Jeff Gordon took advantage of a late-race miscue by Kevin Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing team to win Saturday night’s 5-hour Energy 400 at Kansas Speedway. It was the first night race hosted by the 13-year old race track.
Harvick in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS led a commanding 119 Laps on Saturday night, but ran out of fuel coming to pit road for his last stop of the night, giving Gordon the break that he was looking for to unofficially etch himself into the 2014 edition of the “Chase.”
As pit stops cycled through the waning laps of the event, Gordon inherited the lead from Brad Keselowski and extended it over Harvick to earn his 89th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
“I knew we had a fast race car,” offered Gordon. “We have been bringing fast race cars every single weekend. It’s just given me so much confidence in the race cars and the race team. You know Kevin (Harvick) was tough. He was so strong I did not know if I could hold him off. I almost didn’t there at the end. I caught traffic. The car just got extremely loose on me and he was just coming. Luckily that was the checkered flag. What a huge weight lifted off this team’s shoulders. We have been leading the points but we needed to get to Victory Lane and they proved they were capable of it.”
The start of the fourth annual race was delayed, but potential severe weather south to the track. After a 35-minute delay, the race started with “Happy” Harvick out front. He would lead the first 41 laps before Joey Logano asserted himself into the lead on Lap 42, when the No. 4 pitted.
Logano’s trip at the front would be short lived however as Carl Edwards blasted to the point on Lap 43 before swapping it with Gordon a lap later. 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski muscled his way to the front on Lap 45, until the first yellow flag waived on Lap 48, when local hero Clint Bowyer spun on the backstretch.
Meanwhile, much of the field had already made their pit stop and now found themselves one or more laps down, which sent Keselowski to pit road alone and Harvick as the beneficiary of the free pass. In all, 37 cars would take a waive-around in order to retain their respective lost lap.
Through pit stops, Keselowski led the field back to green, but was quickly gobbled up by Harvick, who led the next 21 laps, which also included a caution on Lap 61 for a multi-car incident with Michael Annett, Landon Cassill, David Ragan and Ryan Truex. Cassill and Truex received the worst of the brunt in the Turn 4 incident.
Harvick continued to command the field, until Denny Hamlin brought out the third yellow on Lap 72. The leaders elected to stay out, which resulted in an eventual long-green flag run, which sent many of the lead lap cars to pit road approaching the Lap 110 mark.
Marcos Ambrose, however, spun on Lap 111, leaving Harvick, once again the beneficiary.
Earnhardt Jr. grabbed the lead exiting pit road and led nine laps through Lap 121, before Logano shoved his No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion back to the point for 17 markers on Lap 122.
Kahne farmed himself to the point on Lap 139 and led the next 18 laps, before trading it off with Logano over the next 25 laps until six-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson pointed his No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet SS on Lap 182 following a caution for a spin by Kurt Busch.
Johnson would lead the 11th race of the season when the scariest crash of the night occurred on Lap 188 when A.J. Allmendinger lost control of his No. 47 exiting Turn 4, and caught Justin Allgaier in the right rear, which sent his No. 51 towards the outside wall where David Gilliland was, sending Gilliland’s No. 38 into the air before coming to rest back on the frontstretch. Both Allgaier and Gilliland climbed from their machines rattled, but uninjured.
Logano gained control on the lead from Johnson on the restart and led until Harvick retook the lead on Lap 208 and held it for 30 circuits until he had to come to pit road for his final stop. Over the next 22 laps, Edwards, Kenseth, Johnson and Keselowski all led before having to make their final stop. Gordon then took his turn back at the front on Lap 260 and held off a hard-charging Kevin Harvick to win his third NSCS race at Kansas Speedway overall.
“I think it was overcoming a lot of adversity,” Gordon explained. “We had a lot of things in the first half of the race that did not go our way. We knew we had a fast race car. We weren’t sure if we had as good of a race car as Kevin (Harvick), but I thought if we got in front of him we could hold him off. Then that last pit stop I mean we cycled out in front of Kevin and it was confusing because there were guys still out there so we were in the lead. I pulled away from him. The car was just driving unbelievably and then all of a sudden I started getting extremely loose. He faded but then he kept coming back on me. Then my car would tighten up and I would go forward again and then he would fade.”
Behind Gordon and Harvick, Kasey Kahne delivered his best finish of the year with a third, with Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five.
Behind the story of Hendrick Motorsports earning their second win of the season, was Harvick’s teammate Danica Patrick.
In by far her best non-restrictor plate performance of her NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Patrick in her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet finished a career-best seventh eclipsing her eighth-place run at Daytona (Fla.) International in the Daytona 500 last February.
Patrick climbed to as high as third, but the handling faltered as the race laps ticked away. Still, Patrick’s performance on Saturday night proved noteworthy, as for just the ninth time in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history, a woman finished inside the top-10.
“Honestly the most rewarding part of my night was probably when I drove around the outside of the No. 48 on a restart,” sounded Patrick. “I’m extremely proud of this crew for building a new car that was just awesome. It was so good on restarts and long runs and tires getting old. Hard work pays off and they definitely put the hard work into it. Obviously really happy for days like today to give back to GoDaddy who has always been behind me and get on TV a little bit.
“Gibson (Tony, crew chief) did a good job in making changes for the race and it was good from the get-go. And I think what says even more are two things: It was really good on restarts and it was really good when it wasn’t quite right, and really good on long runs. And I think that just goes to show that this is a new car and they built a great one. And we’ve got more of these coming. That’s the even better news. But overall, I’m just proud for the team.
“Kevin (Harvick) has been a great teammate in helping me out and obviously he was very fast tonight. I am surprised he didn’t win, but congrats to Jeff (Gordon). And I’m happy for GoDaddy who has always been a big supporter of mine, no matter what. And it’s days like today that hopefully it makes them smile and makes it all pay off a little.”
Sandwiched between Earnhardt Jr. and Patrick was Carl Edwards with Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth to comprise the top-10.
Unofficially, Gordon leads the series standings by 15 over Matt Kenseth. Kyle Busch is third (-21), Dale Earnhardt Jr fourth (-26) and Carl Edwards (-27) fifth.
Next up for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the Sprint All-Star race from Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 17.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
