hail Mary at Texas,” Keselowski said. “You don’t want to live and die by that, and I think the lesson learned there is you just can’t have failures.”
You can’t. Unless you win. Both Johnson and Harvick witnessed that up-close on Sunday.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
