Surprising and Not Surprising: Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500
In the final race of the Eliminator Chase round, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 27th annual Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Surprising: Not only did Kevin Harvick take his No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet to Victory Lane at Phoenix but he also achieved perfection. Harvick scored a perfect 150.0 driver rating as a result of his race domination, in addition to winning his fourth of the season and his sixth at PIR.
“That’s a good day,” Harvick said simply. “I’m really proud of the guys from Stewart-Haas Racing and Rodney (Childers, crew chief) for the group of guys that they put together over the off-season, and to see this team build throughout the year has been something that for me has been just — it’s just fueled life back into me to come to the racetrack and be a part of something like this.”
Not Surprising: All of the manufacturers currently in the sport will have a shot at the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship this year. Joey Logano will be representing the Ford Camp, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman will fly the Chevrolet banner, and Denny Hamlin will carry the torch for Toyota Racing in the Homestead championship finale.
“There are a lot of emotions, believe me,” Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford, said. “My hat’s off to all the Shell/Pennzoil guys on this team. They deserve to be in the final four. We proved it throughout this whole Chase and really this whole year, and I’m glad to be sitting here and going for it and have some fun next week.”
“Just so proud of these guys, everybody, for fighting back, Luke Lambert, everybody at RCR and ECR, this Caterpillar team, they fight hard, there’s no doubt about that,” Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 31 Cat Mining Chevrolet, said after muscling his way into the Chase on the last lap. “I guess the only mistake I made all day was showing these guys what I’ll do on the last lap for when everything is on the line. We’re in this hunt. I’m proud of all my guys, and today was a lot of hard work, and in the end, the last lap was fun.”
“Coming over here and racing this year has given me new life and a new perspective,” Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet said. “It’s like a dream. You lay it all out on paper and you say, this is what we want to do and we want to race for wins and championships, and all of a sudden you’re a week away from everything that you talk about and dream about and dream up and want it to be like, and here we are.”
“We just kept working on it and getting our car better,” Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota said. “Probably our saving grace was we definitely didn’t have that strong of a car today but we had a strong car on restarts, and that kind of allowed us to be aggressive and pick up a handful of spots and then a caution would come out, we’d pit, get a little bit better tires, then the guys that stayed out would make up a few more spots, and next thing you know we ended up finishing in the top 5 somehow, some way.”
“It was a battle.”
Surprising: In spite of his disappointment in not advancing to the championship round, Jeff Gordon affirmed his support of the new Chase format, although with a bit of a caveat.
“I like it. I do,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “I’m a little concerned where it could go with — just like last week we found out on pit road where the line is drawn and when you cross over that line, and I think that it could get to that on the racetrack, as well. I don’t necessarily know that it has gotten there yet, but it’s certainly possible.”
“I think it’s incredibly intense,” Gordon continued. “This is the most interest we’ve had in this sport in a long time, so obviously it’s been good. I feel like the only disappointing thing or the only thing I don’t like right now is the fact that I’m not in it next week.”
Not Surprising: Even though Halloween has passed, Carl Edwards was still looking for some tricks this weekend in order to pull of his dream of advancing to race for the championship. It was not meant to be, however, as the driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford finished 15th.
“Yeah, we tried every trick that we could,” Edwards said. “We just didn’t have a lot of speed all weekend. The car actually drove pretty decently at the end. These guys dug deep and worked hard. I’ve never been a part of something like this where everybody just doesn’t give up. This means the world.”
Surprising: After so many championship runs, it was surprising to see six-time champ Jimmie Johnson have such a bad day that all he was thinking about was getting home safely.
“The root of our biggest problem was the fact that the alternator quit working and we had to keep changing batteries on pit road each caution,” the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevrolet, said. “Then when I would go back out on the race track I would need to run with my fans off. I didn’t have my brake fans on and was racing hard to try to get a decent finish and evidently just got things too hot and the brakes failed.”
“I felt a rotor explode on the front straightaway,” Johnson continued. “Luckily it did it there so I had time to throw it in third gear, slow it down some, stay wide into turn one and try not to have a bad angle of the impact of the wall because I was going to hit for sure. So, it was just bad day that kept getting worse. I hope to make it home safe and outside of that, we will see you in Homestead.”
Not Surprising: While others were competing for championship rites, other drivers were running races with totally different agendas, including just finishing on the lead lap.
“We were on the lead lap, which has been a struggle here lately,” Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet, said after finishing 22nd. “The GoDaddy car was good early on, but I think the track got tight later on. We finished decent, so I’ll take it. It’s always important to run well here because of GoDaddy so I’ll take it.”
