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Harvick Roars Past Peters In Overtime NASCAR Truck Finish
Kevin Harvick roared past Timothy Peters moments after a Lap 135 restart and pulled away to win Friday night's Ford 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in a green-white-checkered-flag finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The victory was Harvick's second in a row, his third in six starts this year and the sixth of his career. Matt Crafton finished second and Colin Braun third, as both drivers also passed Peters, who ran fourth, on the final two-lap dash.
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Harvick, who came to the pits for tires under the final caution on Lap 129 of 136, was a double winner Friday night, given that the truck he fields for Ron Hornaday Jr. locked up the series owners' championship with an eighth-place finish. Hornaday clinched his record fourth drivers' championship last Friday at Phoenix.
"We knew we needed to go out and beat Kyle," said Harvick, who led 108 laps. "We knew that Hornaday needed to race safe and do what he needed to do to win the owners' championship. Obviously, he won the drivers' championship last week.
"Our goal was to go out and lead the most laps and win the race. … I think everybody was concerned about their tires (late in the race), and there weren't very many trucks on the lead lap, so we came down for four tires (while Peters remained on the track).
"I thought the 17 (Peters) was going to be a sitting duck there, (and) luckily it all worked out."
Todd Bodine came home fifth, followed by Mike Skinner, David Starr, Hornaday, Johnny Sauter and T.J. Bell.
Kyle Busch's hopes of winning the owners' championship in Billy Ballew's No. 51 Toyota disappeared on Lap 82, when Busch came to the pits to replace a cut tire. To compound the problem, Busch had to serve a pass-through penalty when his crew failed to carry the damaged tire to the pit wall before Busch left the stall. Busch finished 13th.
Harvick pitted for fuel on Lap 114 and regained the lead eight laps later when Aric Almirola made his final pit stop. After the field cycled through, Harvick quickly opened an advantage of more than four seconds over Peters and expanded the margin until Ryan Sieg's spin on Lap 127 caused the fourth caution of the race and bunched the field.
Notes: Terry Cook was not entered in the Ford 200, ending his series record streak of 296 consecutive starts. … Sauter was named Raybestos Rookie of the Year in the truck series. ... Braun secured fifth place in the final series standings.
- By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
PaddockTalk Perspective
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