B4
THE BULLETIN• MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014
MOTOR SPORTS: NASCAR
WI By John Marshall
was third and Penske Racing teammate Joey Logano fourth. AVONDALE, Ariz. — KevJeff Gordon rounded out the in Harvick had a nice send-off top five on a warm and partly with Richard Childress Rac- doudy day after downpours ing, winning his penultimate wiped out the final 32 laps of The Associated Press
race with the team at Phoenix International Raceway. Back at Phoenix four months
IX Keselowski to pull up behind Harvick. He dropped back a couple times and fought back to get Harvick within his sights again, but didn't have enough
Kevin Harvick celebrates in
but, like everyone else, didn't have the speed to keep up with
Victory Lane with his crew after winning
Harvick.
"They beat everybody be"I've got to congratulate Kev- fore they came to the track
Sunday.
to track him down.
Saturday's Nationwide race,
won by Kyle Busch
Erwin at the helm, Keselowski ran near the front all day,
Photos by Ross D. Franklin /The
in. Those guys were two-tenths
today," Keselowski said. "It's a
Harvick won a t P h oenix faster than everyone all weekduring the Chase for the Sprint end in practice. They were just Cup championship in the fall, phenomenal," Earnhardt said. ning the second race with his giving him an outside shot at "To be able to runwith them all new team — doing it on the catching Johnson for the series day was abig confidence buildsame weekend he celebrated title in his final season with er for us."
great combination. They were prepared for the weekend. To me, Randy Childers is like a rubber-stamp, carbon-copy of
later, he stamped his arrival at Stewart-Haas Racing by win-
Associated Press
Paul Wolfe. He's a great crew
chief and it was just a mathis 13th wedding anniversary, RichardChildress Racing. He With team engineer Brian ter of time before he found a noless. came up short, but the victory Wilson and its Nationwide Se- combination that he excelled Yeah, Harvick kind of likes and a third-place finish in the ries competition director Greg with." it here in the desert. standings gave him a bit of moDisappointed at the Daytona mentum heading into for his 500 after a last-lap crash,Har- first seasonwith Stewart-Haas. vick bounced back quickly by Harvick had a solid finish in charging to the front and dom- his sights at Daytona last week inating the rest of the way Sun- beforealast-lap crash dropped day to win consecutive races at himto 13th. PIR with different teams. At Phoenix, Harvick just "Man, this i s a w esome," missed the final stage of Harvick said. knockout qualifying, nipped
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Harvick won the fall race
by 0.001 seconds, but had the fastest car in Saturday morning's final practice session. fuel at the white flag. He needed no help Sunday. He had notroublemaking Harvick had the fastest car his way through the field after in practice and kept it rolling in the green flag dropped in the the race, charging to the front race, passing Keselowski on after starting 13th and pretty the apron, then Logano for the much staying there. He led 224 lead on lap 74. Harvick mainof 312 laps on the odd-shaped tained the lead coming out of mile oval and pulled away on green-flag pit stops with just several late restarts for his fifth under 200 laps left and again NASCAR Sprint Cup victory with about 70laps left. at PIR, passing Jimmie JohnA seriesof cautions came afterCarl Edwards ran out of
son for the most at the track.
4
out late in the race and Harvick
Not bad for someone who's easily pulled away each time to still trying to feel his way earn a quick win with SHR a around with a new team nice capper to his anniversary and new crew chief Rodney weekend with wife DeLana. "I'm just the lucky guy who Childers. "It took long enough," SHR gets todrive around the race co-owner Gene Haas joked. track when they have dialed "This is phenomenal. I think in like they did today," Harvick there was a lot of skepticism said. "We were able to put it last year about what myself altogether." and Tony (Stewart), what we Earnhardt had a whirlwind were up to, was there a lot of week after winning his second madness to this. Quite frankly, Daytona 500, needing his girl-
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it's a great team, there's a lot
friend to get him extra clothes of synergy at the shop, people while he went on a media tour.
working together. I don't know
He had a solid follow-up, put-
what we did, but I think we put
ting the distractions aside to
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808tlHV ShOW®
together a great organization."
qualify fifth. Earnhardt worked his way Earnhardt Jr. finished second, up in the opening third of the pole sitter Brad Keselowski race, passing Logano and
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Patrick finishes36th after crash, patchwork Los Angeles Times
job of Danica Patrick's car
throughout the race even though they couldn't get their Fords past the Chevrolets of Harvick and s econd-place
e nded and t h e b l ac k r e -
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
pair tape holding it together
Keselowski and Logano finished third and fourth, respectively, though Harvick said he fretted about one of the Penske cars slipping past him on
started. Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet
was collected in a multi-car crash midway through Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup
rick into a spin that put her farther behind.
"All we have for luck is
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one of the restarts late in the
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hind the leaders. After her Keselowski said it was "evpit crew taped up the car's erything we could do to get up crumpled body during sev- there and get third. Nobody eral pit stops, she was able to had anything for Kevin." rear tire was cut, sending Pat-
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race. "We had a really good car, gaier and Travis Kvapil also just not as good as" Harvick's were involved. No. 4 Chevy, Logano said. She was running about "That No. 4 car was just so
continue. But 15 laps later her left
be chargedper bensastion.
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Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Justin All-
25th at the time, one lap be-
Children 5 & under FREE Fred Meyer Rewards card 0iscounfe may cr editoerdstrrersom e.$1reetss not be combined.
NOTEBOOK
By Jim Peltz AVONDALE, Ariz. — By the time the race ended, it wasn't clear where the paint
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Rookie test There are several rookies in the Cup series this year and they mostly struggled Sunday at the one-mile Phoenix Inter-
bad," Patrick said over her
national oval, where passing is team radio. known to be difficult. She finished 36th in the 43Kyle Larson, who wound up car field, six laps behind win- 20th, was the only rookie to ner Kevin Harvick.
finish on the same lap as the
Stout Team Penske
leaders. Among the other first-year
The two drivers for Team Penske, Brad Keselowski and
drivers: Austin Dillon finished 24th, Cole Whitt was 27th and
Joey Logano, were strong
Allgaier finished 30th.
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