Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Harvick’

For the second straight time Kevin Harvick won in the Truck series Saturday, dominating the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway. He led 187 of the 250 laps.

Ron Hornaday Jr. survived a late-race altercation – and a post-race altercation – with Johnny Sauter to finish second and give Kevin Harvick Inc. a sweep of the first two spots. Brian Ickler, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports, took third.

Hornaday sent Sauter into a spin as they battled for position 27 laps from the finish, and Sauter marched with intensity to confront Hornaday on pit road after the race, shoving a couple of crewmen who attempted to intervene.

Sauter yelled at Hornaday for about a minute as NASCAR officials and crewmen watched.

Also upset with Hornaday was Mike Skinner, whose truck was damaged when he slammed into the sliding Sauter. Skinner blamed Hornaday for the crash.

“I hate to see that,” Hornaday said of Sauter’s slide. “Johnny’s all mad, but that’s what short track racing is all about. He came down on me and I got into him.”

  

Asked if he planned to talk to Sauter later, Hornaday said, “There’s no talking to Johnny.”

Sauter would not discuss the incident after the race.

Timothy Peters, who finished fourth, led 39 laps in the middle of the race but couldn’t hold off Harvick.

“I pushed him as hard as I could to make him run hard,” Harvick said. “His truck would fall off after 15 to 20 laps. He started to get loose, and I got underneath him.”

It was a typical hard-knuckles afternoon of racing at Martinsville, with numerous trucks spinning out and the caution flag flying 11 times for 66 laps.

Narain Karthikeyan, a driver from India who formerly raced in Formula One, had an impressive debut in his first NASCAR major-series race, finishing 13th on the lead lap.

Mike Hembree at Speed Tv contributed to this report

RESULTS: KROGER 250- MARTINSVILLE

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Kurt winds back to back spring races at Atlanta winning  the Kobalt Tools 500 with a dominate car all day.

The victory was great for Busch and new crew, chief Steve Addington, who used to be crew chief for Kurts younger brother Kyle Busch last season. It was a bitter sweet victory, all people are going to be talking about and remember is the late race incident between known rivals,  Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.

Only two laps remaining Edwards clearly turned Keselowski on purpose, sending him upside down in the frontstretch. Keselowski’s car spun around backwards sending his car airborne into the fronstretch wall upside down. A wreck that should never had happened, this isn’t short track racing were the speeds aren’t so high. Edwards was black flag parked for the rest of the race and had to go to the NASCAR trailer immediately after climbing out of his car.

Fortunately Keselowski was not injured in the incident, but clearly and understandably upset. Edwards told reporters he intentional spun Keselowski but didn’t intend for it to go that bad.

  

Earlier in the race Edwards and Keselowski got together entering turn one were Edwards said Keselowski never gives him room. After Edwards watched the replay, he made it sound that Keselowski getting into him wasn’t as blatant as he initially thought it was.

With the late race incident, it sent the race into overtime. Taking two green white checkered restarts to finish the race.

Kurt Busch got a great restart on the first green white checkered attempt, but was slowed by another caution on the first lap with a multi car accidents going into turn three. Jamie McMurry went into turn three hard getting loose and creating a Hugh pile up.

On the second restart, Busch got a great jump. This time, the they were able to  completed two laps safely, this is the first win for Busch and his Penske team.

“I’m just so happy to bring this car home to victory lane,” Busch said. “Even with all the restarts at the end, I felt like we had the car to beat.”

Busch led 129 of the race’s 341 laps. Only Kahne at 144 led more

Kevin Harvick, who finished ninth, kept the point lead. Kenseth is second, Greg Biffle third, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Clint Bowyer fifth.

Some of the top teams had some serious tire issues. A lot of blown out tires and punctures during the race.

Caution No. 8 came out when Denny Hamlin’s left-front tire blew, forcing the field to slow at lap 288. A couple of laps after the restart, the caution came out again,  the cars of Elliott Sadler and Max Papis made contact.

Johnson pitted during that caution so that his team could repair damage Johnson’s car received when he and Ryan Newman bumped.

On lap 158 the right front tire blew on Joey  car , causing significant damage to the front of the Logano’s Toyota and bringing out the day’s sixth caution.

Lap 114 Mark Martin slid along the frontstretch when his car lost its left rear tire. Martin kept the car off the wall, but his Chevrolet later was damaged severely in the caution that resulted from the first green white checkered attempt.

Martin did not finish and ended up 33rd.

The Edwards Keselowski first incident caused the first multi-car caution flag of the day on lap 40.

A blown tire sent David Ragan into the third-turn wall on lap 35, causing the second caution of the race. The event had barely started when a tire problem sent Robby Gordon into the first-turn wall.

RESULTS: KOBALT TOOL 500

Speed tv contributed to this report

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Kevin Harvick was untouchable in Saturday’s E-Z-Go 200, winning his third straight time in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series, driving his No. 2 Chevrolet for the first time this weekend at Atlanta.

