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KEVIN HARVICK – 2020 Daytona Road Course Race Report

Event: Inaugural Go Bowling 235 (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (14-turn, 3.61-mile road course)
Format: 65 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/35 laps)
Start/Finish: 1st/17th (Running, completed 65 of 65 laps)
Point Standing: 1st with 939 points, 118 ahead of second place Denny Hamlin

Race Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-15):

●  Kevin Harvick started first and finished 13th.
●  The No. 4 Busch Beer / National Forest Foundation Ford Mustang pitted on lap 12 while he was in fourth place. Said car was not handling well. Crew changed four tires, gave the car some fuel and made a chassis adjustment.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 16-30):

●  Kevin Harvick started seventh and finished eighth and earned three bonus points.
●  The No. 4 Busch Beer / National Forrest Foundation Ford Mustang pitted on lap 28 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Said the car was better than stage one.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 31-65):

●  Kevin Harvick started second and finished 17th.
●  The No. 4 Busch Beer / National Forest Foundation Ford Mustang had fallen to fourth on the restart and the car of Christopher Bell made contact with Harvick’s car in turn three. Harvick’s car spun out and he fell all the way to 37th.
●  Harvick pitted on lap 35 for four tires and fuel as the tires were flat-spotted from the spin.
●  On lap 39, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. Restarted 27th.
●  In turn six on lap 43, Harvick spun out and fell to 37th.
●  Harvick pitted on lap 47 for four tires and fuel.
●  Harvick got up to 25th when a late caution came out. Several cars pitted so he restarted 13th.

Notes:

●  Chase Elliott won the inaugural Go Bowling 235 to score his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his fourth on a road course. His margin of victory over second-place Denny Hamlin was .202 of a second.
●  There were four caution periods for a total of seven laps.
●  Thirty-two of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
●  Harvick remains the championship leader after Daytona with a 118-point advantage over second-place Hamlin.
●  This was Harvick’s first finish outside the top-10 since a 26th-place result June 14 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Harvick’s top-10 streak ends at 10 races.
●  Nonetheless, Harvick has finished among the top-10 in 19 of the 23 races held this year. He has only two finishes outside the top-15.
●  Prior to the Go Bowling 235, Harvick last raced on the Daytona road course in 2002 during the Rolex 24 sports-car race.
●  Harvick has two road-course victories in the NASCAR Cup Series – Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in 2006 and Sonoma in 2017.

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader Aug. 22-23 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. Each race is 311 laps around the 1-mile, concrete oval. Start time for each race is 4 p.m. EDT and live coverage of both will be provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.