Beat the 4. That is what every driver has to do if he wants to win in Phoenix. Beat the no. 4 car of Kevin Harvick. Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done. Harvick is so good at Phoenix, that some people call him the ‘Cactus King.’ Creative.

Kyle Busch won the pole for the race, and as soon as the green flag waved him and teammate Carl Edwards surged ahead of the field. The two teammates would lead a combined 139 laps of the 312 lap race, and both were obviously very fast.

However, from the start of the race it was evident that there was much more passing happening on the race track than there had been over the past several years. Dale Earnhardt Jr. went from 26th to 5th in just 50 laps. Jimmie Johnson went from 35th to 4th in a little over a hundred laps. That’s a lot of passing.

Just after the leader past the fifty laps mark, Ryan Newman blew a tire and slammed the outside wall in turns 3 and 4. The bead of his right front tire had melted, and it blew the tire. This was common all day, and every caution that flew was because a tire went down. (If your wandering what the tire bead is, don’t ask me. I’m not really sure. I’m better with stats than car parts) 🙂

As drivers hit pit road, Kyle Busch, who was currently the leader, took two tires rather than four. It was a surprising call, especially since he was in the best position as far as pitting went. Busch was the only driver to take two tires, and he was as confused as everyone as to why he only got two. His crew chief’s answer to the question was that he wanted to maintain Kyle’s track position and experiment and see how well two tires would work.

After the ensuing restart, Kyle maintained his lead for a time, but was passed on lap 72 by Dale Earnhardt Jr.  DJ lead for the next 30 laps, until Paul Menard, Ryan Newman’s teammate, slammed the turn 4 wall, his tire blown.

After this other drivers took turns leading, Edward’s among them. On lap 162 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. suffered the same fate as Menard and Newman, blowing a tire, but this time in turn 2. On the following pit stops, Kyle Busch, who has been trying to regain the lead, slid through his pit stop, and accidentally ran over the hose that connects to the air guns that remove the lug nuts on his tires. Busch reversed his car, and backed off the hose, but he was so close to the pit wall that his team could barely jack his car off the ground. In the end Busch lost about a dozen spots on pit road.

On the ensuing restart Carl Edwards restarted first, with Kevin Harvick on is outside. But Edwards couldn’t keep the ‘Cactus King’ behind him, and Harvick took the lead for the first time.

Kevin led constantly, and always maintained about a one second gap between him and Edwards. On lap 226 Brad Keslowski, winner last week in Las Vegas, blew a tire down the back stretch, but unlike Newman, Menard, and Stenhouse, he kept his car out of the wall and made it to pit road. However, Nascar still threw the caution because of the debris scattered all over the back stretch.

After the ensuing pit stops, drivers began start conserving fuel. Some were in a position were they could make it on fuel to the finish of the race, while others, like Joey Logano, were nowhere near being able to make it to the finish. Harvick, Edwards, and the other leaders were all pretty much good to go.

For the next 80 laps Harvick slowly built a 3 second lead over Edwards. With about 5 laps to go it seemed there was no way Edwards could catch Kevin. However, this was the longest the drivers had gone without someone blowing a tire, and on lap 307, Kasey Kahne was the unfortunate one who blew a tire, and slammed the turn 4 wall.

Now everyone wandered, what would be the winning strategy. Staying out, or pitting for tires and fuel? If you pitted, did you get two tires or four? Kyle Busch had made two tire work earlier in the race for about 15 laps. In the end, everyone but Harvick, Dale Jr., and Austin Dillon went in to pit road. Most drivers took just two tires.

When the green flag waved, only two laps remained. Harvick led, Jr. was second, Dillon was third, and Edwards was fourth with two tires. Harvick pulled away from Jr. and Dillon, but Edwards stayed right on Kevin’s bumper, while Dillon and Jr. were practically eaten by the field.

As the white flag waved Harvick was still ahead of Carl, but only by a couple feet. As teh two drove through turns 1 and 2 Edwards remained latched to Kevin’s bumper, and he stayed like that on the backstretch. But as the two entered turns 3 and 4, Edwards dove below Kevin, and had to actually shove him up the race track. But, just as it seemed Edwards was going to get past Harvick, Kevin got some momentum from the top of the race track! The two were now side by side, and only a few hundred feet from the finish line. Edwards banged the side of Harvick’s car as they exited the turn, trying to break his momentum! However they remained side by side. Then, just before they reached the finish line, Edwards sideswiped Kevin again, even harder! The two flashed across the finish line side by side! For a moment no one new who won, and to be honest, no one cared! This was the closest finish in Phoenix history, and one of the closest ever in Nascar History! Then, the name flashed across the scoring monitor: Kevin Harvick!

Harvick, on 90 lap old tires, had won his 8th Phoenix race, by just 0.01 of a second! His car was torn up, his tire left side tires were nearly flat from being banged by Edwards, but he was the winner. He was ecstatic as he climbed out of his car and waved to the fans, and then he climbed back in his car and did a major burnout. I’m surprised he still had tires by the time he was done burning out.

As for Edwards, he was the best loser I’ve ever seen, congratulating Harvick. Edwards was shocked when he saw the video of the finish, and also appeared somewhat thrilled. When asked if he considered wrecking Harvick coming to the finish he said, “I should have wrecked him! (Laughs)  Nah, those guy were doing a great job all race long. I thought I’d just move him out of the way, but I just didn’t move him far enough.”

So all in in all it was an amazing finish, and it was the second photo finish in the first four races this year. I don’t no about my readers, but I’m loving 2016, and I can’t wait for Fontana next week. Also, look for my first Chase update this year after Fontana. I might make a few changes to my Chase predictions.