Stewart-Haas Racing had an eventful Sunday at Dover, but what made it eventful kept it from being great.
At one point in the middle of the 404-lap race all four SHR cars were at the front of the field, with Kevin Harvick leading Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch.
Harvick led 286 laps but a pit road miscue forced him to pit twice under green late. He finished sixth.
Almirola led 64 laps and looked poised for his first win with the team until Bowyer crashed with less than 10 laps to go. On the ensuing restart, Almirola caused a multi-car wreck. He finished 13th. Busch, the only unscathed SHR driver, finished fifth.
SHR led 351 of 404 laps in failing to win.
On NASCAR America, Jeff Burton and Kyle Petty discussed SHR’s path through the rest of Round of 12, specifically with Harvick’s team on pit road.
“They’ve got to get this fixed,” Burton said. “It’s not an easy fix. ... As these playoffs move on, these type of things will keep you from winning a championship. Because they ran so well, they actually earned the most amount of points. ... That’s what running well can do for you today.”
Petty observed that all four SHR cars were of championship caliber Sunday.
“All four teams performed at that level,” Petty said. “All four drivers performed at that level. But Kevin Harvick, once again, threw down notice yesterday, I think, to a lot of people to say, ‘Hey, that first round we were here. But we come to play ball now.’”
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