Truex, Logano make make pointed comments following yet another Harvick victory

By Managing Editor, Summer Bedgood

They say that misery loves company. If that’s the case, the whole Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series field can wallow in the misery of consistently getting beat by Kevin Harvick.

Harvick won the KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night, earning his fifth win of the season and second race in a row.

Towards the end of the race, it looked as though Martin Truex Jr. was going to win his third Kansas race in a row after sweeping both races in 2017. Though Harvick had dominated early, Truex was able to work his way into the top spot after some pit strategy and aggressive restarts.

Under a caution period from lap 249 to 252, pit strategy for the end of the 267-lap race began to take shape. Truex and Joey Logano decided to stay out, while Harvick decided to head to pit road.

Truex and Logano lined up alongside one another and Truex was able to take the lead on the restart. However, a caution came out almost immediately afterward, setting up yet another restart. Harvick, who had fresher tires, made his move, drove around Logano and to the bumper of Truex.

As Truex began to pull away and the laps wound down, Harvick started trying different lines to try and catch up.

And it worked.

Harvick passed Truex with one lap remaining, breaking Truex’s Kansas winning streak and preventing the defending champion from winning his second race of the season.

“I thought we were going to be alright there,” said Truex post-race. “Like three or four to go, my car just got real tight and I chattered the right front off of turn four, and I was like, ‘Oh boy, that’s not good.’ We had been so tight all night and I didn’t know where to go once he was getting there. If I go to the top, he’s just going to catch me on the bottom. I might as well run where I feel I can run the fastest, and I did and it just wasn’t enough. Good strategy call by Cole (Pearn, crew chief) and overall, just a hell of an effort by everybody on our team. We had to fight hard, we were awful at the start of the race. We’re missing something right now, just can’t get the thing turned, so we felt tight all night long. Got better for sure the last three or four runs of the race, but still have to find some turns. We’ll get to work on that.”

Logano also felt like he had one of the fastest racecars, but just not enough to beat the No. 4 team.

“Dangit, just had a ‑‑ we had a top‑5 car,” said a disappointed Logano post-race. “We weren’t a winning car. At best we were usually around a 4th place car. That’s about where we were. Had the opportunity to stay out there and get track position and just got beat on restarts. Got beat by the 78 while we were the leader there. Just didn’t have a ‑‑ Erik (Jones) wasn’t going to push me. I should have known better. He’s going to go three wide and try to take the lead. I can’t blame him for that, which gave Martin a good corner on the high side there to be able to clear us and take the lead. Then I had another shot at it and tried to time it, but he out‑snookered me.”

The fastest car won tonight at @kansasspeedway. We were close just didn't have the restarts we needed at the end. Got to make big moves to win.

— Joey Logano (@joeylogano) May 13, 2018

When both drivers were questioned on what it was going to take to beat Harvick, there were no holds barred in the responses.

“Well, we’re going to have to find something,” said Truex. “We’re going to have to find some speed, and I think our cars are capable. We’ve had good speed throughout the season at points. We just haven’t been as consistent as last year in finding it. I feel like the box for us is a little bit smaller, and it’s pretty evident that the Fords have an unfair advantage this year, so I’ll just throw that out there.”

The comments brought laughter from the press members in the room, as well as, from the drivers themselves. 

Logano, who was sitting next to Truex in the Kansas Speedway media center, responded.

“Boy, how the tides have turned and you don’t like it,” said Logano.

“How does it feel?” Toyota Racing driver Truex retorted to Logano, who is part of the Ford Racing camp.

“How does it feel?” Logano answered. “Not as good as the 4, I can tell you that much. Oh, man, I’m still chasing a car that’s way faster than me. It used to be the 78, now it’s the 4 at this point.  The good news is we’re closer than we were last year, so we are consistent, we’re knocking off top‑5s, top‑10s, getting stage points every time. I think we’re probably still second in points, cutting away in Kyle’s lead hopefully a little bit there, and I know Kevin cut down into my lead a little bit. Points battle is getting closer. Like you said, we’re consistent, we’re just consistently off the Stewart‑Haas cars right now.”

What a battle at @KansasSpeedway.@KevinHarvick passed Martin Truex Jr. coming to the white flag, and went on to win his fifth race of the season, and second in a row! #KCM400 #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/EPkb1PvMnm

— NASCAR on USA (@NASCARonUSA) May 13, 2018

As a matter of fact, Logano is still second in points to Kyle Busch, 12 points out of the lead. With Logano’s win at Talladega earlier this season, he is virtually guaranteed a spot in the Playoffs. Truex is as well, having won earlier this year in Fontana.

With that said, Logano’s response back to Truex is in reference to the No. 78 team’s dominance last season. Truex won eight races en route to the championship, leading 2,253 laps along the way, the most of any other driver. So, he could very well be “turning the tides”, as it were, right back at the offending party.

In fairness to Truex, Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski was very vocal last season in the midst of Truex’s dominance that Toyota Racing had an advantage and NASCAR had to do something about it.

Still, it’s clear that NASCAR can quickly humble a team and drivers are frustrated about consistently seeing Harvick perform far and away better than everyone else. While Harvick’s Kansas win certainly didn’t have the same level of dominance that he has shown in prior races this season, Harvick was fastest in practice and won the pole. There was no doubt that he was going to be difficult to beat.

Even so, the same driver was in Victory Lane for the fifth time in 12 races this season and for the second week in a row. Different story, same ending.

Harvick, as expected, expressed little sympathy.

“Now, it feels like a game,” said Harvick post-race. “It really does, because of the fact that you want to see how many races you can win. You want to see how many laps you can lead. We know that we’re riding a momentum wave that is hard to come by, and you need to capitalize on it as many times as you can because it may never come again. I’ve never had it in my career, and I’ve been doing this for 18 years. These moments are not something that happens very often, and now you need to go put every detail into a car like you’re racing for a championship race at Homestead every week because it just has that special feel to it.”

For the rest of the field, whether they are in Fords or not, it seems as though they have a lot of work to do if they want to stop Harvick from acquiring any more playoff points before the regular season comes to an end. He currently has 24 — more than any other driver, and there are still 14 races left in the regular season.

It certainly will be interesting to see how long Harvick keeps up this pace and who, if anyone, will be able to dethrone him.