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While Kevin Harvick was ending a 44-race winless drought, and Brad Keselowski was taking the Sprint Cup points lead, there was chaos all around them at Phoenix International Raceway.
The race was taking a measured pace with Kyle Busch, who ended up third behind teammate, Denny Hamlin, in control until lap 235 when Jimmie Johnson's car, then running seventh, slid up into the wall in turn four causing serious damage to his Chevrolet. Goodyear says a melted bead from brake heat caused Johnson's right front to go down and send him into the wall.
Unlike the miracle of Kansas; Johnson's car had to be taken to the garage for repairs. Johnson rejoined the race on lap 274, 38 laps down. Crew chief Chad Knaus said, "I don't know that we're going to get anything out of it, but what the hell."
That was only the beginning. With only a few laps to go a simmering feud between Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer boiled over after a minor brush.
Gordon car lost a tire and he blamed Bowyer. The four-time champion waited for Bowyer to come around and retaliated but crashed both and Joey Logano was caught up in it. But that wasn't the end.
The pit crews erupted like a bench clearing wrestling match in hockey followed by Bowyer running towards Gordon's hauler but was stopped by NASCAR officials.
Bowyer got out of his damaged car and ran over to Gordon's hauler also, but, never was personally involved in the tussle.
But he said "it's pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport has ever seen to act like that is just completely ridiculous."
Gordon said "Things just got escalated over the year, and I'd just had it. Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I've had it, fed up with it and I got him back."
NASCAR officials have said that there will be no immediate response but they will review tapes of the incident.
The race went yellow on lap 312 and was red-flagged for 15 minutes setting up a green-white checkered finish.
Harvick had taken the lead but there was a question of could he finish the race in overtime with limited fuel?
"I just wanted to get a good restart and be able to get into Turn 1 and not have any mistakes and knew if we could get through there without any mistakes that we could at least have a fighting chance of taking control of the bottom of the racetrack in Turn 3 and 4," Harvick said.
On the final restart Danica Patrick, having the best race of her ten-race foray into Sprint Cup, was clipped by Jeff Burton causing an even bigger wreck, including being struck by Paul Menard causing her to go airborne but no yellow was thrown. She wasn't injured.
"We survived," a relieved Keselowski said after finished sixth in a damaged car. "No guarantees but glad to have the points lead."
After the race Jimmie Johnson handled the bad luck well when he said "it's way, way out of our control right now. Anything can happen. Hate for it to happen this way he said. As I was coming off turn four it went down, where it went down I had a direct line into the wall."
Harvick complained of NASCAR "they were really quick to throw the caution then they let us race through the oil. There was more oil on the track than asphalt."
Denny Hamlin said the track was "treacherous" due to hard tires. Then speaking about the condition of the track at the end, "There was a lot of stuff on the track; Ray Charles could have seen that."
NASCAR public relations tweeted "we didn't see any fluid or anything, she (Patrick) rode around on the apron, and when she pulled up on the track, there was smoke, it looked like tire smoke. It's easy to look back on it obviously and wish that you did something different, but at the time it didn't appear like there was any fluid that was coming out of the car."
All Keselowski needs to do to clinch his first Sprint Cup title and Roger Penske's Sprint Cup is to finish 15th or better at the finale at Homestead next week.
The race was taking a measured pace with Kyle Busch, who ended up third behind teammate, Denny Hamlin, in control until lap 235 when Jimmie Johnson's car, then running seventh, slid up into the wall in turn four causing serious damage to his Chevrolet. Goodyear says a melted bead from brake heat caused Johnson's right front to go down and send him into the wall.
 |
| Jimmie Johnson's car. (Photo: NASCAR) |
Unlike the miracle of Kansas; Johnson's car had to be taken to the garage for repairs. Johnson rejoined the race on lap 274, 38 laps down. Crew chief Chad Knaus said, "I don't know that we're going to get anything out of it, but what the hell."
That was only the beginning. With only a few laps to go a simmering feud between Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer boiled over after a minor brush.
Gordon car lost a tire and he blamed Bowyer. The four-time champion waited for Bowyer to come around and retaliated but crashed both and Joey Logano was caught up in it. But that wasn't the end.
 |
| Joey Logano caught in the fight between Jeff Gordon (24) and Clint Bowyer (15). (Caption: NASCAR) |
The pit crews erupted like a bench clearing wrestling match in hockey followed by Bowyer running towards Gordon's hauler but was stopped by NASCAR officials.
Bowyer got out of his damaged car and ran over to Gordon's hauler also, but, never was personally involved in the tussle.
But he said "it's pretty embarrassing for a four-time champion and what I consider one of the best the sport has ever seen to act like that is just completely ridiculous."
Gordon said "Things just got escalated over the year, and I'd just had it. Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I've had it, fed up with it and I got him back."
NASCAR officials have said that there will be no immediate response but they will review tapes of the incident.
The race went yellow on lap 312 and was red-flagged for 15 minutes setting up a green-white checkered finish.
Harvick had taken the lead but there was a question of could he finish the race in overtime with limited fuel?
"I just wanted to get a good restart and be able to get into Turn 1 and not have any mistakes and knew if we could get through there without any mistakes that we could at least have a fighting chance of taking control of the bottom of the racetrack in Turn 3 and 4," Harvick said.
On the final restart Danica Patrick, having the best race of her ten-race foray into Sprint Cup, was clipped by Jeff Burton causing an even bigger wreck, including being struck by Paul Menard causing her to go airborne but no yellow was thrown. She wasn't injured.
"We survived," a relieved Keselowski said after finished sixth in a damaged car. "No guarantees but glad to have the points lead."
 |
| Brad Keselowski sixth alongside Ryan Newman who passed the finish line in reverse. (Photo: NASCAR) |
After the race Jimmie Johnson handled the bad luck well when he said "it's way, way out of our control right now. Anything can happen. Hate for it to happen this way he said. As I was coming off turn four it went down, where it went down I had a direct line into the wall."
Harvick complained of NASCAR "they were really quick to throw the caution then they let us race through the oil. There was more oil on the track than asphalt."
Denny Hamlin said the track was "treacherous" due to hard tires. Then speaking about the condition of the track at the end, "There was a lot of stuff on the track; Ray Charles could have seen that."
NASCAR public relations tweeted "we didn't see any fluid or anything, she (Patrick) rode around on the apron, and when she pulled up on the track, there was smoke, it looked like tire smoke. It's easy to look back on it obviously and wish that you did something different, but at the time it didn't appear like there was any fluid that was coming out of the car."
All Keselowski needs to do to clinch his first Sprint Cup title and Roger Penske's Sprint Cup is to finish 15th or better at the finale at Homestead next week.