Surprising: With an investigation of domestic violence facing the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet off track, it was surprising that Kurt Busch was able to pull off a seventh place finish at Phoenix, no doubt in part due to his owner’s confidence in him.
“He’ll be in the car until someone else pulls him out,” Gene Haas, team owner, said. “I’m not pulling him out. I think we’re just going to let the police department do their job and try not to say anything that would compromise that. We want an unbiased investigation and we’ll see how it all plays out.”
Not Surprising: In spite of being bumped out of the way by Chaser Ryan Newman on the last lap, Kyle Larson continued his winning ways as rookie of the race. The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet finished 13th, with the next highest rookie finisher, Michael Annett, in the 26th position.
Larson’s usual rookie nemesis Austin Dillon finished 38th after having a tire go down, causing a close encounter with the wall.
Surprising: After several tough race weekends and in his next to the last NASCAR race of his career, Marcos Ambrose finished strong. In fact he finished top-10 for his Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 Stanley Tools Ford team.
“The track changed a lot, but Drew did a great job of making adjustments,” Ambrose said. “We really made the car a lot better all race. It was super-tight in the middle, but we made the right calls. It’s nice to get a good finish. The last few weeks have been a struggle and it’s nice to get back on track. It was a good day for our STANLEY team.”
Not Surprising: Even those drivers not involved in the Chase competition are looking forward to the last race at Homestead, especially after testing there.
“We’re looking forward to the race,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr. said. “We feel like we had a good car there last year and we just wanted to learn a few more things.”
“We’re looking forward to the race.”
Harvick Dominates Phoenix- Gets Final Spot in Championship Race
Kevin Harvick continued his mastery of the Phoenix International Raceway today, winning the Quicken Loans 500 for Heroes. The win also secured him a spot for the championship race next Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was the only way Harvick could have made the finale since he was tied in points with the runner up in the race, Jeff Gordon. Gordon was tied for fourth in points with Harvick at the end of the day but the win trumps the points thereby eliminating Gordon from the finale.
The final four participants are Harvick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman.
Harvick was quick all weekend leading two of the three practice sessions (he was second fastest during the happy hour practice) and started third. Harvick led 264 of the scheduled 312 laps.
“I guess that is what it feels like to hit a walk off in extra innings there,” Harvick said post race. “This thing both races here has just been bad to the bone. Everybody on our Budweiser team has done a great job and here we come Homestead.”
“I could tell that we were probably going to have to win,” he said, “because everybody was running up in the front of the pack that we were racing against. That was our goal coming in here and that’s really the goal every time you come to Phoenix. This place has just been phenomenal for me personally and for this team this year. To do that in front of all your almost hometown fans and all these people who have been rooting for me since the mid-‘90’s is pretty unbelievable. Man, I think this says a lot about our team. I think we have been through a lot this year. They put our backs against the wall; we put it in Victory Lane and get to go on.”
The final chase position was not determined until the last turn of the last lap as Ryan Newman made contact with Kyle Larson, sending him up the track thereby giving him the position and the 1 point necessary to beat Gordon.
Newman said after the race, “I did what I had to do as clean as I could do it. I’m not the kind of guy to turn somebody, so I just drifted as much as I could to get in there.” He also indicated that he remembered when Larson moved him for a win. “But in the end we fought back hard,” he said. “Did what we had to as clean as I possibly could. I wasn’t proud of it, but I will do what I got to, to make it to this next round. That little boy (Kyle Larson) has got a lot of things coming in this sport. He used me up like that at Eldora in a truck a couple of years ago. From my standpoint I call it even, but I think if he was in my position he would have probably done the same thing.”
Jeff Gordon said, “It’s disappointing. Kevin Harvick was in another zip code. I’m not going to wreck a guy that’s racing me clean all year long just to make it into the Chase. That’s not what it’s all about for me. You’re not going to go win the championship next week by doing that. So, it’s just unfortunate. It’s just unfortunate. We did everything so good this year. That one race, that one race is going to stick with me for a little while. I got over it this week, knowing that we could come here and compete like this. Now it makes it sting that much more. But, I couldn’t be more proud of what this team did this year. What a great season and great race cars. That’s what I’m most disappointed in. I don’t think anybody deserves to be Homestead more than this No. 24 team because of the effort that they put in and the performances that we’ve had. But, you know what? You’ve got to score the points or win the races to get in there and we didn’t do that. So now we’ll go to Homestead and battle hard to try to win that race.”
