Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-80):
● Kevin Harvick started 40th and finished 14th.
● The No. 4 Jimmy John’s 3 Dollar Little John Ford Mustang was plowing tight early on.
● On lap 43, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. He reported a possible loose wheel, but the team reviewed footage and told him the lug nuts looked tight.
● Harvick pitted again on lap 76 for four tires and fuel.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 81-160):
● Harvick started 10th and finished sixth, earning five bonus points.
● The No. 4 Jimmy John’s 3 Dollar Little John Ford Mustang reported again to be “plowing tight.”
● On lap 117, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. He was in 11th place but advanced to finish the stage in sixth.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 161-277):
● Harvick started 12th and finished ninth.
● The No. 4 Jimmy John’s 3 Dollar Little John Ford Mustang pitted on lap 164 for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments.
● Harvick pitted on lap 214 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure and chassis adjustment.
● On lap 255, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment.
Notes:
● Harvick earned his 22nd top-10 of the season and his series-leading 15th top-10 in 28 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas.
● Harvick’s 15 top-10s at Kansas are the second-most among active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers. (Jimmie Johnson has the most top-10s with 18. Trailing Harvick are Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, who have 10 top-10s apiece.)
● This is Harvick’s eighth consecutive top-15 at Kansas. He finished 13th in the series’ last visit to the track in May.
● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only finished outside the top-15 once at Kansas. He has never finished worse than 16th with the No. 4 team.
● Harvick is one of just three drivers who have started all 28 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races at Kansas. Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman are the other two drivers.
● Denny Hamlin won the Hollywood Casino 400to score his 36th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fifth of the season and his second at Kansas. His margin of victory over second-place Chase Elliott was .128 of a second.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 32 laps.
● Only 21 of the 40 drivers in the Hollywood Casino 400finished on the lead lap.
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s 3 Dollar Little John Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“That was not a very good weekend from top to bottom. I just didn’t have a very good car today and didn’t have a very good day on pit road. Nothing went right all weekend. It was definitely one of the worst weekends we have had in awhile. We had to start in the back and had a tough day getting through traffic. A couple times we got up there and then had bad stops and got mired in traffic. It didn’t go as planned with our Jimmy John’s Ford, but we did what we needed to do to get to the next round, and now we get to start over.”
Playoff Standings (at the conclusion of the Round of 12):
1. Kyle Busch (4,046 points)
2. Martin Truex Jr. (4,042 points, -4)
3. Denny Hamlin (4,037 points, -9)
4. Joey Logano (4,030 points, -16)
5. Kevin Harvick (4,028 points, -18)
6. Chase Elliott (4,024 points, -22)
7. Kyle Larson (4,011 points, -35)
8. Ryan Blaney (4,009 points, -37)
hFailed to Advance to Round of 8:
9. Brad Keselowski (3,101 points)
10. William Byron (3,088 points)
11. Alex Bowman (3,084 points)
12. Clint Bowyer (3,083 points)
Next Up:
The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the First Data 500 on Sunday, Oct. 27 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It is the seventh race of the 10-race playoffs and the first race in the Round of 8. The event starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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