Leading 139 of 313 laps, Harvick won for the fifth time in the past six Phoenix events, doing so in thrilling fashion by beating Carl Edwards to the line by 0.010 seconds.
A post-race inspection failure at Indianapolis resulted in crew chief Rodney Childers being suspended for the series' next race at Pocono.
Harvick's No. 4 exhibited such speed throughout the year that it was easy to forget he entered August with just one victory. That changed at Bristol when he won the Bristol Night Race -- on a Sunday afternoon after a rain postponement -- for his second victory that also served to prime the No. 4 team before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
One week after a public dressing down of his pit crew over the radio at Darlington, Harvick rolled into Richmond with two new members on his over-the-wall crew -- the front tire changer and front tire carrier. The transition yielded quicker stops, and a more pleasant driver.
One week after a weird Chicagoland race in which Harvick was trapped a lap down, his chances of advancing in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup were … not bad, but certainly not as comfortable as he would have liked. No worries. As he's done time and time again in this format, Harvick and his team rose to the occasion with a clutch victory at New Hampshire to advance into the Round of 12.
Harvick inched closer to his third consecutive year racing for the championship in Miami when he won at Kansas in October. The victory ensured the Stewart-Haas Racing driver would advance to the Round of 8, where his best track, Phoenix, awaited.
Harvick has had his share of incidents over the years, and the Talladega Chase race added another to the list. Close racing at the event's conclusion appeared to lead to a miscommunication with Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch, which led to Busch swiping Harvick's car on the cool-down lap. Harvick responded on pit lane post-race by delivering a jab into Busch's car while the driver was unbuckling.
It didn't take long for Harvick to be back in the headlines with a conflict. Two weeks after he and Kurt Busch tangled at Talladega, he faced criticism at Texas from Austin Dillon after contact sent Dillon's car careening into the outside wall and spoiling his good day. "He didn't like that the silver spoon kid was outrunning him," Dillon quipped -- a reference to a conflict between the two in 2013, that included some choice words from Harvick, for which he later apologized. If it matters (it didn't to the No. 3 camp), Harvick owned up to the incident and apologized.
In what might go down as the biggest upset in the postseason, Harvick -- who entered the penultimate race at Phoenix having won five of the past six races at the track, and finishing second in the other -- did NOT win in the desert. He finished fourth, a pretty good showing under any circumstance, but it wasn't great on this day. With two spots available in the Championship 4 for Miami, Harvick fell just short as Joey Logano won the race and Kyle Busch finished second, sending those drivers to the title round -- to join Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson in the final.
For the first time since 2014, when the Chase changed to an elimination-style format, Harvick was not one of the four drivers competing for the title. But he had one of his best showings of the season regardless, starting on the pole, leading 79 laps and finishing third. It could portend yet another strong year in 2017 when SHR makes the manufacturer transition to Ford.
Info taken from NASCAR.com.
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