Harvick Goes To Victory Lane In New Hampshire

With a bold late race call by crew chief Rodney Childers, Kevin Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing secured their first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season, making it back-to-back race wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the team.

“Congratulations Kevin, Rodney, and the Stewart-Haas crew,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Kevin and Rodney put the team in contention for the win and Kevin drove a great race to bring home the win this weekend. I just want to say congratulations to Ford and everyone back at Roush Yates Engines. This was a finish that will be remembered.”

Harvick, in the No. 4 Ford Mustang, capitalized on a late race call by Childers to stay out during the last caution of the race while all, but three cars came in for tires. Harvick had a great restart, but soon had a hard charging Denny Hamlin closing in. As Harvick took the white flag with one lap to go, Hamlin was at his rear bumper and it quickly turned into a drag race to the finish. Harvick was able to hold off Hamlin to take the checkered flag with a margin of victory of 0.210-second.

This was Harvick’s fourth victory at the 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the 46th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career. In addition, it marked the 52nd points-race MENCS win for SHR.

“I felt like we had a great car all weekend and everybody had been doing a good job,” commented Childers in Victory Lane. “We were just in a bad spot there with track position and I didn’t think we were gonna win from where we were at, so sometimes you have to make those decisions and Kevin did a great job on the restart and holding his own. That track position was key today and clean air and just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody at Ford and everybody that has pushed hard for us all year to try to get our cars better and get back to Victory Lane.”

A total of five Fords finished in the top-10. Following Harvick was Ryan Blaney in P4, Ryan Newman in P7, Joey Logano P9, and rounding out the top-10 was pole sitter Brad Keselowski.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, it was pole winner Cole Custer, from Stewart-Haas Racing, finishing P2 in New Hampshire in the Roxor 200 while Ford Performance teammates Paul Menard finished P5, Chase Briscoe P6, and Austin Cindric P12.

MENCS will head to Pocono while NXS heads to Iowa this weekend. Reference the full 2019 schedule on roushyates.com.

RYE PR