Earnhardt wins rain shortened Phoenix race

The weather was a factor all day in Phoenix, and in the end, it was the deciding factor as Dale Earnhardt Jr was declared the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 victor. He’s won of seven drivers vying for three available slots in next weekend’s title-deciding race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Makayla Epps drained a jump shot off a spin move and hit a pair of clutch free throws in the final 36 seconds of overtime to lift No. 18 Kentucky over No. 15 Arizona State 68-64 on Sunday. He came closest to making it to Homestead, falling five points short of Truex. Last week at Texas, Logano wrecked on the tenth lap, again knocking him out of contention.

“Do whatever I’ve got to do”, he said, “try to win the race. I love that race track”.

Meanwhile, Earnhardt had no guilt in celebrating the win.

“We will take this win. I encourage everyone to go on to Twitter, my Facebook and my Instagram and follow it and we’re all going to take a survey”. It works out for a few, and some it doesn’t.

“I feel like I don’t want to be greedy and be disappointed with how it went today when you look at the big picture”, Harvick said. It’s just tough. We never really run good here at Phoenix.

Race coverage on NBC (WKYC Ch. 3) begins at 2 p.m. and the green flag is scheduled to drop at 2:41.

Jimmie Johnson is good at driving stock cars. When something like this quirky happens we were able to capitalize.

Harvick dominated the race after getting off pit road first courtesy of a two-tire stop during a competition caution on lap 40. He led most of the remaining laps. “But, hey, you lose a few and you win a few like that”.

He was right there, but then, as you know, it rained in the desert, and the driver who swept the Contender Round was done. “I don’t care if we do this in rowboats or on foot or whatever we’ve got to do – I want to go race”. But the rain set in and the yellow flag was exchanged for the red flag, ending the race along with the championship hopes of Logano and three other drivers.

“It’s kind of bittersweet”, said Harvick, a seven-time victor at Phoenix who led 143 of the 219 laps.

Busch led for all but 10 laps of the DAV 200 Presented by Great Clips to pick up a record eighth series win at the one mile oval.

On lap 6, NASCAR ruled that Kurt Busch had jumped the start and gave him a pass through penalty.

NASCAR and track personnel got the racing surface almost dry multiple times between showers.

Eliminated Sunday were Logano and teammate Brad Keselowski, as well as Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch. Those among the top 12 who had not pitted came in for stops including Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Gordon and Johnson. It also was Jones’ second consecutive week of NASCAR triple duty. Kenseth will return next week….

Full NASCAR Xfinity Series race results from Phoenix worldwide Raceway. He will clinch a spot if he finishes third or better, fourth with at least one lap led or fifth with most laps led.