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Harvick blocked the challenge, briefly opened up a gap, then withstood a second a run by Johnson. From there, he knew Johnson couldn’t risk doing anything that would jeopardize the big picture.
“I knew he was going to push me, but he wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances,” Harvick said. “He was going to try to make us make a mistake.”
The win moved Harvick into a tie for third in the standings, but 90 points back — and headed to Homestead knowing the title is Johnson’s to lose.
“We wish we were closer than that but we did everything we could do today,” he said. “That’s all we can do and however it falls, it falls. It’s been a great year for us.”
Denny Hamlin finished third, Jeff Gordon was fourth and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five as it was a decent day for nine of the Chase for the championship drivers — all but Kyle Busch finished inside the top 13.
Still, five of them were mathematically eliminated from title contention and the scoreboard now shows that only Kenseth, Hamlin, Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have a chance to catch Johnson.
“I’m not too optimistic about it,” said Kenseth, who finished 13th. “Obviously anything can happen, we’re still within striking distance if they have a mechanical problem or some type of problem like that.
“But certainly we’d be fooling ourselves if we think we’d beat them on performance.”
But even before he gets down to Miami to race after the biggest prize of his career, Johnson must first make it through what promises to be a stress-filled week, one that Harvick doesn’t envy at all.
“It’s a lot of pressure, there’s a lot on the line,” Harvick said. “It seems like everything you’ve done all year comes down to one race. It will probably be a long week, he probably won’t sleep much. He should avoid the Internet, avoid the newspaper, avoid the radio and all interviews.”
But Johnson had other ideas.
“I’ll go to the golf course tomorrow and have some fun and relax, and stay busy Tuesday and Wednesday and just try to let the week hurry by,” he said.
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