|
 Gordon finished second, .572 second behind Harvick. Jamie
McMurray was third, Logano fourth and Kyle Busch fifth.
Logano won last week at Kansas Speedway, securing his spot in the
next Chase round.
Logano, Busch and Harvick are the top three in the standings,
followed by Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards.
"We wanted to try to control the things that we could control,"
Harvick said. "We felt like Kansas and here were playing to our
strengths and just see where we fell after that, once we get to the
next round."
Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
are in the elimination spots heading into next weekend's elimination
race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Kenseth is one point behind
Kasey Kahne in the bubble spot of eighth, while Keselowski is 19
points back. Johnson and Earnhardt are tied in the Chase basement,
26 points out of eighth.
Frustration seems to be showing. Keselowski's car bumped the cars of
Denny Hamlin and Kenseth in separate incidents after the race.
Hamlin exchanged words with Keselowski, and Kenseth engaged him in a
physical altercation.
"He just plowed into us," Kenseth said. "He's just out of control.
He's desperate, obviously, and it's either four or five of us are
wrong or he's wrong."
Harvick led a race-high 162 of the 334 laps.
"Everybody on our team has just continued to build better race cars,
and we know that we've had the cars to run up front and lead laps
and do the things that we need to do," Harvick said.
He took the lead from Hamlin with 41 laps to go. A few laps later,
Gordon also got by Hamlin to take second. They then cycled back up
to first and second after a green flag cycle of pit stops in the
final 30 laps.
"Kevin got out there on us after that green flag stop," Gordon said.
"I didn't want to see another restart, because every time we start
on the inside, we seem to lose positions -- there at the end and the
whole race."
Brian Vickers' blown engine brought out an eighth and final caution
with seven laps to go, putting Harvick and Gordon side-by-side on
the front row for a restart with three laps remaining.
"Kevin was tough," Gordon said. "I knew when he got out in front, it
was going to be hard to beat him."
Busch and Kyle Larson each led before Hamlin got off pit road first
by taking only two tires during a caution with 68 laps to go.
Brad Keselowski stayed out during the yellow flag to restart with
the lead, but he lost that lead to Hamlin on the restart.
[to top of second column] |
Larson and Harvick also got by Keselowski and battled each other for
second before Harvick took control of the position.
On a restart at Lap 144, Gordon lost spots to Kurt Busch and
McMurray.
Prior to Harvick taking the lead, Gordon was the primary race
leader. Gordon took the lead from pole-sitter Kyle Busch on Lap 14
and led 70 of the first 100 laps.
Gordon dropped to fourth on pit road during a competition caution on
Lap 25 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick took only two
tires and Busch's team pulled off a faster stop.
After Busch took the lead on the restart, Gordon got by him to take
the top spot on Lap 38. Soon after, Harvick also got by Busch for
second.
Gordon and Harvick cycled back up to the top two spots after green
flag stops around Lap 75, but Gordon's lead over Harvick was
significantly larger than his cushion before the stops.
The yellow flag waved for a second time for Clint Bowyer's blown
engine, and again Gordon and Harvick lost spots to drivers taking
two tires, including Earnhardt. Instead of Gordon getting through to
the front, though, Harvick made his way to the lead.
Earnhardt lost spots on each restart after taking two tires but
remained in the top 10 until his shifter broke just before the
caution around Lap 135.
"The vibration broke the shifter in half, and it just wasn't a good
night," Earnhardt said. "The car just wasn't handling well and the
vibration was really giving us a lot of problems. We had it in
practice, but we still couldn't fix it."
NOTES: Kyle Busch won the pole, but Kurt Busch set a new track
record in qualifying on Thursday, with a 198.771 mph lap in Round 2.
... The race started on a "green" track, as rain fell earlier in the
day, washing all rubber off the track. The green flag was delayed
slightly as pit road was dried. ... Jimmie Johnson is the all-time
wins leader at Charlotte, counting the most recent race in May. ...
Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth finished first through
third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Charlotte on Friday
night. ... Charlotte is the fifth race of the 10-race Chase and the
second of three races that make up the second, or Contender, round.
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