2014 Irwin Tools Night Race

2014 Irwin Tools Night Race

Race details
Race 24 of 36 in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
File:2010 Irwin Tools Night Race logo.jpg
Date	August 23, 2014 (2014-August-23)
Location	Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Weather	Partly cloudy with a temperature of 82 °F (28 °C); wind out of the NNW at 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing
Time	14.607
Television in the United States
Network	ABC
Announcers	Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarrett, and Andy Petree

The 2014 Irwin Tools Night Race is an upcoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that is scheduled to be held on August 23, 2014, at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Contested over 500 laps, it was the twenty-fourth race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Joey Logano of Penske Racing took his third win of the season, while teammate Brad Keselowski finished second, and Matt Kenseth clinched third.

Previous week's race

Jeff Gordon took the lead from Joey Logano and sailed to victory lane for the 91st time in his career in the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Gordon had this to say, "I got a really good restart, and I got to his quarter panel in Turn 1 and I was able to drag him back and it allowed me to get the momentum and get by him." "I had (Gordon) cleared," Logano said. "I should have pulled down in front of him. He got next to me, and I couldn't get away."

Report

Background

Bristol Motor Speedway from outside turn 2.

Bristol Motor Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.533 miles (0.858 km) long. The track's turns are banked from twenty-four to thirty degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked from six to ten degrees. The back stretch also has banking from six to ten degrees. The track has a seating capacity of 160,000 people. The race consists of 500 laps, which is equivalent to a race distance of 266.5 miles (428.9 km). The defending race winner is Matt Kenseth.

Tony Stewart was on the entry list for the weekends race, but following the events that took place at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, it was unknown if he'd be in the car. On Wednesday, August 20, Stewart-Haas Racing released a statement that Stewart will sit out again and Jeff Burton will drive in his place. The team has not announced if he will get in the car again this season. That decision will be taken on a week-by-week basis.

Ryan Truex was cleared to race at Bristol after missing the previous week's race at Michigan. He suffered a concussion in a single car crash during the second practice session and J. J. Yeley drove in his place. "Happy to be back to it this weekend," Truex tweeted. "Concussions are definitely nothing to mess with, thanks to everyone @NASCAR for helping me thru it."

Practice and qualifying

Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 14.638 and a speed of 131.083 mph (210.958 km/h). David Gilliland slammed the wall as a result of a hung throttle. He was forced to switch to a backup car as a result. Since this change took place before qualifying, he will not have to start from the rear. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 14.642 and a speed of 131.048 mph (210.901 km/h). Kevin Harvick won the pole with a new track record time of 14.607 and a speed of 131.362 mph (211.407 km/h). “Track position is definitely as important as it is anywhere here with the current groove and where you are running,’’ Harvick said, referring to the groove being at the top of the track. “I felt good about our car during practice and just have to stay in there all night and do the best we can.” “I thought our car was a little bit better in race trim than it was in qualifying trim when we swapped over,’’ Gordon said. “Tricky conditions, very tricky conditions when you’re running up top and putting your car on the edge of that rubber. You don’t want to jump over it. We saw it happen to a couple of guys. I think the track fooled a lot of guys.’’ Aric Almirola, Kyle Larson and Cole Whitt hit the wall during qualifying. “I screwed up and that’s all there is to it,’’ Almirola said. “We have probably the best race car I’ve ever had at Bristol and I screwed up and hit the fence.”

Race

The race was scheduled to start at 7:46 p.m. Eastern time but started three minutes late when Kevin Harvick led the field to the green.

Jeff Gordon took the lead on lap 38.

Kyle Busch took the lead on lap 55.

The first caution of the night came on lap 61. It was a scheduled competition caution due to overnight rain. Harvick retook the lead during the caution period. Kyle Busch came off pit road as the leader, but he was busted for speeding and Matt Kenseth assumed the lead.

The race restarted on lap 69.

Caution came out a lap later for a multi-car crash in turn 2.

The race restarted on lap 77.

Joey Logano took the lead on lap 105.

Caution flew for the third time on lap 125 for a multi-car wreck on the backstretch that began when Brian Vickers got into Kyle Larson, and then spun into Aric Almirola. Clint Bowyer then ran into Kyle Busch, sending Busch spinning into the inside wall. Denny Hamlin took the lead during the caution period.

The race restarted on lap 136.

