Monday Racing Roundup: Championship Foursome Set
November 16, 2015 | By IMS
A serendipitous sequence of pit stops and a drizzle that turned into a downpour made a winner of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Sunday night’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the start of which was delayed from day to night by rain in the afternoon.
But the race that was halted by the rain 93 laps short of its scheduled distance of 312 laps was hardly the satisfying conclusion Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch or Joey Logano had hoped for.
Those four drivers were eliminated from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, as defending champion Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. joined Jeff Gordon in next Sunday’s Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway (3 p.m. ET on NBC).
Earnhardt came to pit road for fuel and tires one lap before Joey Gase and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crashed in Turn 3 to bring out the second caution of the race on Lap 196. While on pit road, Earnhardt crossed the scoring line at the flag stand before Harvick, who had dominated with 143 laps led, got to the stripe.
And when other lead-lap cars came to pit road under the yellow, Earnhardt inherited the top spot, with Harvick second and Logano third. Before track workers could complete clean-up from the accident, rain began to fall, and NASCAR called the race after the light precipitation became a deluge.
"We had an idea that the rain was in the area, but all the circumstances that played out at the end of the race are just kind of luck, I think," said Earnhardt, who won for the third time at Phoenix, the third time this season and the 26th time in his career.
The third-place qualifying effort also gave the No. 88 team third pick of pit stalls, and that choice also proved crucial because it put Earnhardt in position to take the lead when NASCAR called the caution.
Harvick had mixed feelings about his second-place result. The caution likely cost him a victory, but it also assured his eligibility to defend his title at Homestead.
"Yeah, it's kind of bittersweet," Harvick acknowledged. "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.
"Just caution came out at the wrong time, and we didn't get to make up the ground on the race track 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, but in the end, the big picture is what it's all about."
Kyle Busch finished fourth to advance to the season finale. Gordon ran sixth, followed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Keselowski. Truex came home 14th but edged 12th-place finisher Edwards for the final spot in the Championship Round by five points.
Kyle Busch continued his improbable run toward a first series title with his fourth-place finish on Sunday. Having suffered a broken right leg and left foot in the season-opening NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona, Busch missed the first 11 Sprint Cup events of the year but came back to win four times shortly after his return.
With the wins and a top-30 points finish, Busch qualified for the Chase.
"When I returned, we did a good job and we won four out of five and put ourselves in a position to make the Chase, and the rules are the way the rules are, and we’re going to make the most of it," Busch said. "We’re playing with house money, and we’re rolling to Homestead."
NASCAR XFINITY Series: Kyle Busch dominates at Phoenix
If Saturday’s DAV 200 Honoring America’s Veterans had been a court case, 39 NASCAR XFINITY Series drivers would have pleaded "no contest."
The exception was polesitter Kyle Busch, who led 190 of 200 laps in registering a dominating victory at Phoenix International Raceway, his eighth in 19 starts at the track.
In a race that saw defending series champion and seventh-place finisher Chase Elliott trim XFINITY leader Chris Buescher’s margin in the standings from 24 to 18 points, Busch ran away with the event, crossing the finish line 3.097 seconds ahead of runner-up Brad Keselowski.
After winning his 47th pole earlier in the day (extending his series record), Busch picked up his 76th XFINITY victory (extending his series record). The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota now has led 1,636 laps at PIR, second most at any track behind Bristol (1,768).
The win was Busch’s fifth from the pole at PIR.
"It wasn’t particularly hard, obviously," Busch said about the ease of his victory. "I do remember that there was one other time here I think I led 200 of 200 (laps)… We’ve done that here before. Today was close. We just weren’t able to get good enough pit stops to come out of the pits with the lead each time and hold the lead that we had.
"But, all in all, it was a very fast race car — flawless, really."
JGR drivers Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez ran third and fourth, respectively, giving the organization three of the top four finishing positions. Ty Dillon came home fifth, followed by Regan Smith.
Buescher finished 13th, one lap down, and lost a fourth of his points lead over the reigning champion. But he can clinch the series title with a finish of 13th or better next Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.