CP MOTORSPORTS - DALE JR WINS RAIN-SHORTENED PHOENIX RACE; FINAL FOUR SET FOR HOMESTEAD
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Dale Earnhardt, Jr, took home a win in Sunday night's rain delayed and rain shortened Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. More important than the race win, however, defending champion Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr, joined Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon in the final four of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.
Earnhardt, Jr, only led 22 laps and inherited his lead during a round of green flag pit stops when the yellow came out for a two-car accident between Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, and Joey Gase. Then the rain started and it didn't stop, forcing NASCAR to make the race official having run only 218 laps.
"You like to win them at the checkered flag but a win is a win, though," Earnhardt, Jr, said. "You take it and put it in a record books. My team guys are very proud of this because they gave me a great car to get a good qualifying lap in, we've qualified so poorly all year. The reason why we won tonight is because of how we qualified. This is something they are going to enjoy. I'm happy -- a win is a win. It is a rain shortened race and I know there are some guys in the field who would love to see this thing get going again and get the opportunity to race their way into the last round. Myself, if I had four to six inches at Talladega, I'd be going to Homestead racing for a championship, too. It works out for some, for others it doesn't."
Kevin Harvick has dominated recently at Phoenix and did a bit of the same during the race by leading 143 laps. Harvick was forced to settle for a second place finish which was good enough to punch his ticket to compete for a championship next weekend at Homestead. It's Harvick's 27th top-10 finish of his stellar 2015 campaign.
While there certainly is disappointment in not winning, Harvick knows the championship is what he's racing for.
"It's kind of bittersweet," Harvick explained. "The car just really performed well today and we were able to lead a lot of laps and just really proud of the guys for the decisions that they made overnight to get that last little bit out of the car today and how it performed was really good. The caution came out at the wrong time and we didn't get to make up the ground on the racetrack under green, where Dale was pitted and the way that they came out of the pits just didn't time out well. But still proud of our group, and sometimes you win some of those things, sometimes you don't.
"In the end the big picture is what it's all about."
Joey Logano suffered dismal finishes in the two races leading up to Phoenix which put him behind the eight ball in terms of advancing to the final round of four. Logano was not able to overcome this defecit and despite finishing in third place, the driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford was eliminated from championship contention.
Kyle Busch finished in fourth place and joined Harvick by punching his ticket to the championship weekend. Busch ran what he described as a boring race for the most part but had his mind set on surviving and advancing.
"Our race was pretty uneventful," Busch said. "I had a little mishap on pit road, just overshot my marks a little bit being a little bit slick and got my guys too close to the wall but past that we had a really good race car. The M&Ms Camry was fast. I felt like we had a good top-three, top-four race car and long runs seemed to be our friends and we got some of those tonight, so couldn't be more pleased to finish where we did and be more pleased to go to Homestead."
Jimmie Johnson finished in fifth place with Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Aric Almirola rounding out the race's top-10 finishers. Like Logano, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski both needed to win to advance to the final round so while they both grabbed top-10 finishes, it's short of where they needed to end the race.
Carl Edwards was also in contention for the final spot in the championship round but a 12th place finish left him five points out. The fourth and final spot would go to Martin Truex, Jr, who drove his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet to a 14th place finish.
Truex, Jr, knows his team didn't have the car to compete for a win but also knows he did what he needed to do to keep himself in contention for the championship.
"We weren't near as good as we needed to be," Truex, Jr, admitted. "We struggled at practice some yesterday and made some changes last night trying to get better and just weren't that good at the start of the race and never really got it figured out. I mean, we had a top-10 car, but it wasn't much better. All in all, we did what we needed to do to move on to next week, and really don't matter how we did now."
