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KEVIN HARVICK – 2018 Daytona 500 Race Report

Event:               60th Daytona 500 (Round 1 of 36)
Series:               Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway (2.5-mile oval)
Format:             200 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/80 laps)
Start/Finish:      6th/31st (Accident, completed 105 of 207 laps)
Point Standing: 19th (19 points, 39 out of first) 

Race Winner:    Austin Dillon of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet) in overtime
Stage 1 Winner: Kurt Busch of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-60):

  • Started sixth, finished seventh, and collected four bonus points.
  • The Jimmy John’s team surrendered the seventh position to pit road under caution on lap 52 for four tires and fuel.
  • The No. 4 Ford restarted 13th with five laps remaining in the stage.
  • Harvick narrowly avoided an accident at the conclusion of the stage to jump from 15th up to seventh.
  • The team came to pit road for four tires and fuel at the conclusion of Stage 1. 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 61-120):

  • Started third and finished 31st.
  • Harvick raced in the top-five the majority of the stage.
  • The Jimmy John’s team came to pit road from the fourth position for two tires, air pressure adjustments and fuel on lap 94.
  • Harvick restarted fourth on lap 98 but was collected in a multicar incident on lap 102.
  • The No. 4 car suffered heavy damage during the lap-102 incident, causing the team to make extensive repairs on pit road.
  • The team was unable to complete repairs on pit road and was forced to retire from the event on lap 105. 

Notes:

  • Harvick scored nine bonus points in Duel 2 and four points in Stage 1.
  • There were eight caution periods for a total of 37 laps.
  • Only 10 of the 40 drivers in the Daytona 500 finished on the lead lap.
  • Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500 to score his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory and his first at Daytona. His margin of victory over runner-up Darrell (Bubba) Wallace Jr. was .26 of a second. 

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

Your thoughts on the incident and the team’s effort to get the car back out? “They did a good job fixing the car. The car was fine. Apparently, you have to have the door. I thought it was just the door foam, but you’ve got to have some metal on the outside of the door. All in all, they did a good job fixing our Jimmy John’s/Busch Beer Ford. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two guys, I couldn’t tell. It looked to me like there was one too many blocks, and the blocking car wound up spinning out and the 2 car hit the 24 and wound up coming up the racetrack into me. It was like a can opener on the way by.” 

Next Up:                                                                        

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Folds of Honor 500 on Sunday, Feb. 25 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The race starts at 2 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its prerace show at 1:30 p.m.