Harvick led 100 of 130 laps in the second race of the Camping World Truck season and drove off fom Kyle Busch at the end, having a 1.3 second lead taking the win over Busch. They both were driving their own Trucks.

Harvick led the final 56 laps.

“I never let off over I don’t know how many laps (to the finish),” Harvick said. “The only chance they had was on the restarts. It was a lot of fun. We’ll keep at it.”

Harvick’s truck handled great all day and the team only had to make one minor tire-pressure change all day.

Harvick has won in all three major NASCAR series at Atlanta and at Phoenix International Raceway.

  

Following Busch at the finish were Aric Almirola, Steve Wallace in his Truck debut and Todd Bodine rouding out the top five.

Rookie Austin Dillon, running the No. 3 truck for Richard Childress Racing, finished 10th. The finish was a boost for Dillon, who crashed at the start of the Truck opener at Daytona International Speedway last month. “It was a long wait to get back in it again,” Dillon said. “I’ve been thinking all this time about what I could have done differently at Daytona.”

Pole winner Ron Hornaday crashed out after 22 laps his tire got cut after he and Busch got together earlier in the race in a three wide battle with Matt Crafton. Crafton was involved in three cautions and finished 27th.

Busch was in the middle of the accident that booted Hornaday from the competition.

“We went three wide into there, and when I got down there I don’t know if Crafton went up or the 33 (Hornaday) came down, but I got squeezed in the middle,”

Busch said. The contact caused minor right-front damage to Busch’s truck.
Busch was much more concerned with an incident that involved Boris Said in the day’s final Sprint Cup practice.

“He shouldn’t even be on the track,” Busch said of Said. “He bought his way into points and a ride. He was running in the middle of the track when he should have been on the outside.”

LINK > RACE RESULTS: Atlanta 200 – ATLANTA

Author:
Mike Hembree from Seed TV contributed to this report

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The Camping World Truck Series returns after a two week vacation from racing. There back to Georgia for the running of the Atlanta 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

And, as always, it ought to be a flat-out hard racing at the 1.54-mile AMS oval, one of the fastest tracks on the circuit.

Kyle Busch, one of the race favorites has four victories in just five NCWTS starts here. At the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, both Busch and teammate Tayler Malsam were caught in crashes not of their own making.

“Our short-term goals for this year are to just go out and try to win a race. I want to win a race, of course, but to go out and win multiple races would be a success,” said Kyle Busch, who is in his first year of NASCAR team ownership. “To win a race for Brian Ickler and to win a race for Tayler Malsam – we at least need three wins out of the shop this year, one for all three drivers – in order for it to be a success, in my book.”

Ron Hornaday Jr is another to contender to win at Atlanta he is a four-time and defending Truck Series champion . Out of the Kevin Harvick Inc. stables. Hornaday got a new crew chief this year in Dave Fuge, who lasted just one race before replaced by Doug George.

  

In nine races at AMS, Hornaday has one victory, four top-five and five top-10 finishes, and he and his No. 33 Longhorn Chevrolet likely will be strong on Saturday.

Steve Wallace, who will make his Truck Series debut Saturday. Will be driving for Billy Ballew Motorsports in the No.15 Red Top Auto Auction Toyota.

Wallace, who nornaly drives in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, said he will be ready to get it on in Hot ‘Lanta.

“This is going to be awesome,” said Wallace. “I’m really excited about getting behind the wheel of a truck. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I can’t think of a better way to start things off than driving for Billy . His teams run so well at Atlanta, which gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend.”

Geoff Bodine, 60, is on the entry list to drive the No. 95 Team Gill Racing truck, which was driven by Johnny Benson in the season-opening race last month at Daytona.

Bodine helped make U.S. history last weekend at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. His Bo-Dyn four-man bobsled crew, led by driver Steve Holcomb, won America’s first gold medal in that competition since 1948.

Team owner Ballew is a Georgia native, hailing from Blairsville, and the team has enjoyed tremendous success at AMS, where it has three Truck Series race victories.

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Jimmie Johnson has done it again. He played possum most of the day and then turned on the afterburner to pass teammate Jeff Gordon with just 16 laps to go and win the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Gordon led more than 210 laps of the 267-lap event before losing the lead to Johnson, who seems hellbent to win his fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship before Gordon does.

Johnson won last week at Auto Club Speedway and told members of the media leading up to Sunday’s race he could care less about the people who think he’s tainting NASCAR racing with his dominance. “You compete to win. I’m not gonna apologize for winning,” he said.

  

While Johnson drove away for Sunday’s victory, Kevin Harvick also passed Gordon for the runnerup spot. Gordon finished third ahead of fourth-place Mark Martin. And Matt Kenseth edged Joey Logano for fifth. Logano was sixth, a very impressive finish for the young driver. Tony Stewart was seventh, Clint Bowyer eighth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Greg Biffle 10th.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., continued his struggle to compete with the frontrunners by finishing 16th.

Speed TV contributed to this report

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