Harvick, Logano See Chase Championship Hopes Take Hit at Charlotte

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

What a difference a year makes.

Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick finished 1-2 in last year’s edition of the Bank of America 500, but this year both drivers saw their day end early on Lap 155 of 334 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The No. 22 Team Penkse Ford of Joey Logano hit the Turn 1 wall on Lap 117 after a tire went down, a problem that plagued him again moments later, but the heavy impact forced him to go to the garage for repairs.

“I don’t know (what the issue was),” Logano said.  “Tires are popping.  We’re not the only car that had the issue, but we’re the ones that hit the wall when it happened, so that’s not the best place to have them go down.

“We had a fast car.  Our car was capable of winning the race.  We drove up from 10th and were up to third and running down the leaders, so I felt really good about what we had.  I don’t know.  Things happen.  It’s part of racing, I guess.”

For Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, the day started from the pole but quickly unraveled due to an unknown mechanical issue that hit the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, with all signs pointing to a lack of oil pressure.

“It just suddenly shut off and the things that it points to are no oil pressure,” Harvick said.

“It’s definitely not a power issue with the battery or anything like that.  They are trying to diagnosis it.  I hate it for everybody on our Busch team they made some great adjustments today and got our car back where we needed to be to run up front and everything was going fine.  Lots of things can go wrong and today they did.”

Logano and Harvick sit at the bottom of the 12 remaining championship contenders, six and eight points below the cutoff line with two races remaining before four drivers will be eliminated.

About Joey Barnes 600 Articles
Joey Barnes is the Founder of Motorsports Tribune, an outlet that began with the goal of helping aspiring journalists break into and grow the industry. A regular on the racing scene since 2013, the journey for Joey started by covering a Grand-Am event at Circuit of The Americas in his home state of Texas. He has since primarily focused on the IndyCar Series, with appearances in the garages of NASCAR, paddocks of Formula 1, IMSA and World Endurance Championship, while also occasionally engulfing clouds of dust at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals and select Supercross rounds. With previous stops at Autoweek, IndyCar.com, Motorsport.com and RACER, among others, Joey evolved from the singular task as a freelance writer to advanced roles behind the copy desk and alongside some of the best editorial teams in the business. Recognized as a multi-time award winner by the National Motorsports Press Association, Joey currently resides in Dallas-Fort Worth with his trusty four-legged canine companion, Rocket.

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