Harvick is Happy in Texas!; Sadler & Stenhouse are tied in the series standings

[media-credit name=”Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”240″][/media-credit]Kevin Harvick won the 8th Annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway for his 39th victory in his NASCAR Nationwide Series career and the second of the season.

Ryan Blaney (Career Best) finished second, Kyle Busch third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-5.

Busch started on the pole and led lap 1 with Sadler right behind him. By lap 8, Busch had over a second lead over Sadler.

The first caution waved when the #19 of Hal Martin hit the wall in turn 1 and then hit it again coming off of turn 2 on lap 13. Everybody wanted to come in and looked like they were going to but everybody was faking and nobody came in that was in the top 20. During this caution, Stenhouse Jr told his crew chief, he knows who is in the #33 (Harvick) and wanted to pass him but he knew he has to be careful.

Stenhouse Jr. also got penalized one position due to not maintaining  speed under caution when he faked it to pit road and the 20 sped up and passed him.

Busch lead them back to green on lap 17 and Sadler did not get a good restart at all. Busch cleared him immediately and Harvick and Stenhouse Jr. were three wide for second with Sadler.  Harvick took the position and Sadler kept the spot from Stenhouse. Sadler got passed him  (Harvick) quite easily on lap 20 while Harvick shut the door on Stenhouse Jr. Sadler and Stenhouse Jr are battling for the Championship which is why Harvick let Sadler pass him due to being teammates.

The second caution waved for debris on lap 45 with Busch still leading. Everybody decided to come in for the first stop of the evening. Logano came in 3rd saying he wanted a big swing. He got a wedge adjustment along with four tires and fuel and was gone. Harvick also came in and said at the start, he was way to tight but at the end of the run, he was very good. he got 4 tires and fuel and was off. Busch came in and said all he wanted was four tires, fuel and some tape on the grill. He got those and was off. He barley beat Harvick off pit road but got him.

Busch lead the field back to the green and stormed off into the corner and pulled away from Harvick on the back stretch. Busch is looking for his first win his own Kyle Busch Motorsports car. KBM has 1 win but that was Kurt Busch in Richmond earlier in the year. Harvick was gaining and gaining every lap and finally passed him on lap 64 to take the top spot. Sadler passed Busch six laps later to take second away.

The third caution waved on lap 83 when the #81 of Jason Bowles smacked the wall in turns 1 and 2. All of the leaders came in for their second stop of the night.  Sadler came in saying he wanted more grip so he got some new fresh Goodyear’s and fuel and was off. Harvick stopped in his pit box telling his Crew Chief, he was very happy with his car and did not want any changes. He easily came out first with a scramble behind them. Busch gained three spots on pit road while Sam Hornish Jr. missed his pit stall and will restart 21st.

Harvick led the field back to green. Busch was side by side with Harvick into the corner and took over the lead on the frontstretch. He got into 1 and 2 way too fast and slide up the turn and lost a couple spots. He got them back but it cost him a couple laps to recover.

After 42 laps under green, green flag pit stops started to occur with Cole Whitt and Danica Patrick starting them. Patrick had to come in 8 laps early due to a vibration. Whitt also had to come in, saying he was “wrecking loose” They both came in and completed there stops and were away. Logano was getting told to save fuel for 8 laps so they can get into the window that they can make it one more stop.

Green flag pit stops continued with Stenhouse Jr. driving his ford mustang into the pits. He said he has been way too loose and they need to tighten it up. They got that done along with the regular service and was gone. Logano came in saying he was good and no changes. His Crew Chief wanted him to stay out one more lap but Logano feared that he would run out. Dillon came in, after leading a lap, saying he was way too tight and need to loosens him up. They had a slow stop due to the jackman. 19.9 was his time which was about 5-6 seconds slower then a regular pit stop. Harvick retook the lead after green flag stops were completed.

The fourth caution came out when the #52 Joey Gase spun out but did a good job of not putting it into the wall and went to pit road for new tires. Everybody came in and got fuel so they can make the distance. Ryan Newman was the only one who did not get tires and went out first.

Green Flag went back to green with 42 laps to go. Denny Hamlin, Blaney and Justin Allgaier did not pit so they lead the field to the restart. Everybody was looking for positions as they went 3-4 wide into turn 1. Hamlin kept the lead but Harvick took it over with 38 laps to go with Busch following him to take second.

The fifth caution was waved with 24 laps to go when the #87 of Joe Nemechek brushed the wall and slowed to bring the yellow flag out. Nobody pitted except for the guys who did not pit the previous stop. Dillon was the only one who came in the last stop and this stop.

Green flag waved once again with 19 laps to go with Harvick and Busch battling for the lead. Hornish up for third while Harvick cleared Busch to take the top spot. Dillon got loose and and got into Annett which made Brian Scott get into the wall. Scott then bumped the wall again after damage but no caution.  While that was happening, Blaney was moving up and Sadler was moving down. Blaney, who came in to get fresh tires during the caution, was all the way up to third with 7 laps to go. Ryan got within .982 of Harvick but had to settle for second.

After the race, Dillon and Hamlin got into to coming onto pit road. Dillon tried to bump him but bumped himself into the wall. He then tried spin him out but they mostly were just bumping and banging. Dillon got out and went straight to his motor home while his crew chief went and talk to Hamlin.

“He only got his ride because of his name.  Maybe (Dillon) needs to take his little a** over there and fix the race cars if he wants to be wrecking.”

Dillon had no comment.

Sadler and Stenhouse Jr. are tied in the series standings, but Stenhouse Jr.holds the tiebreaker.