Kevin Harvick, better known as “The Closer” brought down the curtain on one long strange 600-mile night in Charlotte.
“This is one of those nights you just know going into it you got to grind away lap after lap, just keep yourself on the lead lap, not make any mistakes,” said Harvick. “As you get towards the end of the race, you want to be more aggressive as you get onto pit road, get into your pit box.”
Thanks to two new tires Harvick beat out fellow Chevrolet driver, Kasey Kahne, on a late race restart for his second win of the year. “You know, we all pitted there probably about that same time, about 20 laps to go. I could see him. Heck, the last race we won here, we came off of turn two in third. By the time we got back to the start/finish line, we had won the race.
I felt when we came out second, everybody had done their job. They were all like five‑year‑old kids looking at me as a snack. It's like, ‘don't screw this up, bud.’ You're in control of this race. Don't let somebody get under you, because at that point we were in complete control.”
Kasey Kahne and his crew decided not to pit for fresh tires and that decision cost him the win.
“The whole field pitted so we just didn’t expect that,” said Kahne. We had a great Chevy all night long. We were in the hunt from the drop of the green. It was a solid night. Wish we could have won it. I felt like we were definitely the car to beat the last 200 laps, maybe the whole race at times. It was solid. It was a great performance by the whole team and the pit stops were awesome. We just didn’t get the win.”
Kasey Kahne had led 156 laps but Harvick took the low line following the last of 11 cautions and slowly pulled away for the victory.
Kurt Busch whose car was hit by a television camera cable and later had a battery issue soldiered home to a third-place. It was almost like a war zone to the 2004 Sprint Cup champ “still shell-shocked, we picked up the lead and then the battery went dead,” said Busch. “I don’t know what to think of that. We battled back. They guys changed it as fast as they could and we got third. We had a good car.”
That brings us to the bizarre part of the evening.
The race was red flagged just past quarter of the way into NASCAR longest race of the year after the nylon rope, which supports a television camera, snapped in the first turn. Instead of stopping with no repairs drivers were allowed back to their pit stalls and crews given 15 minutes to assess and fix damage caused by the failure.
Ten fans received non life-threatening injuries.
In addition to the 11 caution flag periods there were a total of three red flag stoppages following collisions involving some of NASCAR’s biggest names like reigning champion, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, and Danica Patrick. Dale Earnhardt’s blown engine was another culprit.
Official Fox Statement
At this time, we do not have a cause for the failure of the camera drive line that interrupted tonight’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and our immediate concern is with the injured fans.
The camera system consists of three ropes -- a drive rope which moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track. The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely.
This camera system had been used successfully at this year’s Daytona 500, last week’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and other major events around the world. We certainly regret that the system failure affected tonight’s event, we apologize to the racers whose cars were damaged, and our immediate concern is for the race fans. We also offer a sincere ‘thank you’ to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keeping us informed on this developing situation.
When we have more information on the cause of the equipment failure, we will share it with you immediately.
“This is one of those nights you just know going into it you got to grind away lap after lap, just keep yourself on the lead lap, not make any mistakes,” said Harvick. “As you get towards the end of the race, you want to be more aggressive as you get onto pit road, get into your pit box.”
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| Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet. (Photo: NASCAR) |
Thanks to two new tires Harvick beat out fellow Chevrolet driver, Kasey Kahne, on a late race restart for his second win of the year. “You know, we all pitted there probably about that same time, about 20 laps to go. I could see him. Heck, the last race we won here, we came off of turn two in third. By the time we got back to the start/finish line, we had won the race.
I felt when we came out second, everybody had done their job. They were all like five‑year‑old kids looking at me as a snack. It's like, ‘don't screw this up, bud.’ You're in control of this race. Don't let somebody get under you, because at that point we were in complete control.”
Kasey Kahne and his crew decided not to pit for fresh tires and that decision cost him the win.
“The whole field pitted so we just didn’t expect that,” said Kahne. We had a great Chevy all night long. We were in the hunt from the drop of the green. It was a solid night. Wish we could have won it. I felt like we were definitely the car to beat the last 200 laps, maybe the whole race at times. It was solid. It was a great performance by the whole team and the pit stops were awesome. We just didn’t get the win.”
 |
| Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch. (Photo: NASCAR) |
Kasey Kahne had led 156 laps but Harvick took the low line following the last of 11 cautions and slowly pulled away for the victory.
Kurt Busch whose car was hit by a television camera cable and later had a battery issue soldiered home to a third-place. It was almost like a war zone to the 2004 Sprint Cup champ “still shell-shocked, we picked up the lead and then the battery went dead,” said Busch. “I don’t know what to think of that. We battled back. They guys changed it as fast as they could and we got third. We had a good car.”
That brings us to the bizarre part of the evening.
The race was red flagged just past quarter of the way into NASCAR longest race of the year after the nylon rope, which supports a television camera, snapped in the first turn. Instead of stopping with no repairs drivers were allowed back to their pit stalls and crews given 15 minutes to assess and fix damage caused by the failure.
Ten fans received non life-threatening injuries.
In addition to the 11 caution flag periods there were a total of three red flag stoppages following collisions involving some of NASCAR’s biggest names like reigning champion, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, and Danica Patrick. Dale Earnhardt’s blown engine was another culprit.
Official Fox Statement
At this time, we do not have a cause for the failure of the camera drive line that interrupted tonight’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and our immediate concern is with the injured fans.
The camera system consists of three ropes -- a drive rope which moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track. The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely.
This camera system had been used successfully at this year’s Daytona 500, last week’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and other major events around the world. We certainly regret that the system failure affected tonight’s event, we apologize to the racers whose cars were damaged, and our immediate concern is for the race fans. We also offer a sincere ‘thank you’ to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keeping us informed on this developing situation.
When we have more information on the cause of the equipment failure, we will share it with you immediately.