{"id":27074,"date":"2020-07-29T11:02:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T15:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27074"},"modified":"2020-07-29T08:03:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T12:03:51","slug":"fantastic-finish-harvick-hamlin-set-to-renew-rivalry-that-fueled-an-unforgettable-finish-last-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2020\/07\/fantastic-finish-harvick-hamlin-set-to-renew-rivalry-that-fueled-an-unforgettable-finish-last-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Finish: Harvick, Hamlin Set to Renew Rivalry that Fueled an Unforgettable Finish Last Season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fantastic Finish: Harvick, Hamlin Set to Renew Rivalry that Fueled an Unforgettable Finish Last Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LOUDON, N.H. \u2013\u00a0All eyes will be on New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend when New England\u2019s first major sporting event since the pandemic, the\u00a0Foxwoods Resort Casino 301<\/a>, goes green at \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d If last season\u2019s dramatic finish is any indication, fans are in for a wild summer showdown on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick started last year\u2019s event mid-pack after a 14th<\/sup> place qualifying effort. Behind the wheel of his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Denny Hamlin took the green flag in 23rd<\/sup>, but quickly raced his way into the top 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hamlin finished stage one in ninth position, just one spot behind Harvick, but it wasn\u2019t until the third stage when the veteran duo really took control of the race. In the closing laps, Harvick led a hard-charging Hamlin, but lapped traffic slowed the Stewart-Haas Racing driver just enough for Hamlin to close the gap. The two raced side-by-side down the backstretch on the final lap before making contact coming out of turn four and heading for the checkered flag. Ultimately, Harvick prevailed by a razor-thin 0.210-second margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHarvick just kind of out-smarted me on the last lap protecting the bottom,\u201d Hamlin recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t do a good job on that last lap. I, obviously, had the fastest car. He just out-smarted me by putting himself in that position where he was on the offense and he could play defense by just giving me the ol\u2019 door coming out of turn four. He got the best of me, and I certainly haven\u2019t forgotten it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Harvick, the win earned him his second consecutive Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 trophy and his record-tying fourth overall Cup Series victory at \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were either leaving on a tow truck or winning the race,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cThe way that racing is now, with all the chances you have to take, whether it\u2019s strategy or blocking or pushing somebody out of the way, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and I feel like I did what I was supposed to do to try to win the race. When you\u2019re in position, you just have to lay it all out there and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since leaving New England last summer, the battle between the two hasn\u2019t slowed. In 2020 alone, Harvick and Hamlin have combined to win nine of the season\u2019s 19 Cup Series events. Where last year, all the talk was about \u201cthe big three\u201d drivers (Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.), this year, it\u2019s all about two \u2013 Harvick and Hamlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can those two put on another edge-of-your-seat show this weekend? Fans won\u2019t have to wait long to find out. Coverage of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 can be found on NBCSN beginning at 2:30 p.m. or the Performance Racing Network radio affiliates at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fantastic Finish: Harvick, Hamlin Set to Renew Rivalry that Fueled an Unforgettable Finish Last Season LOUDON, N.H. \u2013\u00a0All eyes will be on New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend when New England\u2019s first major sporting event since the pandemic, the\u00a0Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, goes green at \u201cThe Magic Mile.\u201d If last season\u2019s dramatic finish is any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,33,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-new-hampshire","category-nhms","category-touring-series-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27075,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27074\/revisions\/27075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}