Kevin Harvick Survives Two Day Pocono Truck Marathon for First Season Win
In a rain-delayed race at Pocono Raceway, lasting from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning, one driver, Kevin Harvick, survived the marathon to take the checkered flag. This is Harvick’s first victory in the Truck Series in 2011.
[media-credit name=”Kirk Schroll” align=”alignright” width=”207″]
[/media-credit]The driver of the No. 2 Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Chevrolet, for team owner and wife DeLana Harvick, won the 2nd Annual Good Sam RV Emergency Road Service 125, securing his 10th victory in 110 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.
“You just hope that the truck didn’t screw itself up overnight,” Harvick said of the marathon race event. “Luckily it was fast and we were able to manage our fuel.
“It didn’t detune itself overnight.”
“Harvick admitted that this particular race truck has been fast for the last several weeks. He also acknowledged that he had to go into fuel conservation mode for the final green, white, checkered finish.
“They’ve been working hard on a lot of things to make the truck better,” Harvick said of his team. “You just have to not make mistakes.”
“They told me we were good on fuel and I knew I had saved at least a couple laps of gas,” Harvick continued. “All in all I think the fuel mileage thing went out the window with all the cautions.”
“And then it was all about track position, which was important.”
When asked what difference the marathon, two-day race meant to Harvick, it apparently at least meant him getting out of bed a bit earlier than normal on a Cup race day.
“I feel like I’m a lot more awake than I would have been,” Harvick said with a laugh. “It just never hurts to get out and get in the rhythm.”
“You just have to change your suit and go back after it this afternoon.”
With his Pocono Truck win, Harvick also secured his own place in history by tying Bobby Hamilton for 12th on the all-time Series wins list.
Bruce Cook, Harvick’s crew chief, echoed his driver’s assessment of the race truck and the fuel situation. But he also admitted that he had little to no sleep because of the rain delay from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning.
“Our truck was really good,” Cook said. “Having the rain basically meant not sleeping overnight.”
“We knew we were close right off the bat,” Cook said of the fuel mileage challenges. “But with the caution coming out, we were OK on fuel.”
“Kevin took over conserving but there were no major concerns,” Cook continued. “The race speaks for itself.”
Kyle Busch finished in the runner up position. The driver of the No. 18 CocoaVia.com Toyota scored his first top-10 finish at a track that he has always found a bit tricky.
This was Busch’s ninth top-10 finish in 2011.
“It certainly was a good run for us, yesterday and today,” Busch said. “We unloaded here Friday and felt we were pretty decent off the truck but we were definitely off the 2 truck. He was stellar.”
“We just tried to minimize our losses and come out of here with the best finish we could,” Busch continued. “A few of those cautions helped us and fortunately that moved us back up to second.”
“It was fun racing the trucks here and it was certainly entertaining.”
Young up and coming driver James Buescher, behind the wheel of the No. 31 Wolfpack Rentals Chevrolet came in third, posting his first top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway.
“It was definitely a good day for us,” Buescher said. “We unloaded really fast off the truck yesterday or two days ago, whenever we practiced.”
“We worked hard to find a good balance,” Buescher continued. “It’s been a good race yesterday and today.”
“It was a good day for us and we’re on a roll.”
Joey Coulter, another up and coming driver, was the highest finishing rookie. The driver of the No. 22 Darrell Gwynn Foundation/RCR Graphics Center Chevrolet finished sixth.
“It went well,” Coulter said. “It was a drag race until the end.”
“It was pretty wild,” Coulter continued. “It was probably the most fun race I’ve been in.”
Johnny Sauter, behind the wheel of the No. 13 SafeAuto/Carrier/Curb Records Chevrolet, and Austin Dillon, driving the No. 3 Bass Pro Shop[s/Tracker Boats Chevrolet, rounded out the top five.
Unfortunately, point leader Sauter failed post race inspection with his right rear exceeding the height regulation. NASCAR advised to expect penalties on Tuesday of next week.
