Harvick Adds No. 4 to Chase Field

Kevin Harvick with the winner's trophy

(CONCORD, NC – OCT 11, 2014 – RIS) Kevin Harvick's victory in the Bank of America 500 ended a typically busy day at the track saw Hall of Famers visit the track, the 2015 Toyota Camry race car unveiled, plus a driver getting into deep hot water with his sponsor and a wedding ceremony held in Victory Circle, but ended with a confrontation in the garage with Brad Keselowski being accosted by both Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin for actions on the track.

Even before Harvick was out of the car in Victory Circle, though, the fireworks were going off in the garage, as Brad Keselowski was confronted by both Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin for his on-track antics. Kenseth, angered after being forced into the wall by Keselowski late in the race as well as bumped on pit road post-race, physically confronted Keselowski in the garage.

NASCAR legends Bill Elliott and Rex White visited the Charlotte Motor Speedway media center Saturday to talk about how life has changed since being elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

"Everything has changed, nothing is normal now," said White, the 1960 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. "It's unbelievable how life has changed; my popularity has grown. The fan mail is unbelievable. It's just a great honor to be inducted. I get mail from Germany and from soldiers in Afghanistan. A lot people want to talk to me for some reason."

A 16-time Most Popular NASCAR Driver winner, Elliott was no stranger to the fans before being inducted, but he too has seen a surge in interest.

"You get a lot more mail," said 1988 Champion Elliott. "A lot more people know you because you have been elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. There were several years where I have been out of the limelight. There are so many other things that have come along because of your involvement with the Hall of Fame. It's just changed so many things."

Officials from Toyota unveiled the newly redesigned 2015 Toyota Camry NASCAR Sprint Cup car Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASCAR drivers Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer and Brett Moffitt helped introduce the new machine, which intentionally resembles the Camry street car more closely, especially in the front grill.

"I knew when we saw the photos of the 2015 Camry, it was going to be a challenge to put those features into the race car," said Andy Graves, Toyota Racing Development Vice President of Chassis Design. "And at the same time we had to maintain the performance we were looking for on the race track. What you see here and what was approved was actually the fifth design."

The new design process, which began near the end of the 2012 season, went through five design changes before final approval was given. There will be on-track testing of the new car before the 2015 Daytona 500.

"This was really a huge task trying to take what's here (street car) and put it into what's there (race car)," said Kevin Hunter, president of Calty Design. "There are a lot of performance parameters, the aerodynamic issues and then NASCAR's requirements. We are trying to amp up the aggressive nature of this car."

Accustomed to being in "hot water" with the media, Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway Kurt Busch turned the tables. As part of a special event with sponsor State Water Heaters, Busch allowed media members and sponsors to dunk him in a tank full of hot water.

"I'm giving media the chance to take their aggression out on me with a ball and me as a target, rather than with their ink and a send button," said Busch. "That's what this is all about. So I challenge the media, see if you can get me in hot water in the fun way, instead of the normal ways where you press send."

Each participant had three chances to hit the target and send Busch swimming. As luck would have it, the first three shots were spot-on.

"I was born ready, but obviously I was not ready for that," said Busch, laughing as he was caught off guard with the first dunk.

GRAMMY Award winning singer, songwriter, producer and actress Ashanti spent all of Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, taking in the full NASCAR experience before singing the national anthem before the start of the Bank of America 500.

"I rode around the track in the pace car with Clint Bowyer," said Ashanti. "I actually like to drive very fast, so it was fun. It was really cool. I have learned about the pit stops, which is awesome."

Victory Circle at Charlotte Motor Speedway is a special place, which is why Britany Brooks and Josh Owens, from Delaware, chose it as their wedding venue. The couple tied the knot Saturday morning in a ceremony performed by David Hix, a chaplain with Motor Racing Outreach.

"This all came about because we are both big NASCAR fans," said Brooks. "We love the atmosphere down here at the track. If we could, we would probably move here tomorrow. That might happen. We decided on this and it was either here (Winner's Circle) or the start-finish line, but we decided Winner's Circle would be better. It's a cool atmosphere."

"It had always been an awesome track for us to come to." said Josh, "We really enjoy it."

The newlyweds will be cheering for different drivers, however, as Brittany is a Kasey Kahne fan, while Josh follows Tony Stewart.

A pair of rainshowers in the afternoon led to speculation that the early laps of the race might become a crashfest, but a competition caution from laps 27 to 30 set the stage for a relatively 'clean' race. Kyle Busch led the first 13 laps before Jeff Gordon took over until the caution.

