Race report

NASCAR Cup Michigan

Harvick snaps 65-race winless streak with Michigan NASCAR Cup win

A timely caution during green-flag pit stops helped Kevin Harvick snap a 65-race winless streak with a victory Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

Jim Utter

Edited: Aug 8, 2022, 1:09 PM

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Harvick had just made his final green-flag stop for tire and fuel to make it to the finish when Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain wrecked on Lap 160 of 200 to bring out a caution.

All of the lead-lap cars ahead of Harvick elected to pit but he and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford stayed out and inherited the lead.

On the ensuring restart, Harvick got a great jump on the field to clear for the lead and spent the final 37 laps cruising to the win without serious challenge. He took the checkered flag 2.9 seconds ahead of Bubba Wallace.

Harvick’s last NASCAR Cup Series victory came Sept. 19, 2020 at Bristol, Tenn. – a span of 65 races. It was the second-longest winless streak of his career.

With the victory, Harvick advances to the 16-driver playoffs and he makes the 15th different driver to win a race this season with three remaining in the regular season.

“We’ve had several good runs the last few weeks – Loudon (N.H.), Pocono where the car ran good but we didn’t have everything work out. I’m just really proud of everybody on our team,” said Harvick, who earned his 59th career win, which is 10th all-time in the Cup Series. “They’ve worked all year long trying to make these Mustangs run faster.

“My guys have done a great job to take what we have, maximize it and do the things we need to do. I’m just really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

Asked if he or his team ever doubted themselves, Harvick said: “Everybody who doubted us didn’t know us.”

Denny Hamlin rallied from a late pit road penalty to finish third, Joey Logano was fourth and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs, who was substituting for the injured Kurt Busch for the third consecutive race.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap cars pit but Daniel Suarez was among those who stayed out and inherited the lead. Larson was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field.

On the restart on Lap 127, Suarez was followed by Bell, Austin Dillon, Logano, Ross Chastain and Harvick.

With 50 laps remaining, Suarez held on to the lead with his Trackhouse teammate Chastain right behind him. Hamlin ran third, Bell fourth and Harvick fifth.

On Lap 153, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe kicked off a final round of green-flag pit stops to take on new tires and fuel to make it to the finish of the race.

Suarez and Chastain pit on Lap 158, turning the lead over to Hamlin. Harvick also pit.

On Lap 160 in the middle of green-flag stops, Bell attempted to block an advance by Chastain and the two ended up wrecking into the Turn 4 wall to bring out a caution.

Most of the lead-lap cars pit with Hamlin the first off pit road. Harvick stayed on the track and inherited the lead.

Gibbs was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field. Hamlin was penalized for a safety violation and for having too many crew members over the wall and also had to restart from the rear of the field.

When the race resumed on Lap 166, Harvick was followed by Wallace, Larson and Bowman. Hamlin lined up 19th.

With 20 laps remaining, Harvick had expanded his lead to more than 4 seconds over Logano as Wallace ran third.

With 15 laps to go, Wallace moved into second to try to challenge Harvick for the lead.

Suarez was forced to pit under green with four laps to go due to a flat tire.

Stage 2

Following a restart with seven laps to go, Hamlin held off a spirited challenge from Suarez to claim the Stage 2 win.

Larson was third, Bell was fourth and Brad Keselowski ended up fifth.

During the break between Stages 1 and 2, most of the lead-lap cars pit with Chastain first off pit road. Gibbs and LaJoie were the only drivers who stayed out.

The race resumed on Lap 52 with Gibbs leading the way followed by Corey LaJoie, Chastain and Larson.

Chastain quickly powered into the lead on the restart.

With 50 laps remaining in the stage, Chastain maintained a small lead over Larson with Bell in third.

On Lap 80, Hamlin got a push from Bell and went to the outside of Chastain to grab the lead for the first time in the race.

Gibbs, who did not pit under the stage break, finally made a green-flag stop on Lap 82.

With 30 laps to go, several of the lead-lap cars began a round of green-flag pit stops to take new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the stage. Blaney, Wallace and Harvick were among the first to pit.

Byron and Chastain pit on Lap 93. Chastain was penalized for an uncontrolled tire during his stop and had to serve a pass-through penalty.

On Lap 98, the No. 41 Ford of Cole Custer had a left-front tire issue that turned into a fire under the hood. Jones had not yet pit and was the leader.

Those drivers who had not yet pit did so under the caution and Hamlin stayed out and inherited the lead.

On the restart on Lap 106, Hamlin was followed by Bell and Harvick. Jones, who was first off pit road, lined up 10th.

