Harvick Wins at Darlington as NASCAR Returns from Shutdown

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kevin Harvick won the Real Heroes 400 from Darlington Raceway on Sunday afternoon in NASCAR’s return to racing.

NASCAR returned to the track for the first time after a 71-day shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The race was run without fans in attendance, and there were no practice or qualifying sessions leading up to the race.

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Harvick had a dominant car throughout the race, and led 159 laps. 

Harvick said his team’s ability to unload with a fast car helped them succeed under Sunday’s unusual circumstances.

“I think as you look at Darlington and as you look at the things that happened this weekend, we really thought it was going to play into our hand,” Harvick said.  “Our guys are so good at hitting the car off the truck.”

The victory was Harvick’s 50th in the Cup Series, which tied him with NASCAR Hall of Famers Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett.

Harvick said it was odd to pick up such a big victory without fans in attendance.

“It’s a pretty big honor to win 50 races in this deal,” Harvick said.  “It is weird, just because there’s nobody up there.  I didn’t think it was going to be that much different, and then we won the race and it’s dead-silent out here.  We miss the fans.”

Alex Bowman finished second, and was one of four strong Hendrick Motorsports drivers that challenged up front all race long. 

Bowman said second was a good way to restart the season.

“Sucks to finish second, but it’s really good to restart the season this way with a strong car off the truck,” Bowman said.  “It was a lot of fun to get to race a guy like Kevin at a place like Darlington.  Thought if I could get him there on the restart we’d have had a shot at it, but just came up a little bit short.”

NASCAR will return to Darlington on Wednesday night for the Toyota 500.  As with Sunday’s event, there will not be qualifying or practice for the race.  Instead, the field will line up based on the results of Sunday’s race, with the Top 20 finishers inverted.

Unofficial results:

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Alex Bowman

3. Kurt Busch

4. Chase Elliott

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Martin Truex Jr.

7. Tyler Reddick

8. Erik Jones

9. John Hunter Nemechek

10. Matt Kenseth

11. Austin Dillon

12. Aric Almirola

13. Brad Keselowski

14. Matt DiBenedetto

15. Ryan Newman

16. Ryan Blaney

17. Clint Bowyer

18. Joey Logano

19. Ty Dillon

20. Ryan Preece

21. Bubba Wallace

22. Cole Custer

23. Michael McDowell

24. Christopher Bell

25. Daniel Suarez

26. Kyle Busch

27. Brennan Poole

28. JJ Yeley

29. Reed Sorenson

30. Joey Gase

31. Corey LaJoie

32. Chris Buescher

33. Timmy Hill

34. Josh Bilicki

35. William Byron

36. Quin Houff

37. Garrett Smithley

38. Jimmie Johnson

39. BJ McLeod

40. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

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