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Phoenix NASCAR

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Harvick and Logano make their stops one lap later than Earnhardt, Keselowski is leaving it one more lap longer.
Earnhardt comes from second on lap 110. Everyone changing all four tyres and refuelling this time.
Kyle Busch is the first of the top group to make a second pitstop, coming in from seventh place.
Edwards is moving forward well, up to 11th from 23rd on the grid.

He won this race last March, and nearly made it two out of two at Phoenix for 2013, only to lose the lead of the November race when he ran low on fuel with a lap to go. Harvick snatched the win from him that time.
But just two laps in clean air changes all that, and now Harvick is 0.8s clear again going onto lap 102 of 312.
Now Earnhardt is closing right in on Harvick for the lead in traffic. The gap is down to 0.2s.
It's been a great start to 2014 for Earnhardt with that second Daytona 500 win.

You don't get a six-hour-plus mid-race break on the way to every win, but it seemed to help Junior last week.

How did he spend that long pause?

"I just put on some sweat pants, sat on the couch, ate a bunch of candy, played with the dogs, talked to my girlfriend, watched some TV, ate some junk food - normally whatever I would do on a Sunday if I had a Sunday off."

And people criticised Kimi Raikkonen for getting an ice cream during a red flag...
But that might've done Logano a bit of a favour. Replays show that the air turbulence as the Hendrick Chevy came past dislodged a lump of debris from the front of the Penske Ford.
Harvick has already established a 1.3s lead over Logano.

The new boys at Stewart-Haas are doing much better than the incumbents so far today, with Kurt Busch chasing brother Kyle in eighth.

By contrast boss Tony Stewart is back in 16th, while Danica Patrick is 24th.
Order after lap 80: 1 Harvick; 2 Logano; 3 Earnhardt; 4 Keselowski; 5 Gordon; 6 Johnson; 7 Kyle Busch; 8 Kurt Busch; 9 Almirola; 10 McMurray.
Harvick pulls out a half-second gap on Logano pretty swiftly, while Keselowski now loses third to Earnhardt in the middle of traffic.
And there's the move for the lead going onto lap 74, Harvick slips under Logano and hits the front.
But then it's Keselowski's turn to lose momentum in traffic and Harvick is right there to pounce, reclaiming second. We're onto lap 70 of 312.
The two Penske Fords almost touch as Logano puts a second lap on Cole Whitt and Keselowski closes on him.
Just like in the first stint, Logano is looking more vulnerable in traffic, where Keselowski zones right in on his tail. Harvick is inching up behind them too, though not as ominously as earlier.
Shepherd retired after 28 laps, by the way.

AUTOSPORT is certain this was due to a mechanical problem and not in any way to do with having secured a bt of prize money. This will not become a 'start and park' rant.

Promise.
Harvick had to squabble with Earnhardt for several laps before making third his own, and that's given Logano and Keselowski a bit of a gap.
Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch


Kyle Busch already has a win this weekend - he triumphed in the Nationwide race on Saturday, though he had to wait several hours to know that for sure.

Rain halted the race after 168 laps, and following several hours of unsuccessful attempts to try the circuit and get things going again, the race was abandoned and Busch awarded the win.
Johnson faded during the first stint and he's now back in seventh, right behind a big battle between Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon.
Back to green on lap 40, and Logano holds off Keselowski for the lead. Harvick and Earnhardt are side by side for third.
Despite scorching up from 13th to second in that green-flag stint, Harvick's Stewart-Haas Chevrolet wasn't spot on. He has an air-pressure adjustment to try to make the car less tight handling.
Leaders pour into the pits, and Logano gets out still in front. Not so great for Harvick, he drops back behind Keselowski and Earnhardt. Most just going for right-side tyres at this point.
And there's the planned competition yellow. Teams are not allowed to refuel at this point, but tyre changes are allowed.
Harvick is looking unstoppable - he surges past Keselowski to split the Penske one-two.
After starting a strong seventh, rookie Larson has fallen back to 15th. His big rookie of the year rival - and Daytona 500 polesitter - Austin Dillon is 32nd.

We didn't keep an exact tally chart, but from memory Dillon and Larson were involved in approximately 809 crashes between them during last weekend's race...
Here comes Harvick, past Johnson and into third place. He's now 1.4s behind the Penske Fords, as Earnhardt pops Hendrick team-mate Johnson down another position.
Keselowski got right onto Logano's bumper as they lapped Michael Annett, but the leader has a little breathing space again.
The Penske duo are striding away from third-placed Johnson, who is about to come under pressure from the flying Harvick.
The leaders are now in the thick of the backmarkers. Shepherd, incidentally, made his first Cup start in 1970.
Harvick takes fourth from Earnhardt.

Up front, Logano is holding a slight lead over Keselowski and they're about to hit traffic, starting with 43rd-placed Morgan Shepherd, who is 72 years old.
Order after 10 laps: 1 Logano; 2 Keselowski; 3 Johnson; 4 Earnhardt; 5 Harvick; 6 McMurray; 7 Kyle Busch; 8 Biffle; 9 Almirola; 10 Newman
Harvick is flying up the order. Only 13th on the grid after being knocked out at the end of the first part of qualifying, he was quickest in both Saturday's practice sessions and is already up to sixth.
Green flag for lap one of 312, and Logano goes around the outside of Keselowski through Turn 1 to take the lead.
Paul Wolfe

Paul Wolfe


Poleman Keselowski is without his usual wingman today as his crew chief Paul Wolfe had to fly home yesterday for the birth of his first child.

Showing how fine he cut his trip back, this picture was taken on Friday...
Phoenix had a lot of rain yesterday - truncating the Nationwide race early - so with track conditions having changed a lot since practice, NASCAR has called a 'competition caution' on lap 35.

That's standard practice when there's a chance of the track feeling pretty different on race day.
Leading order on the grid today:

1 Keselowski; 2 Logano; 3 McMurray; 4 Johnson; 5 Earnhardt; 6 Biffle; 7 Larson; 8 Kyle Busch; 9 Almirola; 10 Kurt Busch.

Four-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick is 13th and winner of this event 12 months ago Carl Edwards is 23rd.

Expected frontrunner starting furthest back: Martin Truex Jr in 27th. Higher up than expected: Leavine Family Racing's Michael McDowell in 26th. (Larson's seventh is thoroughly decent too)
The "start your engines" command today comes from Marcus Lemonis, businessman and star of helping-small-businesses US reality show The Profit.

His opening words are a bit unorthodox: "if you love small business in America, get on your feet" and he forgets that "gentlemen" excludes one of the 43 starters (by which we mean Danica Patrick, we're not suggesting someone is ill-mannered). But the crowd cheers a bit and the cars start, so it's a qualified success.
Brad Keselowski

Brad Keselowski


The new system replaces the old one-at-a-time format and means you can have a few cracks at the top spot - which was exactly what Keselowski did as he came back to knock team-mate Joey Logano off his perch. And then he repeated the feat in Nationwide qualifying yesterday too.

The 2012 champion reckons the new qualifying method suits him.

"Qualifying has been one of those formats that I've struggled with. It hasn't really suited my style in the past whereas this qualifying format really does suit my style a lot better.

"It gives me a chance to learn and apply, which was instrumental in our success.

"It's interesting how small format changes like this can favour or disfavour certain teams and individuals and this one is one that we've been able to take to like a fish to water and hopefully we can continue to do that."

By: Matt Beer

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