While racing for the lead, Harvick tapped Hamlin, sent him spinning into the inside wall on the front stretch, hit the side of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., ripping all the driver-side protection foam out of the car. This brought out the fourth caution of the race on lap 158. Hamlin subsequently threw his hans-device at Harvick's car. “I just lost the front end, honestly,’’ Harvick said after finishing 11th. “That thing would take off on the bottom, and I just misjudged the slide and just ran right into the side of him. Totally my fault.’’ “He thinks he knows everything,’’ Hamlin said of Harvick. “I wish I had some kind of car left to show him the favor back. We’re not even halfway. It’s just a misjudgment. He’s a good driver. He knows better. He made a mistake. I thought for sure after the first couple of runs we were going to win the race. We were really fast. These are the racetracks we have to capitalize on. With what we’ve got, these are the tracks we can get wins and get the momentum going for the Chase. This is still not going to stop our momentum because we ran strong.’’ “I couldn’t see what happened to Denny, but he got turned around or something and was coming up the track,’’ Earnhardt said. “There was a lot of smoke so I couldn’t really judge the speed of his car to know whether I needed to be going up there and go around him on the top. I had to make that choice. I just went ahead and went to the top and ended up getting into him. It wasn’t too hard of a hit just did a lot of damage and tore the lower (control arm) off the left-front. ‘’

The race restarted on lap 172 with Harvick leading the way.

Caution flew for the fifth time on lap 194 after Michael Annett slammed the wall in turn 4. Kasey Kahne took the lead after staying out when the leaders pitted.

The race restarted on lap 200.

Jamie McMurray took the lead on lap 238.

Caution flew for the sixth time on lap 263 after [{Danica Patrick]] got spun out by Alex Bowman in turn 2. “It looked like somebody slid up a couple of cars in front of her and they all checked up,’’ said Bowman, who finished 32nd. “ I was just too deep not to run into her. I was on the brakes as hard as I could. I went over and talked to her (after the race). Definitely didn’t mean to wreck her. Hate that Danica Nation is probably going to hate me now. It was unintentional. I hope she knows that. There was no reason to wreck her. We weren’t even on the same lap. I apologized.’’ Later in the race, Patrick ran up on Bowman to show her displeasure. Afterwards, she was ready to move on. “I think were fine,’’ she said. “He’s just got to know that when you do that and you don’t leave room for error and you hit me and take me out, I’m right there. As soon as I find you again I’m going to let you know I’m not happy. We’re fine. If he does it again, worse things will happen. That’s all.’’

Results

Qualifying

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	R1	R2
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	14.719	14.607
2	24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	14.688	14.615
3	99	Carl Edwards	Roush-Fenway Racing	Ford	14.722	14.624
4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14.732	14.641
5	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	14.752	14.644
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	14.747	14.644
7	41	Kurt Busch	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	14.743	14.654
8	16	Greg Biffle	Roush-Fenway Racing	Ford	14.752	14.662
9	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	14.737	14.703
10	9	Marcos Ambrose	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	14.730	14.708
11	31	Ryan Newman	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	14.734	14.741
12	5	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	14.754	14.759
13	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14.762	—
14	15	Clint Bowyer	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	14.772	—
15	55	Brian Vickers	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	14.774	—
16	20	Matt Kenseth	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	14.796	—
17	27	Paul Menard	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	14.796	—
18	1	Jamie McMurray	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	14.800	—
19	51	Justin Allgaier (R)	HScott Motorsports	Chevrolet	14.810	—
20	88	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	14.848	—
21	17	Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.	Roush-Fenway Racing	Ford	14.855	—
22	47	A. J. Allmendinger	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	14.856	—
23	78	Martin Truex, Jr.	Furniture Row Racing	Chevrolet	14.892	—
24	10	Danica Patrick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	14.903	—
25	14	Jeff Burton	Stewart-Haas Racing	Chevrolet	14.935	—
26	3	Austin Dillon (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	14.960	—
27	23	Alex Bowman (R)	BK Racing	Toyota	14.992	—
28	95	Michael McDowell	Leavine Family Racing	Ford	14.994	—
29	34	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	15.004	—
30	98	Josh Wise	Phil Parsons Racing	Chevrolet	15.048	—
31	66	Brett Moffitt	Identity Ventures Racing	Toyota	15.053	—
32	38	David Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	15.055	—
33	83	Ryan Truex (R)	BK Racing	Toyota	15.057	—
34	26	Cole Whitt (R)	BK Racing	Toyota	15.066	—
35	37	Dave Blaney	Randy Humphrey Racing	Ford	15.099	—
36	36	Reed Sorenson	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet	15.102	—
37	32	J. J. Yeley	Go FAS Racing	Ford	15.184	—
38	7	Michael Annett (R)	Tommy Baldwin Racing	Chevrolet	15.200	—
39	40	Landon Cassill	Hillman-Circle Sport LLC	Chevrolet	15.301	—
40	42	Kyle Larson (R)	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	15.356	—
41	33	David Stremme	Hillman-Circle Sport LLC	Chevrolet	15.506	—
42	43	Aric Almirola	Richard Petty Motorsports	Ford	0.000	—
43	13	Casey Mears	Germain Racing	Chevrolet	0.000	—

Race results

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
	7
	8
	9
	10
	11
	12
	13
	14
	15
	16

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1
	2
	3

• Note: Only the first sixteen positions are included for the driver standings.