Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, beats Carl Edwards, driver of the #19 Stanley Toyota, to the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on March 13, 2016 Photo – Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Just four races into the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season, NASCAR’s new low downforce and Goodyear’s soft tires are giving drivers and fans two close finishes – Daytona and Phoenix – and setting track records along the way. That makes the rest of the season seem much more intriguing with 22 more races until the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins in September.
Although Carl Edwards came within inches and just 0.010 seconds short of his first Sprint Cup win of the season, he made it clear in his post race comments that he was having fun racing Kevin Harvick to the Good Sam 500 checkered flag at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday afternoon – the closest finish ever at that track.
“We made him work for it,” says Edwards. “That’s more than we’ve been able to do here the last few times. Just a lot of fun. I really wish it would have worked out a little bit differently, but it’s a good race.”
Indeed, Edwards did make Harvick, work for his victory by bumping and banging in a drag race to the finish.
“I ran into him about as hard as I thought I could without wrecking him, and it ended up being a drag race,” added Edwards. “It was kind of fun coming to the line because I thought, man, I got him, and then he doored me real hard and then he got a little run and then I tried to door him and slow him down, but it just didn’t work.”
Harvick was not surprised by Edwards efforts to gain an advantage over him and was developing his own plan of action to keep his lead. Again, it was clear Harvick was having fun too.
“I was fully expecting everything that I got, but I just needed to be able to get knocked up the track far enough to be able to put the throttle back down,” says race winner, Harvick. “Maybe a little bit too defensive. I missed the bottom with the way that the rubber had built up on the racetrack, it just kind of walked up the track and he was able to hold the bottom and able to get to the left rear, and I felt like I got back to the throttle even soon enough to be able to hold him off, but I was kind of a couple feet behind and was able to kind of scrub against his door a little bit to slow him back down, and by the time he’d realized that he was going to be behind, we had carried the momentum by him and we were at the start-finish line.
“Fun finish. I think as drivers and as a sport, that’s really the benefit — one of the benefits of the low downforce package and the tire situation. The tire situation being the biggest thing is so you have those different strategies with the late cautions to where you have two tires, you have no tires, you probably have four tires, I’m sure, to have the comers and goers and the exciting finishes.
“That is exactly what we’re all looking for, for finishes and strategy as you look at the low downforce and the soft tires.”
When the drivers are having fun racing each other, it makes sense that fans are having fun watching them race. For NASCAR that’s a great formula for an exciting season ahead and with the intensity during the Chase added in September….well….that just tickles our imaginations.