Tyler Reddick peeled off before the green flag and dropped to pit road with a potential engine issue.

Noah Gragson spun and wrecked on the backstretch on Lap 109 to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

A handful of cars elected to pit, including Harvick, Truex and Bell. The race returned to green on Lap 114 with Hamlin out front followed by Keselowski and Suarez.

Stage 1

Bell held off JGR teammate Hamlin to take the Stage 1 win, the second stage victory of the 2022 season.

Jones was third, Truex fourth and Chris Buescher was fifth.

Wallace started on the pole and took command early in the race, building a 1.6-second lead over Reddick after 10 laps.

NASCAR displayed a competition caution on Lap 21 to allow teams to check tire wear following rain showers earlier in the day.

Most of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Wallace first off pit road. Bell was among those who stayed out and inherited the lead.

The race returned to green on Lap 25 with Bell out front followed by Jones and Truex. Wallace lined up 14th.

Coming off Turn 2, Cody Ware fell off the pace and spun in the middle of the field, which triggered a multi-car wreck that several drivers, including Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Harrison Burton and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Cindric, Almirola, Busch, Burton and Stenhouse all suffered too much damage to continue in the race.

“I had a really fast (car), it was looking really good for the day and obviously not a good result,” Busch said. “Just got squeezed between (Almirola) spinning and myself and the fence. Just don’t get it man, just can’t buy a break right now.”

The race returned to green on Lap 33 with Bell still out front followed by Jones, Hamlin and Truex.

Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Laps Led Retirement Points Bonus 1 4 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 200 2:54'07.978 38 43 2 23 Bubba Wallace Toyota 200 2:54'10.881 2.903 2.903 22 35 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 200 2:54'11.888 3.910 1.007 38 53 4 22 Joey Logano Ford 200 2:54'15.801 7.823 3.913 36 5 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 200 2:54'16.130 8.152 0.329 32 6 19 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 200 2:54'16.214 8.236 0.084 38 7 5 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 200 2:54'17.929 9.951 1.715 38 8 43 Erik Jones Chevrolet 200 2:54'18.719 10.741 0.790 5 42 9 48 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 200 2:54'18.950 10.972 0.231 31 10 45 Ty Gibbs Toyota 200 2:54'19.207 11.229 0.257 2 11 9 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 200 2:54'21.629 13.651 2.422 26 12 24 William Byron Chevrolet 200 2:54'21.832 13.854 0.203 31 13 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 200 2:54'25.672 17.694 3.840 28 14 42 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 200 2:54'26.310 18.332 0.638 23 15 6 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 200 2:54'27.233 19.255 0.923 28 16 17 Chris Buescher Ford 200 2:54'27.441 19.463 0.208 1 27 17 31 Justin Haley Chevrolet 200 2:54'31.567 23.589 4.126 20 18 33 Austin Hill Chevrolet 200 2:54'33.145 25.167 1.578 19 7 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 200 2:54'38.817 30.839 5.672 18 20 14 Chase Briscoe Ford 200 2:54'45.726 37.748 6.909 18 21 77 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 200 2:54'46.551 38.573 0.825 22 51 Cody Ware Ford 200 2:54'47.208 39.230 0.657 15 23 78 United States B.J. McLeod Ford 199 2:54'25.552 1 Lap 1 Lap 1 24 1 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 199 2:54'28.558 1 Lap 3.006 29 18 25 99 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 198 2:54'36.415 2 Laps 1 Lap 33 21 26 20 Christopher Bell Toyota 193 2:51'53.518 7 Laps 5 Laps 31 Accident 28 27 38 United States Todd Gilliland Ford 188 2:54'24.438 12 Laps 5 Laps 10 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 187 2:54'44.500 13 Laps 1 Lap 9 29 8 Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 110 1:59'21.109 90 Laps 77 Laps Engine 8 30 16 Noah Gragson Chevrolet 109 1:39'36.474 91 Laps 1 Lap Accident 31 41 United States Cole Custer Ford 94 1:21'32.282 106 Laps 15 Laps Accident 6 32 21 Harrison Burton Ford 29 31'10.062 171 Laps 65 Laps Accident 5 33 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 25 20'28.356 175 Laps 4 Laps Accident 4 34 10 Aric Almirola Ford 25 21'11.625 175 Laps 43.269 Accident 3 35 15 United States J.J. Yeley Ford 24 19'04.336 176 Laps 1 Lap Accident 36 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 24 19'04.952 176 Laps 0.616 Accident 1 37 2 Austin Cindric Ford 24 19'05.054 176 Laps 0.102

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