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Kevin Harvick's domination of the weekend at Kansas Speedway might be akin to the tale of a lame duck, Harvick, and a cooked goose, Kyle Busch.
Harvick, who is leaving Richard Childress at the end of this year, set a track record in Friday's qualifying then struggled in the two final practice sessions. But he rallied leading a race high 138-laps for his third win of the year keeping his hopes alive for a Sprint Cup Championship climbing to third in the standings 25 points behind series Matt Kenseth who finished 11th. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished sixth despite an engine problem on the last lap and remains in second place now only three points behind Kenseth.
Kyle Busch had entered the race tied for fourth place with Harvick but crashed in practice on Saturday and was taken out in Sunday's race after an incident with Juan Pablo Montoya and he finished 34 falling to fifth in the standings 35 points behind Kenseth.
The combination of the new multi-zone technology Goodyear tire, a smooth track and a 40 degree (F) temperature change from a four-hour Thursday practice session.
“It was an interesting weekend to say the least,” Harvick said. “ Obviously everybody was battling the tires and the track, and I think it was like driving on a razor blade.
“We just talked about a lot of adjustments that we wanted to make, and kind of eliminated a few things here and there overnight. It was like driving two different cars. Out front it was not even close, and in traffic you were just another one of the cars and had a lot of trouble, so that made the restarts really important. Everybody would get really aggressive on the restarts and try to make up spots because that was the place that you had to do it.
To sit on the pole and win the race is obviously a great weekend, and controlling our own destiny by doing that, putting ourselves closer to where we need to be with the championship race. We'll just keep having fun and keep doing what we're doing.”
Kurt Busch, attempting to keep his second title hopes alive finished second 1.140 seconds behind Harvick and is seventh in the points 47th out of the lead. Jeff Gordon, the last addition to the Chase, finished third and moved into the fourth spot in the season standings 32 points out of first.
Gordon, the four-time champion, put the tire situation in perspective “To me it's really the surface. We're paving these racetracks with what we're paving new highways with. This is not a highway, it's a racetrack and it's a race car and a racing tire. It needs to be looked at differently. We have the same issue in Phoenix. Darlington, we've had the same issue, every repave that we've had over the last six, seven years.”
As for Kyle Busch, who seems snake bit by this track where his average finish is 23.3. Describing his weekend he said “the race track is the worst race track I've ever driven on. The tires are the worst even driven on and track position is everything. You get back in traffic - Kevin Harvick could pass me - he led the first 80 laps of the race, so I'd say it's pretty pathetic.”
Harvick, who is leaving Richard Childress at the end of this year, set a track record in Friday's qualifying then struggled in the two final practice sessions. But he rallied leading a race high 138-laps for his third win of the year keeping his hopes alive for a Sprint Cup Championship climbing to third in the standings 25 points behind series Matt Kenseth who finished 11th. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished sixth despite an engine problem on the last lap and remains in second place now only three points behind Kenseth.
Kyle Busch had entered the race tied for fourth place with Harvick but crashed in practice on Saturday and was taken out in Sunday's race after an incident with Juan Pablo Montoya and he finished 34 falling to fifth in the standings 35 points behind Kenseth.
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| Photo: NASCAR |
The combination of the new multi-zone technology Goodyear tire, a smooth track and a 40 degree (F) temperature change from a four-hour Thursday practice session.
“It was an interesting weekend to say the least,” Harvick said. “ Obviously everybody was battling the tires and the track, and I think it was like driving on a razor blade.
“We just talked about a lot of adjustments that we wanted to make, and kind of eliminated a few things here and there overnight. It was like driving two different cars. Out front it was not even close, and in traffic you were just another one of the cars and had a lot of trouble, so that made the restarts really important. Everybody would get really aggressive on the restarts and try to make up spots because that was the place that you had to do it.
To sit on the pole and win the race is obviously a great weekend, and controlling our own destiny by doing that, putting ourselves closer to where we need to be with the championship race. We'll just keep having fun and keep doing what we're doing.”
Kurt Busch, attempting to keep his second title hopes alive finished second 1.140 seconds behind Harvick and is seventh in the points 47th out of the lead. Jeff Gordon, the last addition to the Chase, finished third and moved into the fourth spot in the season standings 32 points out of first.
Gordon, the four-time champion, put the tire situation in perspective “To me it's really the surface. We're paving these racetracks with what we're paving new highways with. This is not a highway, it's a racetrack and it's a race car and a racing tire. It needs to be looked at differently. We have the same issue in Phoenix. Darlington, we've had the same issue, every repave that we've had over the last six, seven years.”
As for Kyle Busch, who seems snake bit by this track where his average finish is 23.3. Describing his weekend he said “the race track is the worst race track I've ever driven on. The tires are the worst even driven on and track position is everything. You get back in traffic - Kevin Harvick could pass me - he led the first 80 laps of the race, so I'd say it's pretty pathetic.”