Harvick ends Stewart’s chances

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Don’t tell Tony Stewart that Bristol has changed.

The recently reconfigured track may not promote quite as much physical racing as it once did, but the final laps of Sunday’s Food City 500 were definitely old-school. Stewart, after leading the most laps and running a tight second with a lap-and-a-half to go, was put into the turn two wall by Kevin Harvick, ending Stewart’s shot at winning and sending Richard Childress Racing to a one-two-three sweep.

The main beneficiary of Stewart’s misfortune was Jeff Burton, who sped past both Stewart and Harvick just before the caution flag flew to get to second behind Denny Hamlin. A two-lap shootout ensued, and Burton got another break when Hamlin’s car slowed around turn two. Once in the lead he had little trouble holding off his teammates, with Harvick and Clint Bowyer following him to the finish line.

“It was a good day for us,” said Burton, last year’s runner-up in this race, after claiming his first Bristol win and the 20th of his Sprint Cup career. “We put ourselves in position to win and that’s the way you win races. We’re not going to sit here and say we were the best car, but when you take care of things, you can take advantage of breaks

“What I’m proud of today is we did the little things right. That’s the sign of a mature team. They always forget the ones you deserved to win and didn’t. I won’t lose sleep tonight because somebody says they had a faster car because I’ve got the trophy.”

Greg Biffle finished fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, rookie Aric Almirola, David Gilliland and Matt Kenseth. Jeff Gordon was 11th, Stewart 14th, Carl Edwards 16th, points leader Kyle Busch 17th and Jimmie Johnson 18th.

Stewart, who led a dominating 267 laps, battled Harvick for the final 125 laps, losing the lead briefly on lap 387 before getting it back moments later and building a one-second lead on lap 433. Harvick cut the margin in half in 25 laps, then got to Stewart’s bumper on lap 481 before a caution briefly halted the battle with 15 laps to go.

The first of three key late moments ensued when Stewart, Hamlin and Earnhardt stayed on the track while the rest of the leaders pitted for fresh tires. When the race restarted with five laps to go, Hamlin surprised Stewart by going high around turn one for the lead, and seconds later Harvick blew past Earnhardt for third.

A lap later Harvick was underneath Stewart around turn two, but he went too low and hit the apron, which shot his car up and into Stewart’s.

“I just lost it there underneath Tony when I clipped the apron,” Harvick said. “I just made a mistake. I was trying to win the race and got too low. I don’t know what else to say. Tony and I have been good friends for a long time, so I think we can handle this.”

The restart with two to go began good for Hamlin, who checked out by three car lengths going into turn one. However, as he excited turn two the car slowed dramatically and Burton managed to avoid hitting him as went high for the lead.

“I know I could have held those guys off there at the end,” said a frustrated Hamlin. “We were either out of fuel or it was a fuel pickup problem like we had here last year. It’s been that kind of season for us. We just couldn’t finish it off.”

Burton, however, had no problem finishing off the surprising win, crossing the finish line a half-second ahead of Harvick.

“This is the hardest race track we go to to drive underneath somebody, and when Kevin and Tony got together, I viewed that as the opportunity,” Burton said. “If we had any shot to win, we had to jump through it — and we did.”

The sweep was the first of its kind at RCR, something the owner was quite aware of afterward.

“A lot of times, to have three cars just finish Bristol is amazing,” Childress said. “In practice all three were good, so I felt we had a chance to have a good race. There’s a lot of hard work and dedication going on back at the shop. I couldn’t prouder of all the effort being put out.”