Harvick Closes One Out at Michigan

Detroit Free Press

BROOKLYN, MI – RIS – It had been 65 races since Kevin Harvick had gone to victory lane.  That’s almost two seasons, but the man called “The Closer” finally closed one out on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.  He had run well within the top ten all day, but it was a late caution bunched the field up and the driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang put on a show.   After  caution during a round of green flag pit stops gave him the lead, Harvick drove away over the final green flag run to win the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan by four seconds. The win was his first of the 2022 season and ended the65-race winless streak.

Under the caution period, Harvick stayed out to assume the lead, while Denny Hamlin won the race off pit road. But Hamlin incurred a penalty as a pit crew member stepped onto pit road, allowing polesitter Wallace to restart alongside Harvick on the front row. Harvick got the edge and hurried to his 59th career victory.

Wallace finished second ahead of Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10. Gibbs scored his first career top 10 in his third career start.

“Just good timing for sure Harvick said after the race. “We’ve had several good runs the last few weeks – Loudon and Pocono where the car ran good and just didn’t have everything work out.  I’m just really proud of everybody on our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang.  They’ve been digging all year long trying to make these Mustangs run faster.  They haven’t been great this year, but our guys have done a good job in trying to take what we have, maximize it and do the things that we need to do.  I’m just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

The biggest incident of the day occurred at Lap 25, when Austin Cindric went nose-first into the Turn 2 wall in an eight-car wreck following the restart from a competition caution. JJ Yeley lost control of his No. 15 Ford after contact in Turn 1 and spun sideways in the middle of the pack, triggering an accident that took out Yeley, Cindric, Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Harrison Burton.

Noah Gragson had a strong run early and was running inside the top five midway through the race. But the part-timer for Kaulig Racing lost control at Lap 108 exiting Turn 2, sliding into the outside wall and suffering irreparable damage to the No. 16 Chevrolet.

Harvick's win is the 59th of his Cup Series career -- but more importantly, it puts him on the playoff grid with three races remaining after he entered Sunday as the first car below the playoff cutoff line.

Wallace seemed distraught after the race.  The pole winner had high hopes for this race.  His runner up finish didn’t console him.

“Thought I could hang with the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and just got to racing the 5 (Kyle Larson) and the 22 (Joey Logano) 22 did a great job of getting another Ford contract by helping another Ford win,” Wallace said. “All in all, an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wish we could have gotten Toyota in victory lane. Wish we could have got McDonalds in victory lane again. She was fast all weekend. I will wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.”

Unofficial Results: 54th Annual FireKeepers Casino 400 - Michigan International Speedway - August 7, 2022

Fin, St, Driver, Car, Laps , St1, St2, Pts, Status, Tms, Laps, Playoff Pts

1) 16, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Light Apple #BuschelOfBusch Ford, 200, 8, , 43, Running, 1, 38, 5

2) 1, Bubba Wallace, No. 23 McDonald's Toyota, 200, , , 35, Running, 2, 22,

3) 9, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, 200, 2, 1, 53, Running, 3, 38, 1

4) 4, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 200, 9, 10, 36, Running, , ,

5) 24, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Caninetry Ford, 200, , , 32, Running, , ,

6) 7, Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota, 200, 4, , 38, Running, , ,

7) 8, Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, 200, , 3, 38, Running, , ,

8) 10, Erik Jones, No. 43 FOCUSfactor Chevrolet, 200, 3, 6, 42, Running, 1, 5,

9) 30, Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 200, , 8, 31, Running, , ,

10) 11, Ty Gibbs(i), No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota, 200, , , 0, Running, 1, 2,

11) 13, Chase Elliott, No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet, 200, , , 26, Running, , ,

12) 20, William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet, 200, 7, 9, 31, Running, , ,

13) 26, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow MobilityScience Chevrolet, 200, , 7, 28, Running, , ,

14) 25, Ty Dillon, No. 42 Ferris Chevrolet, 200, , , 23, Running, , ,

15) 33, Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Castrol Ford, 200, , 5, 28, Running, , ,

16) 19, Chris Buescher, No. 17 LeBron James Family Foundation Ford, 200, 5, , 27, Running, 1, 1,

17) 21, Justin Haley, No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet, 200, , , 20, Running, , ,

18) 31, * Austin Hill(i), No. 33 Bennett Transportation Chevrolet, 200, , , 0, Running, , ,

19) 32, Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Schluter Systems Chevrolet, 200, , , 18, Running, , ,

20) 23, Chase Briscoe, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford, 200, 10, , 18, Running, , ,

21) 35, Josh Bilicki(i), No. 77 Michigan State/Zeigler Auto Chevrolet, 200, , , 0, Running, , ,

22) 34, Cody Ware, No. 51 Nurtec ODT Ford, 200, , , 15, Running, , ,

23) 36, BJ McLeod(i), No. 78 Blaster Ford, 199, , , 0, Running, 1, 1,

24) 22, Ross Chastain, No. 1 Advent Health Chevrolet, 199, 6, , 18, Running, 1, 29,

25) 15, Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, 198, , 2, 21, Running, 2, 33,

26) 2, Christopher Bell, No. 20 Sirius XM Toyota, 193, 1, 4, 28, Accident, 3, 31, 1

27) 37, Todd Gilliland #, No. 38 First Phase Ford, 188, , , 10, Running, , ,

28) 14, Michael McDowell, No. 34 Martin Transportation Systems Ford, 187, , , 9, Running, , ,

29) 6, Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Guaranteed Rate Chevrolet, 110, , , 8, Engine, , ,

30) 12, Noah Gragson(i), No. 16 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet, 109, , , 0, Accident, , ,

31) 17, Cole Custer, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford, 94, , , 6, Accident, , ,

32) 27, Harrison Burton #, No. 21 Ford 20 Year Sr Master Techs Ford, 29, , , 5, Accident, , ,

33) 28, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Health/SweetLeaf Chevrolet, 25, , , 4, Accident, , ,

34) 18, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 25, , , 3, Accident, , ,

35) 29, JJ Yeley(i), No. 15 RWR Ford, 24, , , 0, Accident, , ,

36) 3, Kyle Busch, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, 24, , , 1, Accident, , ,

37) 5, Austin Cindric #, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford, 24, , , 1, Accident, , ,

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Distance: 200 Laps - 400 Miles

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 54 Mins, 8 Secs.

Average Speed: 137.825 MPH

Margin of Victory: 2.903 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 20, 11, 43, 19, 17, 1, 24, 4, 22, 14

Stage 2 Top 10: 11, 99, 5, 20, 6, 43, 3, 48, 24, 22

Comments: Kevin Harvick won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, his 59th career NASCAR Cup Series victory.

No cars dropped to the rear prior to the start of the race.

Cautions: 7 for 36 laps;

Laps: 22-24 (Competition Caution  [None]);

26-32 (No. 2, 10, 15, 18, 21, 34, 38, 45 and 47 Incident in Turn 2 [None]);

47-51 (Stage 1 Conclusion [34]);

Ronald Fleshman

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

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Volume 2022, Issue 8, Posted 8:43 PM, 08.07.2022