Skip to content

KEVIN HARVICK – 2019 Sonoma Race Report

Event: Save Mart 350k (Round 16 of 36)
Series: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Sonoma (Ca.) Raceway (2.52-mile, 12-turn road course)
Format: 90 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/50 laps)
Start/Finish: 23rd/6th (Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
Point standing: 3rd (573 points, 70 out of first)

Race Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-20):

Kevin Harvick started 23rd, finished eighth and collected three bonus points.
The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang was 17th on the 10th lap, 15.612 seconds behind leader William Byron.
● On lap 16, Harvick said his car was getting tighter and that it wouldn’t turn late in the run.
● Several cars pitted late in the stage, so Harvick finished eighth, 26.414 seconds behind stage winner Byron.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 21-40):

Harvick started 20th, finished 23rd.
The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang pitted on lap 22 for four tires, fuel and tire pressure and wedge adjustments.
● On lap 37, while Harvick was 15th, he pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 41-90):

Harvick started 10th, finished sixth.
The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang was 10th on lap 55 and 15.461 seconds behind leader Martin Truex Jr.
● On lap 63, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. He was in eighth place.
● After all the pit stops, Harvick was fourth on lap 68, trailing Truex, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney.
● Harvick was in fourth place until late in the race when he was passed by Matt DiBenedetto and Denny Hamlin. The driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion finished sixth.

Notes:

● Harvick earned his 11th top-10 of the season and his 10th top-10 in 19 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Sonoma.
● This is Harvick’s second straight top-10. He finished seventh in the series’ previous race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
● Harvick has finished sixth or better in the last five races at Sonoma. He has only finished outside the top-10 at Sonoma once since joining SHR in 2014.
● Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
● Martin Truex Jr. won the Save Mart 350k to score his 23rd career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season, his third at Sonoma and his second straight at the 2.52-mile, 12-turn road course. His margin of victory over second-place Kyle Busch was 1.861 seconds.
● There were only two caution periods for a total of six laps.
● Twenty-four of the 38 drivers in the Save Mart 350k finished on the lead lap.
● Joey Logano remains the championship leader after Sonoma with just a one-point advantage over second-place Busch.

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang:

“I am really proud of everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford. We did grind one out. We didn’t have a great car this weekend. We aborted everything that we were doing and put the 14 (Clint Bowyer) stuff in, and we still weren’t very good. We wound up grinding the right-front tire off at the end and was just hanging on for dear life. That is a gritty performance. That is what we have done all year. We need to figure out how to be closer at the beginning of the weekend. We will. We have been scrapping pretty hard for 16 weeks.”

Next Up:

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Camping World 400 on Sunday, June 30 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.