Harvick outruns Kahne, Busch

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C.

Kevin Harvick pulled away from Kasey Kahne on a restart with 11 laps left to win the Coca-Cola 600 for the second time in three seasons, a race stopped nearly 30 minutes Sunday night when a TV camera support rope snapped.

Kahne led 156 laps and appeared to have the strongest machine in NASCAR’s longest race. But Harvick took the low line following the last of 11 cautions and slowly pulled away.

Harvick won two years ago when Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas 700 feet from the finish line.

Kahne finished second, Kurt Busch third and polesitter Denny Hamlin was fourth in his second full race since returning from injury.

There were 10 people injured when the rope collapsed. Three were taken to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

According to CMS spokeswoman Danielle Frye the three people taken to the hospital had “minor injuries that are not life threatening.” She said seven people were treated with “minor cuts and scrapes” on site and released.

Fox Sports released a statement Sunday night saying it hasn’t determined the cause of the accident and it is suspending use of the camera system indefinitely.

“Our immediate concern is with the injured fans,” Fox said in the statement.

Fox said the camera system consists of three ropes — a drive rope that moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. Fox said it was the drive rope that failed near the first-turn connection and fell to the track.

“The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed,” Fox said in the statement.

“The incident occurred on lap 121 of the 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race.