Race day is sunny in Phoenix. Martin Truex Jr. starts on the front row, beside Kyle Busch. During the week it was announced that a rumor is going around the garage that Kevin Harvick has signed with Stewart Haas Racing for 2014.
Lap 6 Truex has drifted back through the field with car trouble. He’s getting slower and slower, but Chad Johnson told him to stay out as long as possible and maybe they’ll get a caution. On lap 11 he comes into the pits. The announcers are saying it sounds like he’s down a cylinder.
Caution is out on lap 16 or so, the 19 hit the wall in turn 4. Jimmie was giving info about the car and eventually Chad yelled at him to shut up they’re pitting. He apologised afterward for yelling at him. Chad said he doesn’t think they have anything for the 18 and 11, but Chad says he can get him up there for third. Of course that ends up on air.
Jimmie out of his pit box ahead of Bradley K. Brad came in 11th Jimmie came in 19th. Lots of cars did not pit on this stop. Brad has gained four or five spots since the stop and Jimmie is still in the position he was in when they restarted.
Truex is out – lap 43. Basically the engine just blew up on the second lap. They’re still looking at it trying to figure out exactly what happened. Jimmie has moved up to 15th position.
Caution is out on lap 51 David Gilliland in the 38 has hit the wall after blowing out a right front tire. Chad asked for his opinion conservative or track position. Jimmie says he has no idea.
Chad says they’re two-tenths off where they need to be. Chad is going to take the call off turn four to the finish line because Earl can’t see as clearly when Jimmie is coming toward him. Chad wants to know from Jimmie what they’re missing.
Lots of folks took two tires for track position.
Chad is also calling the green flag for Jimmie.
Burton hit the wall with his primary car in first practice. They brought out the backup car. He put that in the wall yesterday. They had to repair the primary and so he had to start at the back of the field in the primary. He’s driven it to fifth place so far on lap 73.
The spotters are on the top of the grandstands between 1 and 2 instead of the normal position on the frontstretch.
Now they’ve played the audio of Chad deciding to spot for Jimmie off four. Petree said he’d be careful of that because he’s spotted at this track before and its very hard to call a car clear from down low anywhere on the track.
111 Burton is in the pits said he had a vibration. He said the glare is getting bad and its getting to where he can’t see.
Lap 122 Denny passes KyBu for the lead. The teams are preparing for green flag stops.
Lap 131 Keselowski has stayed out on this rotation long enough to lead a lap and get a bonus point. Keselowski comes in on lap 133.
Caution is out on lap 167 for debris in turn four.
With 83 laps to go Bradley K is challenging KyBu for the lead. With 79 laps to go Bradley K takes the lead.
Lap 235 Jimmie, in seventh position, hits the wall and heads to the pits. He says he has no brakes. He said the right front blew. Jimmie is headed behind the wall with 76 laps to go and the fans are cheering.
Brad made a pass on pit road and it appears a lug nut fell off his car during the pit stop resulting in Brad coming out in fourth position. Kurt Busch got back on the lead lap after getting the free pass.
Caution is out with 39 laps to go. Looks like the 34 (David Ragan) got into the wall. Bradley K is coming in to pit while Kyle Busch is staying out. 8 cars do not pit of the 19 on the lead lap. They changed left side tires only. David Ragan lost the right front also, hitting the wall in turn 4.
Caution is out on lap 281. Tony Stewart spins with help from Aric Almirola.
Restart with 28 laps to go, KyBu hops out to the lead closely followed by KHarv and Kasey Kahne.
Jimmie is currently shown in 33rd position. He was in the garage for 38 laps. Jimmie cannot gain any more positions at this point, though he is back out on the track.
With 12 to go Hornish has a tire rub that’s smoking crazy. He had contact with Danica. His crew chief called him in. Hornish hit the wall in turn three before he could get back in.
Paul is saying the call to get left side tires was probably not a good call since the car won’t go on left sides only.
8 laps to go when the restart. KyBu battling Happy Harvick on the restart. KHarv takes the lead with seven laps to go. KyBu started on the inside and Harvick took advantage of it. Gordon hits the outside wall with six laps to go. He said he has a cut tire. The 17 seems to have a tire rub. Menard is into the 55’s bumpers. All over his back side. Bowyer and Gordon had contact and Jeff hit the wall shortly afterward.
2 laps to go and Harvick is leading. Bradley K is chasing Joey Logano. Caution is out as Jeff Gordon turns collecting Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano. Clint is on fire. The caution was out before the white flag. Jeff was apparently getting revenge on Bowyer for cutting down his tire. Jeff has been summoned to the NASCAR hauler for a visit. Somebody
A brawl has ensued! Someone ran to jump Jeff Gordon and the teams started brawling. Clint got his car stopped and ran headlong to find Jeff Gordon and jump him. Brian Pattie and Mikey both tried to hold him back. Clint is headed in the direction of pit lane. The race has been white flagged. There will be a green-white-check finish since Harvick had not reached the start-finish line and the white flag when the caution came out for the Bowyer-Gordon wreck. It was a complete melee! They had Jeff pinned against the toolbox to keep him out of it.
Jamie Little said she was listening on the radio and it was premeditated. She’s asking Alan Gustafson his thoughts. He says he loves Jeff Gordon and he stands behind him 100 percent and he will fix the cars all day long.
Vince is talking to RC about the white flag not being out. RC says they have to show it to them from a different angle because they felt like they were on the line when the white flag came out. RC says the fuel is tough right now.
Clint has gotten back into the car which is heavily damaged and laid down fluid all over the track resulting in the long red flagged cleanup.
KHarv wins the race sliding out of four to the lead. Burton got into the back of Danica, she spun around. No yellow flag though she was across the track. Cars behind Happy got into the fluid in turn four and began bounding off each other like bumper cars. Once again KyBu lead the most laps and lost the race.
Brad is the championship leader. Brad has comments on what happened today. He now has a 20 point lead in the championship. Because the race went extra laps Jimmie ended up finishing 32nd instead of 33rd – passing David Ragan.
Jimmie says, “the championship is way, way out of our control now obviously”.
Happy said they were quick to throw the caution then let them finish the race sliding through oil. He’s doing the interview with his sunglasses on. He gives Delana and Keelan (Baby Otis) a kiss in victory lane.
If Brad finishes 15th or better next week he wins the championship.