Kevin Harvick dominated the entire race, but had to out maneuver Brad Keselowski in lapped traffic to take the win in the Nationwide Series at Richmond Motor Speedway.
“We got caught in lapped traffic at the wrong time”, Harvick said, “then I bounced off the wall there, but it was a lot of fun. This [car] is our company’s future, so we have done a lot of work on it. If you get started in the right direction, you can usually keep it going.”
The last 40 laps became the Harvick and Keselowski show. “Our car was good for 20 laps”, Brad said, “So I knew I had to pace my car and try to save the tires. I never really thought we had anything for Kevin, then the lapped traffic came, but I still wasn’t able to get him.”
When asked about locking up his tires after Harvick bumped the wall, Keselowski said, “Yea, that really surprised me, because I backed up the corner so I wouldn’t hit him. I have a lot of respect for Kevin, and somehow I still locked up the tires.”
Bowyer was busier than a one-legged man at a butt kickin’ contest after two altercations had him pedaling from behind. The first one came on a green flag restart on lap 149 when he had contact with another car. Bowyer’s left front fender was damaged and rubbed the tire. Six laps later the tire finally blew and the yellow flag was thrown. Then on lap 203, Clint was trying to pass the lapped car of Brian Scott, was a little overzealous and ended up bumping the 11 car and sending Scott spinning into the wall. “Yea, I was trying a little too hard there”, Bowyer said, “I don’t know who drives the 11 car, but I want to find him to apologize.”
Superstar rookie Trevor Bayne had another great day runnin’ with the Cup boys, pulling out a third place finish. Bayne has been working with Johnny Benson, who has been coaching him on his driving. As good as I think Trevor is, I think these coaching sessions are really working. Benson has taught Bayne to back up the corner a bit so his center and exit of the corner is better. “It was a good day,” Bayne said, “we were a little tight at the beginning and fell back to around 20th. We made some good adjustments, working on the center of the corner and towards the end we ended up a little free. But it was a great day!”
Kyle Busch was fair most of the race, but by no means dominant. The last yellow flag pit stop ruined any possibility of a top 5 finish. After the pit stop, the neck of the fuel jug came off and was stuck in the gas intake. Busch had to pit again the remove it. He was able to pull out a 9th place finish.
The other Gibb’s driver, Denny Hamlin, had a pretty uneventful quiet night finishing a respectable 6th.
The race was a little slow in the beginning and middle of the race, but picked up the excitement towards the end. However we did see that clean air for the lead car is the ticket to success, just like in the Cup cars. The new Nationwide car was run here and is what will be the future of the Nationwide series. These cars don’t run bump stops or a rear sway bar, so they are a little different than the Cup cars. I just hope the lulls I saw in this race doesn’t continue into next year. I’m already a non-fan of the COT and believe that it has killed driver style, and I am hoping that the new Nationwide car will not follow their path.
