{"id":51751,"date":"2018-05-14T09:46:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T16:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=51751"},"modified":"2018-05-14T09:46:48","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T16:46:48","slug":"harvick-and-gragson-get-wins-in-nascar-kc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/harvick-and-gragson-get-wins-in-nascar-kc\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvick and Gragson Get Wins in NASCAR KC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Harvick
Kevin Harvick celebrates by driving around the track backward after winning at Kansas, his fifth win and second win in a row of the season. The backwards lap was reminiscent of Alan Kulwicki\u2019s \u201cPolish Lap\u201d after his win at Phoenix International Raceway (now ISM) in 1987.
All images via screenshot unless other wise noted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The NASCAR world was abuzz with the news of five L1 Penalties being levied against Cup and XFINITY teams after the Dover race heading into Kansas Speedway<\/a> this weekend. Noah Gragson overcame pitting while others stayed out on a last race pit stop to sweep the NASCAR Camping World 37 Kind Days 250. Kevin Harvick won what was probably the season\u2019s most exciting race to date in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup KC Masterpiece 400 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gragson Takes Lead from Pole and Almost Never Looks Back<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Harvick<\/p>\n

Noah Gragson, in the Kyle Busch Motorsports<\/a> Number 18, swept all three stages at Kansas Speedway on Saturday. John Hunter Nemechek<\/a>, in the NEMCO Motorsports<\/a> Number 8, made it interesting, coming from his starting position deep in the field up to eighth in less than 30 laps. Starting late in the second stage, Gragson battled for the lead with Stewart Friesen<\/a> in the Halmar Racing Racing<\/a> Number 52 and Kyle Busch<\/a> in the Number 4.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick<\/p>\n

Most of the rest of the race was spent watching Gragson, Busch and Friesen battling for the lead. Gragson and Friesen fought back in the final laps after going a lap down during green flag pit stops and outlasted a group of cars that didn\u2019t pit and won a fuel mileage race.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harvick Takes Lead Late to Get Fifth Win of the Season<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Harvick<\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick<\/a> took his Stewart-Haas Racing<\/a> Number 4 to the lead in style late in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup KC Masterpiece 400 to get his fifth win of the season, and his second in a row, late under the lights Saturday in a race that was red flagged for a seven car wreck (involved were MacMurray, both Dillons, Kenseth, Bowyer, Byron, and Buescher) with seven to go. Harvick squeaked through the wreck by the skin of his teeth. Truex came in third while Logano rounded out the top three.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Kyle Larson passes three cars three-wide after a restart early.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kyle Larson<\/a>, having started in 38th<\/sup> because he changed tires after spinning in qualifying, charged up 29 positions to the ninth position by the time a competition caution was thrown at Lap 31. He charged up to leader Ryan Blaney<\/a>\u2019s bumper within a few laps, but by Lap 69 Blaney found an extra gear and stretched his lead back out. Blaney ended up winning Stage 1 in his Penske Racing<\/a> Number 12 and Larson took his Chip Gannassi Racing<\/a> Number 42 to the Stage 2 win.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five L1 Penalties Leveled after Dover Race<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup teams have had L1 penalties leveled against them after post-race teardown following the rave last weekend at Dover. These teardown inspections were performed at the NASCAR R&D Center after Sunday\u2019s race, which Kevin Harvick won handily. In addition, two XFINITY teams also had L1 penalties leveled after Dover.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Richard Childress Racing<\/a> Number 3 of Austin Dillon<\/a> was found to have violated Section 20.4.3.a&d) with an unapproved splitter that did not meet specifications. Dillon\u2019s Crew Chief Justin Alexander was fined $25,000 and Car Chief Greg Ebert received a one MENCS points race suspension.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Clint Bowyer<\/a> Number 14 SHR team was found to have violated Section 20.4.8.1, the section that deals with the rear window support. Teardown revealed that a brace supporting the rear window failed specifications because it \u201cdid not keep the rear window glass rigid in all directions at all times.\u201d Daniel Suarez\u2019<\/a>s Number 19 JGR<\/a> team violated Section 20.4.8.1.c because the \u201crear window decklid was not sealed properly.\u201d Both Crew Chiefs-Mike Bugarewicz (14) and Scott Graves (19) were fined $50,000 apiece and both Car Chiefs-Jerry Cook and Todd Brewer, respectively, have been suspended for two points races. Owner and driver points (20 each) were also docked from both teams.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the XFINITY side, Jeb Burton<\/a>\u2019s Number 3 RCR team and Justin Allgaier<\/a>\u2019s Number 7 JR Motorsports<\/a> team were awarded L1 penalties after teardown following the Dover race. Justin\u2019s Crew Chief Jason Burdett was fined $25,000 and suspended for two points races in the XFINITY Series. Nick Harrison, Crew Chief for the 3 team, was fined $10,000 and Car Chief Michael Scearces was also suspended for two Series points races.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy Jeb Burton Twitter page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 3 team was found to have violated Section 20.4.3.a&c with a splitter that didn\u2019t meet specs. The 7 team violated Section 20.14.2.h, the section that covers rear suspension and trailing arm angles\/pinion angle shims. It was found at teardown that the truck trailing arm spacer\/pinion angle shim surfaces were not in contact at all points, at all times, which can create additional side force during the race.<\/p>\n

The L1 penalty also comes with the result that Allgaier can\u2019t count on the win for its playoff benefits and will have to win again for a Chase berth. He also loses the five playoff points. He does, however, get to keep the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus.<\/p>\n

\"Harvick
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a side note, Kurt Busch\u2019s Number 41 MENCS car was found to have an improperly tightened lug nut after the race. His Crew Chief, Billy Scott, was fined $10,000.<\/p>\n

Image Gallery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NASCAR world was abuzz with the news of five L1 Penalties being levied against Cup and XFINITY teams after the Dover race heading into Kansas Speedway this weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":51764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[1528,1074,127,41,4492,1632],"class_list":["post-51751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-kevin-harvick","tag-mike-aguilar","tag-nascar","tag-news","tag-noah-gragson","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Lead-Art-min-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-dsH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51765,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51751\/revisions\/51765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}