| Unofficial Race Results | |||||
| Good Sam RV ER Service 125, Pocono Raceway | |||||
| http://www.speedwaymedia.com/truckseries/race.php?race=14 | |||||
| ============================================== | |||||
| Pos. | St. | No. | Driver | Make | Points |
| ============================================== | |||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 0 |
| 3 | 6 | 31 | James Buescher | Chevrolet | 41 |
| 4 | 16 | 13 | Johnny Sauter | Chevrolet | 40 |
| 5 | 8 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 39 |
| 6 | 12 | 22 | Joey Coulter * | Chevrolet | 38 |
| 7 | 5 | 32 | Mark Martin | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 8 | 13 | 88 | Matt Crafton | Chevrolet | 36 |
| 9 | 7 | 33 | Ron Hornaday | Chevrolet | 35 |
| 10 | 11 | 17 | Timothy Peters | Toyota | 34 |
| 11 | 19 | 9 | Max Papis | Toyota | 33 |
| 12 | 10 | 5 | Todd Bodine | Toyota | 32 |
| 13 | 4 | 29 | Parker Kligerman * | Dodge | 32 |
| 14 | 3 | 8 | Nelson Piquet Jr. * | Chevrolet | 30 |
| 15 | 18 | 60 | Cole Whitt * | Chevrolet | 29 |
| 16 | 21 | 6 | Justin Lofton | Toyota | 28 |
| 17 | 20 | 23 | Jason White | Chevrolet | 27 |
| 18 | 17 | 81 | David Starr | Toyota | 26 |
| 19 | 14 | 7 | Miguel Paludo * | Toyota | 25 |
| 20 | 15 | 4 | Ricky Carmichael | Chevrolet | 24 |
| 21 | 23 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Chevrolet | 23 |
| 22 | 9 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | Toyota | 22 |
| 23 | 25 | 28 | Wes Burton | Chevrolet | 21 |
| 24 | 28 | 57 | Norm Benning | Chevrolet | 20 |
| 25 | 31 | 66 | Peyton Sellers | Chevrolet | 19 |
| 26 | 22 | 7 | Chad McCumbee | Toyota | 18 |
| 27 | 26 | 84 | Chris Fontaine | Chevrolet | 17 |
| 28 | 27 | 138 | Mike Garvey | Chevrolet | 16 |
| 29 | 24 | 93 | Shane Sieg | Chevrolet | 15 |
| 30 | 29 | 175 | James Hylton | Chevrolet | 0 |
| 31 | 30 | 189 | Chris Lafferty | Chevrolet | 0 |
Teammates Having at It: Edwards and Stenhouse Jr. Feud to a Fantastic Finish
Both say they’re going to stand their ground, one says the other is too aggressive. No, it isn’t two rival drivers trading barbs. It’s Roush- Fenway Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Saturday night in Iowa it was Stenhouse who got the best of Edwards in a fantastic finish that had both drivers wrecking across the finish line when Stenhouse blew his engine coming to the checkered flag and Edwards slammed into the back of him sending them both spinning across the line.
[media-credit name=”Rusty Jarrett, CIA Stock Photos” align=”alignright” width=”281″]
[/media-credit]A fitting end to a race where team owner Jack Roush said he saw plenty of opportunities for things to go horribly wrong.
“Happily the tempers didn’t rise above the boiling point and everything was OK,” said Roush. “Carl is exactly where he should be as an elderly statesmen right now in this business and Ricky’s where he should be as a young guy with a lot of enthusiasm, motivation and anxious to make a name for himself.”
Roush continued saying, “Ricky races pretty hard and Carl I’m sure sometimes wishes Ricky wouldn’t race him so hard. In five years Ricky will be in the same place Carl is today and there will be somebody else pushing him harder than he wants to be pushed.”
Early in the event while racing for the lead the two traded paint as Edwards got into Stenhouse Jr. The young driver came over the radio and told his team that Edwards was “done when I get to him.” Cooler heads eventually prevailed, Edwards said they were even but the RFR competitiveness wasn’t done.
With less than 25 laps to go the two blew by leader Elliott Sadler and went after each other again. Stenhouse held onto the lead and went on to win for the second time in his career. He also sweeps the Iowa events for 2011.
“We both race really hard, doesn’t matter who it is,” said Stenhouse about his teammate. “At the same token we probably raced a little too hard. I felt like he ran us up the race track in turn four and got into us and then after that I was going to drive as hard as I could to get back by him and that’s why I didn’t cut him any slack passing him for the lead.”
After finishing second to Edwards on a few different occasions already this season and letting a win get away at Lucas Oil Raceway last weekend after dominating, Stenhouse wasn’t about to let it happen again. According to him, Edwards has won his fair share of races and he [Stenhouse] wants to win a little more right now.
It won’t come easy when Edwards is in the field; the two teammates are not seeing eye-to-eye. They also had contact last weekend, which they had to end up talking about. This week they’ll do the same.
“Ricky and I are fine,” said Edwards. “Jack came over said this is exactly what’s supposed to be happening. You’re supposed to have a young guy that’s fast, that’s frustrating everyone because he’s too aggressive. That’s all that’s going on with Ricky, he’s really, really fast.”
Edwards says Stenhouse got a little excited on Saturday and that he’s being over aggressive. Stenhouse admits that he gets frustrated but says it’s because he wants to win and knows his team is capable.
While sometimes they have to rein him in during parts of the race, it hasn’t been too detrimental to the No. 6 team’s season. They currently lead the points with two win – more than any other NNS driver competing for the championship – and the most top fives of any other driver. Teammate or not, Stenhouse isn’t going to back down.
“This is a business where you have to race people the way they race you and you have to stand your ground,” said Edwards. “Whether it’s your teammate or not, sometimes it’s not all roses.”
It doesn’t have to be roses if it results in more finishes like Saturday night. It was almost like they didn’t even realize they had two wrecked racecars in their one-two finish.