Finale participants Joey Logano and pole sitter Denny Hamlin had rough days but managed finishes that allowed them to make the championship race. Denny Hamlin suffered from a flat tire and restarted 37th and eventually went a lap down but he managed to claw his way back through traffic to finish fifth. Logano was penalized for taking equipment from his pit stall when the gas can did not fully detach and the can slid just inches outside his pit stall. Eventually Logano went a lap down to the leader Harvick, not once, but twice. Logano was clearly frustrated when a caution came out just as Harvick put Jamie McMurray a lap down thereby giving McMurray the “lucky dog” lap back. Logano finished 6th.
Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, finished third and forth respectively and failed to make the finale as well. Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top ten.
Unofficial Results
- Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet,
- Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet,
- Matt Kenseth, Toyota,
- Brad Keselowski, Ford,
- Denny Hamlin, Toyota,
- Joey Logano, Ford,
- Kurt Busch, Chevrolet,
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet,
- Greg Biffle, Ford
- Marcos Ambrose, Ford,
- Ryan Newman, Chevrolet,
- Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet,
- Kyle Larson, Chevrolet,
- Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet,
- Carl Edwards, Ford, .
- AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet,
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford,.
- Aric Almirola, Ford,
- Brian Vickers, Toyota,
- Tony Stewart, Chevrolet,
- Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet,
- Danica Patrick, Chevrolet
- Paul Menard, Chevrolet
- David Gilliland, Ford.
- David Ragan, Ford,.
- Michael Annett, Chevrolet
- Ty Dillon, Chevrolet.
- Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet,
- Landon Cassill, Chevrolet
- J.J. Yeley, Toyota,
- Michael McDowell, Ford,
- Alex Bowman, Toyota,
- Joey Gase, Ford,
- Kyle Busch, Toyota,
- Casey Mears, Chevrolet
- Mike Wallace, Toyota,
- Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet.
- Austin Dillon, Chevrolet
- Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet.
- Clint Bowyer, Toyota
- Josh Wise, Chevrolet
- Cole Whitt, Toyota
- Mike Bliss, Chevrolet,
Chase Elliott Becomes Youngest NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion
It’s just a peachy situation for the entire Elliott family, right?
On Saturday afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway, Chase Elliott started 10th and kept himself solidly in the top-10 throughout the day. He would fall back just outside of the top-10 when he took two left side tires, but would make his way back up through the field after a four-tire change. When the checkered flags were flown, he would be in the fifth spot, but more importantly, ahead of his teammate Regan Smith.
As a result of holding a 52 point lead heading into next weekend’s final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Elliott clinched the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship.
“Just honestly disbelief,” Elliott commented. “I’ve never been apart of anything like this, and just to have the opportunity to work these guys has been a blessing to just be here. I don’t know what to think. I don’t even know how to feel right now. I didn’t know if I was allowed to do a burnout, but I did one anyone. This is pretty cool. I really appreciate Regan and the way he raced me all year.”
Elliott becomes the first rookie to a win championship, as well as the youngest champion at the age of 18 years, 11 months and 18 days. His season has featured three victories, 16 top-fives and 26 top-10s in the 32 races.
“I’m so in disbelief right now that I don’t know what to feel,” Elliott continued. “It’s a true blessing to be here. I really can’t believe it. This is really a testament to everybody that works on this car every week. They always make me a look a heck of a lot better than I am.”
With his father Bill already having won a championship, the Elliott family becomes the fifth father-son duo to be champions.
“A year ago at this time, we had nothing. Everything just came together with NAPA and JRM,” Bill Elliott said. “To have anything, it was a miracle. Then to come into this year and have the year that he has had, it is just unbelievable. I just hope that he keeps his head on straight. He is really good behind the wheel, and knows what he needs from the car. That’s 90 percent of the battle. If he keeps that, he’s going to be great.”
“Unbelievable. I don’t know what to say,” Chase’s mom Cindy commented. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts –everyone out there. I asked Bill this morning when we got up, I asked him if he imagined that we’d be going to the race track and see our son with a NASCAR championship. Its so great to see his dreams come true.”
The young man is already signed to a developmental contract with Hendrick Motorsports that will see him one day drive in the Sprint Cup Series for Rick Hendrick.
“At this time a year ago, we were trying to figure out what to do – thankfully NAPA came along,” Hendrick said. “Man, what a great young man and a racer that he is.”
Hendrick was asked whether the championship would change plans for Elliott in staying in Nationwide for another year or moving up to Sprint Cup next year. “I think we got another year here so we’ll see,” Hendrick commented.
