Strong runs for Harvick, Bowyer end with late-race wreck
Kevin Harvick had one of the most dominant cars in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, but his chances at victory went away on Lap 82 when Clint Bowyer spun ahead of him.
As the field entered the tricky Turn 11 hairpin, Bowyer got into the back of Jimmie Johnson, who had just passed the No. 15 Toyota for the third spot. Backing off the bumper of the No. 48 Chevrolet, Bowyer was hit in the rear by pole-sitter Jamie McMurray and spun around as he exited the corner.
Harvick had nowhere to go and got into the side of Bowyer's car as the rest of the field drove by and the caution flew.
After the incident, Bowyer reported he may have had a tire going down prior to the incident, but added McMurray "never let out of the gas."
Prior to the wreck, Harvick had led 23 laps, while Bowyer had been running in the top 10 for much of the afternoon.
Once the checkered flag flew for Carl Edwards, Bowyer had worked his way back to 10th.
"We had a fast 5-hour ENERGY Camry this weekend," Bowyer said. "We got ourselves in position and had a flat. It was going down and I was all over the place. Jamie (McMurray) just kind of finished me up and got me out of the way, I guess. Bad luck, man. The way our season has been, we've been the lap closer here lately and if they keep bringing cars like that to the race track, we'll be just fine."
Harvick, on the other hand, had to watch another potential win slip away to a 20th-place finish.
"Today was just another day with the fastest car," Harvick said. "We had a chance to win the race and kind of flubbed it up again. Just got ourselves bad track position and crashed."