While mid-race action was fairly limited, there was still plenty of strategy playing out in the pits and on the track. The next three cautions were all for fluid on the track, first from the No. 15 car of Clint Bowyer after his Toyota fell victim to the stress after 94 laps. Next, Paul Menard's Chevy sprayed fluids on the track just 40 laps later, sending him to join Bowyer in the garage. Josh Wise's No. 98 Chevy was next to expire, then just a few laps after his oildown, Brian Vickers spun in the second turn to cause a caution for five laps and the biggest incident of the evening came on lap 247 with a crash in the fourth turn involving Danica Patrick, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman. Two more cautions flew before the finish, both for oil from broken racers: Michael Annett's on lap 268 and then just a handful of laps from the finish when Brian Vickers' car spewed vital fluids onto the track.

An air wrench failed on Harvick's first pit stop but the crew recovered from the problem and kept him on the lead lap. Odd mechanical woes struck Dale Earnhardt Jr with the shifter broken on the No. 88 Chevy, mirroring the problem that beset fellow Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson a few races earlier.

Brian Vickers engine let go with seven laps to run in the race, setting up a green-white-checker finish that saw an 'encounter' between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski that carried over into the pits after the finish. "There's a corner there so you have to back off and he just plowed into us," said Hamlin. "He's just out of control. He's desperate obviously and it's either four or five of us are wrong or he's wrong because he's pissed off everyone… we're trying to get in this deal [the Chase.] We're sitting in a decent spot, but we've lost six spots or so with the last restart when he ran into us and knocked us up the track. That was unfortunate. Matt (Kenseth) was nearly out of his car and he just plowed into Matt (Kenseth) and then ran into Tony (Stewart) and then went in through the garage and cleared out transmissions and did burnouts in the garage. Just acting like a dumbass instead of a champion.

"My guess is that he (Brad Keselowski) will probably try to wreck everyone -- that's his only shot," Hamlin continued. "He'll just be out of control like normal. We'll do what we have to do to get in and that's the big picture. Luckily, it didn't cause us to wreck. If it would have caused us to wreck, I'd be waiting for him right now."

Kyle Busch was the top Toyota finisher: "anytime we were second and we thought we had a chance to win -- then we would come in the next time and go back out and we would be a 15th-place car. These things are so finicky on pit stops -- it's been that way all year long for us. I don't know what the heck is going on or what we're doing. I saw the 22 (Joey Logano) car in my rear view mirror once all night and the rest of the times he wasn't even close enough to be in my rear view mirror and he beats us. That's just the way the luck goes -- I guess they have plenty of luck on their side right now. It's frustrating when you're running good enough that you should be able to challenge better for better finishes and we just can't."

Busch predicted that at Talladega next week, he would "run dead last all day -- survive. If there's one big wreck then it puts us in and we're good."

Predictably, Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford had a different perspective on the late-race and post-race events: "First off, the Detroit Genuine Parts Ford was good today. I thought we were gonna have a fourth or fifth-place run and just didn't catch a break in so many different ways, but I'm really proud of everyone at Team Penske. Through the whole sequence of events – I think the 20 car got in back of me on one of the restarts, it was just a racing deal and I wasn't mad at him. But when the last yellow came out he got the wavearound and when he came by he swung at my car and tore the whole right-front off of it," continued Keselowski. "When we restarted fifth with no right-front on it, we fell all the way back to 16th and it ruined our day. That gave us a big Chase hurt, which is unfortunate, and then for some reason after the race the 11 stopped in front of me and tried to pick a fight.

"I don't know what that was all about and he swung and hit at my car, so I figured if we're gonna play car wars under yellow and after the race I'll join too. Those guys can dish it out, but they can't take it. I gave it back to them and now they want to fight, so I don't know what's up with that."

WHAT ABOUT THE CONTACT ON PIT ROAD WITH THE 20 AND 14? "I rubbed into the 20 and I think he gassed up and ran into Tony, and don't think Tony knew what was going on so he's probably upset and he has every right to be. His car got tore up, but there was a whole lot of other stuff going on and I'm sure when he sees the whole situation he'll understand."

WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? "The 20 car and the 11 car both hit me under yellow and once the race was over I hit them back and they couldn't take it."

WHY DID STEWART GET INTO YOU? "I think he thought that I ran into him when the 20 car hit him, and it was the 20 car that hit him so it was just confusion."

Harvick was upbeat after a good night's racing: "Everybody on our team has just continued to build better race cars and we know that we've had the cars to run up front and lead laps and do the things that we need to do. Things just haven't gone right and we've made some mistakes; things haven't gone right more than not," said Harvick. "This was the night that we needed to win. I don't want to go to Talladega next week."

