Chasing the Chase – Week 9: Keselowski takes points lead; Johnson blows and Gordon has had enough

[media-credit name=”Simon Scoggins” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Kevin Harvick snapped a 44-race losing streak on Sunday in the AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. This was Harvick’s first win of the season and the 19th of his career.

“Gil did a great job of keeping us in the track position game and made our car better all day, and the further we got towards the front, the better the car handled. They made good adjustments, and there at the end we had a couple restarts and Kyle chose the bottom and we were able to drive around the topside of him and then get control of the race really.” Harvick said.

It was also rumored that Harvick will be leaving Richard Childress Racing to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

“We have 2012, we have 2013, and regardless of what happens on a business side of things, Richard Childress and myself will always be friends, good or bad, and may agree to disagree.” Harvick said.

Besides the race winner, the AdvoCare 500 came down to two “wow” moments. One with Jimmie Johnson and the other with Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer.

Brad Keselowski finished 6th and Johnson finished 32nd after blowing a right front tire and hit the outside wall. Johnson had to take the car to the garage for repairs, resulting in Keselowski holding a 20 point lead in the series standings heading into the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“My initial thought was that I heard he blew a right-front tire and I was thinking what conspiracy theorists are going to come up with a theory on this one and then you realize that the same thing could happen to you.” Keselowski said. “Obviously there are no guarantees. We could go to Homestead and have the same problem and Jimmie, you know, takes the point lead back over. No guarantees but very proud to have that points lead heading into next week.”

Keselowski clinches his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with a finish of 15th or better; or 16th and at least one lap led; or 17th and the most laps led, even if Johnson wins and leads the most laps.

Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer made slight contact with less than 5 laps to go. Gordon has a possible left rear going down and got into the wall. Gordon waited for bowyer to come back around and intentionally wrecked Bowyer.

The contact resulted in a 15 minute red flag for clean up on the track and a all out brawl in the garage between No.15 and the No.24 crew members.

“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.” Gordon said.

Bowyer tired to join in after exiting his car, but he was too late at that point. Both drivers and their crew chiefs were called to the NASCAR hauler.

“It’s pretty embarrassing. For a four-time champion, and what I consider one of the best this sport’s ever seen to act like this is pretty ridiculous.” Bowyer said.

Bowyer finished 28 and Gordon finished 30th.

Gordon was fined $100,000, docked 25 championship driver points and put on probation until Dec. 31st along with crew chief Alan Gustafson for “at all events, crew chief assumes responsibility of his driver, car owner and team member”. Rick Hendrick, owner of the No. 24, was docked 25 owner points. Brian Pattie, crew chief of the No. 15, was fined $25,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31st for the same reason as Gustafson.

Denny Hamlin finished 2nd, Kasey Kahne 4th, Greg Biffle 7th, Matt Kenseth 14th, Tony Stewart 19th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 21st, Martin Truex Jr. finished 43rd after having engine issues from the start of the race.

Official Chase Standings/Stats
After race 9 of 10
AdvoCare 500, Phoenix Int’l Raceway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php

*Note: These stats consist of only the final 10 chase races.