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KEVIN HARVICK – 2019 Indianapolis Race Report – HARVICK WINS!

Event:               Brickyard 400 (Round 26 of 36)
Series:              Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Format:             160 laps, broken into three stages (50 laps/50 laps/60 laps)
Start/Finish:      1st/1st (Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)
Point Standing:  4th (2,018 points, 17 out of first – IN THE PLAYOFFS)

Race Winner:    Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford) 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-50):

  • Kevin Harvick started first, finished third and collected eight bonus points.
  • The No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang was leading when he pitted on lap 12 for two tires and fuel.
  • Harvick pitted again on lap 43 for four tires, fuel and a tire-pressure adjustment.
  • The Mobil 1 Ford led 41 of the 50 laps in the stage. 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 51-100):

  • Harvick started second, won the stage and collected 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
  • While leading, Harvick pitted on lap 84 for four tires and fuel. He radioed that the car was a bit tight.
  • The Mobil 1 Ford led 36 laps during the stage, lifting his total to 77 during the first two stages.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 101-160):

  • Harvick started first, won the race.
  • Contact with the car of Kyle Larson possibly hurt the aerodynamics and Harvick fell back to second when the race restarted on lap 110.
  • He made his last scheduled pit stop for four tires and fuel under green on lap 129. The caution flag waved the very next lap for an incident involving Larson. Harvick was back in the lead when a majority of the field pitted under that caution on lap 131.
  • Harvick led the final 30 laps to the checkered flag. His margin of victory over second-place Joey Logano was 6.118 seconds. 

Notes:

  • Harvick earned the 48th win of his career, his third of 2019 and his second victory in 19 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Indianapolis.
  • Harvick’s 48 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins ties him with NASCAR Hall of Famer Herb Thomas for 15th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series win list.
  • This is Harvick’s second consecutive top-five and sixth top-10 in a row at Indianapolis. He finished fourth in last year’s Brickyard 400.
  • Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has not finished outside the top-10 at Indianapolis. His worst finish is eighth, earned in the 2014 Brickyard 400.
  • This is Harvick’s second consecutive top-five. He finished fourth in the series’ last race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
  • Harvick’s seven top-fives and 12 top-10s at Indianapolis are the most among active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
  • This was Harvick’s 25th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory since joining SHR in 2014. Harvick has scored more than half of his career NASCAR Cup Series victories in his six years with SHR, with the rest coming in his 13 previous Cup Series seasons (2001-2013).
  • Today’s victory in the Brickyard 400 marked the 69th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 54th points-paying Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win, its third of the season and its second at Indianapolis.
  • This was SHR’s 18th Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. The team won its first race with Ford when Kurt Busch captured the 2017 Daytona 500.
  • This was Ford’s fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Indianapolis and its second in a row in the Brickyard 400. Brad Keselowski won this race last year.
  • There were nine caution periods for a total of 48 laps.
  • Only 23 of the 40 drivers in the Brickyard 400 finished on the lead lap.
  • Kyle Busch won the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship, and Harvick finished third. 

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

“This is great. I’ve got to say thanks to all the fans. Can’t tell you how much – yeah, that’s great – how much coming to Indianapolis means to me. As a kid, I watched Rick Mears win Indy 500s and got to be around him as a kid, and he was my hero, so coming here and winning here is pretty awesome. I know how much it means to everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang team. Just got to thank Busch Beer, Jimmy John’s, Hunt Brothers, Haas Automation, everybody at Stewart‑Haas Racing, all these guys that make this car go around. I know how much this means to really everybody, and this is a great engine package that Roush Yates has been with to victory lane, twice now – once at Michigan and the same engine here. That’s a huge credit to those guys and Mobil 1 for everything that they put under this car. Just can’t thank everybody enough. This is awesome.

“I don’t know if we had the best car, but we had the fastest car. We gave up the lead there on one of those restarts and then we came and pitted, and the caution came out, and it worked our way. We’ve given so many away just because of circumstances here, and the way that the caution flag fell today actually worked in our favor. It gave us control of the race, and we were able to keep control of the race and not make any mistakes, and here we are in victory lane at one of the greatest places on earth to race. Can’t say enough about everybody on this Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. These guys on this race team, they built a heck of a racecar. To come here to the Brickyard, I know how much this means to Rodney (Childers, crew chief) and Dax (Gerringer, engineer) and all these guys that work on this car because we’ve been so close to winning here before.”

Next Up: 

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the South Point 400 on Sunday, Sept. 15 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the first race of the 10-race playoffs and starts at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.