Kevin Harvick cruises to victory at the Brickyard 400
Kevin Harvick was untouchable at Indianapolis on Sunday.
Harvick was dominant at Indy as he drove away over the final nine laps for a five-second victory and his second Brickyard 400 win of his career.
Harvick led 118 of the race’s 160 laps after starting on the pole. He had a ridiculously awesome car that couldn’t get passed. Seriously. There were no passes for the lead outside of the first lap after restarts or during pit cycles and Harvick’s car was only passed on track for the lead once. That came when Ryan Blaney got him on the first lap following a third-stage restart.
But Harvick had the faster car and that proved itself over the rest of the race.
Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman got the final two playoff spots in the 16-driver playoff field. Newman entered the race tied with Daniel Suarez for the final spot in the playoffs but finished eighth as Suarez was 11th.
Bowyer and Newman making the playoffs means Jimmie Johnson will miss the playoffs for the first time since the format was introduced in 2004. Johnson crashed out of the race when he went three-wide underneath teammate William Byron at the beginning of the race’s final stage.
Harvick’s win is his third of the 2019 season and positions him to be fourth when the playoffs begin next week at Las Vegas.
Despite the lack of passing at the front of the field, Sunday’s race was oddly intriguing. Brad Keselowski and Erik Jones had a huge crash that resulted in Keselowski’s car being lodged in a tire barrier.
good lord pic.twitter.com/5No4AQxel4
— Nick Bromberg (@NickBromberg) September 8, 2019
Kyle Busch’s engine exploded and Martin Truex Jr. suffered significant damage in a first stage pit road chain-reaction crash. The lack of passing was awful. But the race was saved by good cars having bad or eventful days.
Playoff standings
1. Kyle Busch, 2,045 points
2. Denny Hamlin, 2,030
3. Martin Truex Jr., 2.029
4. Kevin Harvick, 2,028
5. Joey Logano, 2,028
6. Brad Keselowski, 2,024
7. Chase Elliott, 2,018
8. Kurt Busch, 2,011
9. Alex Bowman, 2,005
10. Erik Jones 2,005
11. Kyle Larson, 2,005
12. Ryan Blaney, 2,004
13. William Byron, 2,001
14. Aric Almirola, 2,001
15. Clint Bowyer, 2,000
16. Ryan Newman, 2,000
Race results
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Joey Logano
3. Bubba Wallace
4. William Byron
5. Clint Bowyer
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Ryan Newman
9. Chase Elliott
10. Paul Menard
11. Daniel Suarez
12. Austin Dillon
13. Ty Dillon
14. Aric Almirola
15. Chris Buescher
16. Ryan Preece
17. Michael McDowell
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. Corey LaJoie
20. David Ragan
21. Alex Bowman
22. Ross Chastain
23. Reed Sorenson
24. Ryan Sieg
25. BJ McLeod
26. JJ Yeley
27. Martin Truex Jr.
28. Garrett Smithley
29. Josh Bilicki
30. Kurt Busch
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
32. Matt Tifft
33. Kyle Larson
34. Daniel Hemric
35. Jimmie Johnson
36. Parker Kligerman
37. Kyle Busch
38. Brad Keselowski
39. Erik Jones
40. Landon Cassill
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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