With the Earnhardt, Jr, win and the Harvick runner-up finish, Chevrolet also clinched their 13th consecutive Sprint Cup manufacturer's championship.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 35
Unofficial Race Results for the 28Th Annual Quicken Loans Race For Heroes
500 - Sunday, November 15, 2015
Phoenix International Raceway - Avondale, AZ - 1 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 219 Laps - 219 Miles - Purse: $5,202,126
Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 3 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Nationwide Chevrolet 219 47 4 125.7 $213,465 Running 2 22
2 8 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet 219 44 2 144.7 $230,380 Running 2 143
3 14 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Ford 219 41 120.0 $176,588 Running
4 10 18 Kyle Busch M&M's Crispy Toyota 219 41 1 111.3 $164,166 Running 1 1
5 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe's Patriotic Chevrolet 219 40 1 107.8 $168,836 Running 1 44
6 11 24 Jeff Gordon Pepsi Chevrolet 219 39 1 103.3 $147,276 Running 1 4
7 2 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet 219 37 93.7 $110,715 Running
8 13 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Express Toyota 219 36 98.4 $105,940 Running
9 18 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 219 36 1 91.3 $134,881 Running 1 4
10 17 43 Aric Almirola United States Air Force Ford 219 34 83.7 $134,126 Running
11 22 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Global Mining Chevrolet 219 33 81.2 $121,790 Running
12 4 19 Carl Edwards Stanley Toyota 219 32 110.1 $94,065 Running
13 15 27 Paul Menard Duracell/Menards Chevrolet 219 31 90.4 $94,340 Running
14 5 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet 219 30 98.9 $111,360 Running
15 12 1 Jamie McMurray Sherwin Williams Chevrolet 218 29 83.2 $113,981 Running
16 21 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 218 28 66.4 $91,440 Running
17 25 51 Justin Allgaier Brandt Chevrolet 218 27 63.7 $108,798 Running
18 29 55 David Ragan Aaron's Online Dream Machine Toyota 218 27 1 62.8 $109,404 Running 1 1
19 7 20 Erik Jones(i) Dollar General Toyota 218 0 83.1 $118,826 Running
20 16 3 Austin Dillon Bad Boy Buggies/Realtree Chevrolet 218 24 79.0 $119,076 Running
21 6 42 Kyle Larson Target Camo Chevrolet 218 23 85.8 $109,298 Running
22 24 13 Casey Mears GEICO Military Chevrolet 218 22 66.8 $105,273 Running
23 27 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Toyota 218 21 64.0 $115,048 Running
24 23 47 AJ Allmendinger Fry's/Clorox Chevrolet 218 20 58.7 $109,598 Running
25 20 16 Greg Biffle Jardiance Ford 218 19 67.3 $111,548 Running
26 9 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 217 18 69.8 $95,190 Running
27 31 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 217 17 55.5 $107,354 Running
28 30 83 Matt DiBenedetto # VooDoo Barbeque Toyota 217 16 52.3 $93,048 Running
29 33 26 JJ Yeley(i) Maxim Toyota 216 0 44.7 $76,765 Running
30 34 38 David Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 216 14 45.5 $98,687 Running
31 28 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Go Bowling/G1GABLAST Ford 215 13 45.6 $105,360 Running
32 36 46 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 215 12 42.2 $76,340 Running
33 38 35 Cole Whitt Ford 215 11 36.0 $76,215 Running
34 26 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford 215 10 46.8 $120,665 Running
35 32 40 Landon Cassill(i) Interstate Moving Services Chevrolet 215 0 38.2 $75,965 Running
36 40 34 Brett Moffitt # Dockside Ford 215 8 36.0 $75,810 Running
37 41 98 Ryan Preece Xyience Ford 214 7 29.5 $75,666 Running
38 35 7 Alex Bowman Nikko RC/Toy State Chevrolet 214 6 44.8 $69,202 Running
39 37 23 Jeb Burton # Dr Pepper Toyota 213 5 30.8 $65,130 Running
40 42 33 Ryan Ellis(i) Science Logic Chevrolet 211 4 27.8 $61,130 Running
41 19 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Cargill Ford 194 3 57.0 $65,130 Accident
42 39 32 Joey Gase(i) R Factor 2 Ford 161 0 27.3 $53,130 Accident
43 43 62 Timmy Hill(i) Prairie Auto Credit/Financial Concepts Chevrolet 127 0 23.3 $49,630 Running
Race Comments: Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500, his 26th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
Failed to Qualify: N/A
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 03 Mins, 22 Secs. Average Speed: 106.512 MPH Margin of Victory: Caution
Caution Flags: 2 for 29 laps: Laps: 42-47 (Competition [7]); 197-219 (#32 accident turn 3 [19]).
Lead Changes: 8 among 7 drivers: J. Johnson 1-44; K. Harvick 45-118; Kyle Busch 119; B. Keselowski 120-123; D. Ragan 124; K. Harvick 125-193; D. Earnhardt Jr. 194; J. Gordon 195-198; D. Earnhardt Jr. 199-219.
Top 16 Driver Points: (1) K. Harvick 4,123;(2) J. Gordon 4,121;(3) Kyle Busch 4,121;(4) M. Truex Jr. 4,106;(5) C. Edwards 4,101;(6) B. Keselowski 4,093;(7) Kurt Busch 4,085;(8) J. Logano 4,054;(9) D. Earnhardt Jr. 2,306;(10) D. Hamlin 2,293;(11) R. Newman 2,286;(12) J. Johnson 2,280;(13) J. Mcmurray 2,264;(14) P. Menard 2,239;(15) M. Kenseth 2,197;(16) C. Bowyer 2,174.
3M Lap Leader : Kevin Harvick, #4 143 Laps American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award : Dale Earnhardt Jr, #88
Coors Light Pole Award : Jimmie Johnson, #48 143.158 mph Duralast Brakes "Brake in the Race" : Jimmie Johnson, #48
Ingersoll Rand Power Move : Dale Earnhardt Jr, #88 6 positions Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Hendrick Engines, #4
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race : Kevin Harvick, #4 Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race : Aric Almirola, #43 T. Owens, -.178 sec
Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap : Carl Edwards, #19 Sunoco Rookie of the Race : Matt DiBenedetto, #83
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: Nov. 22, 2015 - Homestead-Miami Speedway
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