The penultimate race of the season ended under a red flag.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his third win this season and his 26th career victory in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet after the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 race. The event was red-flagged early after completing 219 of the scheduled 312 laps at Phoenix International Raceway.
Kevin Harvick finished second in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after leading 143 of the 220 laps run. Joey Logano rounds out the podium in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Kyle Busch led one lap and finished fourth in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet after leading 44 laps.
Jeff Gordon finished sixth followed by Kurt Busch in seventh. Denny Hamlin was eighth as Brad Keselowski finished in ninth place. Aric Almirola rounds out the top-10.
Joining Gordon in Miami for the championship race will be Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.
Gordon is eagerly anticipating his final race at Homestead, and said, “We were not sure how we were going to perform today, but it actually went a little bit better than we anticipated. So I think that was encouraging just as a team and the way we analyzed everything. We’ll go do the same thing next week. But this is a great group to be a part of, and we’re excited about the opportunity to go down there. Certainly for me, my final race. I can’t think of anything sweeter than just having that opportunity to go down there and battle for the championship and seeing what happens.”
Harvick, who was going for a fifth straight win at Phoenix was disappointed in his runner-up finish but upbeat about his season as a whole.
“Yeah,” he said, “it’s kind of bittersweet. The car just really performed well today and we were able to lead a lot of laps and just really proud of the guys for the decisions that they made overnight to get that last little bit out of the car today and how it performed was really good. Just caution came out at the wrong time, and we didn’t get to make up the ground on the racetrack under green, where Dale was pitted and the way that they came out of the pits just didn’t time out well. But still proud of our group, and sometimes you win some of those things, sometimes you don’t, but in the end the big picture is what it’s all about.”
Kyle Busch spoke about the ups and downs of his season, stating, “I feel like we’ve done some good things through this Chase. We’ve run up front, we’ve run strong. We also had a couple mishaps, but fortunately, they weren’t big enough that they eliminated us. We were able to persevere through those things. Now going to Homestead for the first time with the opportunity to win a championship is really awesome. It’s very good for my team. Adam Stevens and these guys, they worked hard and they persevered all through the beginning part of the season when I was gone working with David Ragan and Erik Jones and Matt Crafton and those guys that drove my race car. But once I was able to return, it felt pretty good to get back in the car and have my team guys motivated and ready to have me back, and we’ve really excelled since then.”
Martin Truex Jr. expressed how grateful he was to fulfill a lifelong dream, saying, “It’s definitely obviously an exciting day for everybody at Furniture Row Racing and me and just super proud of my team for the season we’ve been able to put together, and I feel like we’ve overcome a lot of obstacles. We have kind of overcome a lot of odds, and just proud to be part of this group and looking forward to having the opportunity to do something that we’ve all dreamed about our whole lives next weekend.”
Carl Edwards, Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Logano failed to advance to the Championship Round.
In the end, 14 cars finish on the lead lap, only two cautions slowed the pace of the race and there were eight lead changes among seven different drivers.