Second place finisher Jeff Gordon commented: "I'm really proud of that finish and really proud of that effort. Kevin (Harvick) got out there on us after that green flag stop. It looked like we were going to be second. I didn't want to see another restart, because every time we start on the inside, we seem to lose positions, there at the end, and the whole race. We were just trying to tune to make it better. We got off a little bit and lost some track position," said the driver of the No. 24 Chevy. "I had some terrible restarts. But there at the end, four tires and good adjustments and good restarts and we were able to get right up in the thick of it. Kevin was tough. I knew when he got out in front it was going to be hard to beat him. But, how about this drama? I'm telling you, this new format has created some serious drama! I'm glad I'm not in it this time. I'm really happy about this second (place finish). It doesn't make us, by any means, comfortable going into next week, but a lot better than it could be.

Unofficial Race Results: 55th Annual Bank of America 500: Charlotte Motor Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Lap, Pts, BPts, TLd, LLd, Status
1) 7, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet, 334, 48, 5, 6, 162, Running
2) 2, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, 334, 43, 1, 6, 74, Running
3) 18, Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald's Monopoly Chevrolet, 334, 42, 1, 1, 5, Running
4) 13, Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Platinum Ford, 334, 40, , , , Running
5) 1, Kyle Busch, No. 18 Doublemint Toyota, 334, 40, 1, 3, 41, Running
6) 24, Kyle Larson #, No. 42 Target Chevrolet, 334, 39, 1, 2, 5, Running
7) 5, Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 334, 38, 1, 1, 1, Running
8) 10, Carl Edwards, No. 99 Fastenal Ford, 334, 37, 1, 1, 1, Running
9) 3, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 334, 36, 1, 1, 22, Running
10) 19, Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Pepsi Chevrolet, 334, 34, , , , Running
11) 11, Kurt Busch, No. 41 State Water Heaters Chevrolet, 334, 34, 1, 2, 2, Running
12) 26, AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Scott Products Chevrolet, 334, 32, , , , Running
13) 20, Austin Dillon #, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 334, 32, 1, 2, 6, Running
14) 23, Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, 334, 30, , , , Running
15) 16, Justin Allgaier #, No. 51 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet, 334, 30, 1, 1, 2, Running
16) 17, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford, 334, 29, 1, 3, 8, Running
17) 21, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, 334, 27, , , , Running
18) 12, Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Bondo Ford, 334, 26, , , , Running
19) 22, Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, 334, 25, , , , Running
20) 9, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, 333, 25, 1, 3, 4, Running
21) 4, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, 333, 23, , , , Running
22) 15, Aric Almirola, No. 43 Smithfield/Waffle House Ford, 332, 22, , , , Running
23) 32, Landon Cassill(i), No. 40 Thunder Coal Chevrolet, 331, 0, , , , Running
24) 28, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Zest Ford, 331, 20, , , , Running
25) 27, Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford, 331, 19, , , , Running
26) 14, Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet, 331, 18, , , , Running
27) 30, Reed Sorenson, No. 36 Zing Zang Chevrolet, 330, 17, , , , Running
28) 36, Cole Whitt #, No. 26 Rinnai Toyota, 330, 16, , , , Running
29) 31, Michael McDowell, No. 95 Pieters Pals/KLOVE Ford, 330, 15, , , , Running
30) 33, Alex Bowman #, No. 23 Dr Pepper Toyota, 330, 14, , , , Running
31) 29, Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 329, 13, , , , Running
32) 37, David Gilliland, No. 38 MDS Transport Ford, 329, 12, , , , Running
33) 35, Michael Annett #, No. 7 Cypress HQ Chevrolet, 328, 12, 1, 1, 1, Running
34) 34, David Ragan, No. 34 CSX - Play It Safe Ford, 328, 10, , , , Running
35) 42, Corey LaJoie(i), No. 77 Essex Homes Ford, 326, 0, , , , Running
36) 40, Timmy Hill, No. 33 Retroinfinity.com Chevrolet, 326, 8, , , , Running
37) 8, Brian Vickers, No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, 325, 7, , , , Engine
38) 41, JJ Yeley(i), No. 83 Painter's Ice Cream Toyota, 325, 0, , , , Running
39) 43, Blake Koch(i), No. 32 Leaf Filter Ford, 322, 0, , , , Running
40) 39, Brett Moffitt, No. 66 RoyalTeakCollection.com Toyota, 320, 4, , , , Running
41) 38, Josh Wise, No. 98 Provident Metals Chevrolet, 178, 3, , , , Rear Gear
42) 6, Paul Menard, No. 27 Schrock/Menards Chevrolet, 134, 2, , , , Engine
43) 25, Clint Bowyer, No. 15 PinkLemonade5HourEnergybenefittingLBBC Toyota, 94, 1, , , , Engine

# = Rookie, Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led.
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Average Speed: 145.346 MPH
Time of Race: 03 Hrs, 26 Mins, 49 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 0.571 Seconds
Lead Changes: 32 among 14 drivers
Cautions: 8 for 39 laps 

RIS photos by John Davison

John Davison

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

Read More on Cup / XFINITY / Truck news
Volume 2014, Issue 10, Posted 12:46 AM, 10.12.2014