Harvick makes final four with third straight Texas playoff win

Harvick overcame a pit road penalty and a bad restart to come from behind in the final stage and hold off a pair of his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates for the victory in Sunday’s AAA 500.

On Lap 254 of 334, Harvick passed Almirola to take the lead for the first time in the final stage and remained out front through a round of green-flag pit stops. He held off Almirola off by 1.594 seconds at the finish.

The win is the fourth of the season for Harvick and 49th of his career. It’s also his third consecutive victory in the Texas playoff race.

“I just want to thank all these fans. Texas has always been so great to us, and what a race track the last few years,” Harvick said. “We brought a great (car) to the race track this weekend, but I've got to thank everybody who helps put this car on the race track week-in and week-out, and all those guys in the race shop, Roush Yates Engines for putting this engine in this last week.

“It’s just been a lot of work put into this race. We knew this was a good race track for us. Felt like it fit the styles of our cars, and man, did it.”

Asked if he had the confidence he could win throughout the race, Harvick said: “Well, we got put back in the back there for the pit road violation, and I didn’t really know what was going to happen.  

“We had a bad restart after that, and then all of a sudden we got on a different set of tires and got on a different cycle, and wound up making our way back to the front.  It was a fast car.”

With one race left to qualify, Martin Truex Jr. and Harvick are already locked in the Championship 4. 

The remaining drivers attempting to fill the final two positions (in order of points) are Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott.

Daniel Suarez finished third in Sunday’s race, Logano was fourth and Alex Bowman completed the top-five.

Rounding out the top-10 finishers were Truex, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Kurt Busch and Erik Jones.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, most everyone pit but William Byron remained on the track and inherited the lead.

On the restart on Lap 178, Byron was followed by Suarez, Jones, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer.

Coming off Turn 4 on Lap 179, Suarez got around Byron to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Johnson spun and hit the Turn 2 wall on Lap 186 to bring out a caution. His No. 48 Chevrolet suffered serious damage in the incident.

Just a handful of drivers elected to pit, including Harvick, Blaney and Truex. The race returned to green on Lap 191 with Suarez still out front. Harvick had to restart from the rear of the field for his team having equipment over the wall too soon.

Garrett Smithley wrecked in Turn 2 on the restart and collected David Ragan to once again put the race under caution. 

The race returned to green on Lap 196 with Suarez out front followed by Byron, Kurt Busch and Almirola.

Almirola went to the inside of Suarez entering Turn 1 on Lap 202 to reclaim the lead as Suarez dropped to second and Kurt Busch ran third.

With 125 laps remaining, Almirola held a small lead over Suarez with Kurt Busch close behind. Byron ran fourth and Jones fifth.

On Lap 231, Kurt Busch got around Suarez to take the second spot. Harvick had recovered from his penalty to run eighth.

With 100 laps remaining, Almirola maintained a 2.5-second lead over Kurt Busch as Suarez ran third, 3.7 seconds behind.

Bubba Wallace spun off Turn 2 with a tire going down on Lap 242 to bring out a caution just as several drivers were beginning a round of green-flag pit stops.

Most everyone pit but Almirola – who had already completed his stop – moved back into the lead on the restart on Lap 249. He was followed by Suarez, Ryan Newman (who was first off pit road) and Kyle Busch.

On Lap 254, Harvick came off Turn 4 and went to the inside of Almirola to take the lead for the first time in the final stage.

With 60 laps remaining in the race, Harvick had expanded his lead to 1.5 seconds over Almirola as Kyle Busch had moved up to third, more than 6 seconds behind the leader.

Harvick’s lead over Almirola grew to 3.7 seconds with 40 laps to go. Kyle Busch was third, Logano fourth and Suarez ran fifth.

With 30 laps remaining, many drivers began making their final green-flag pit stop to pick up enough fuel to make it to the finish of the race.

Harvick made his stop on Lap 308, along with several others. When the cycle of stops had completed on Lap 313, Harvick returned to the lead and with a more than 2-second advantage over Almirola.

Kyle Busch, the last of the lead-lap cars to pit, stalled on the exit to his pit stall. He dropped to seventh when he returned to the track.

With five laps remaining, Harvick still managed a more than 2-second lead over Almirola with Suarez in third.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	334		119
2	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	334	01.594	62
3	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	334	04.584	25
4	22	Joey Logano		Ford	334	08.305	5
5	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	334	08.537	11
6	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	334	12.315
7	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	334	12.480	18
8	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	334	15.150
9	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	334	15.472	1
10	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	334	17.414	9
11	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	334	18.357	36
12	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	334	25.297
13	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	334	25.356
14	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	334	25.820
15	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	333	1 lap
16	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	333	1 lap
17	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	333	1 lap	8
18	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	333	1 lap
19	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	333	1 lap
20	21	Paul Menard		Ford	333	1 lap
21	36	John Hunter Nemechek		Ford	333	1 lap
22	96	Parker Kligerman		Toyota	332	2 laps
23	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	331	3 laps
24	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	331	3 laps
25	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	329	5 laps
26	53	J.J. Yeley		Ford	329	5 laps
27	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	328	6 laps
28	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	328	6 laps
29	15	Joe Nemechek		Chevrolet	327	7 laps
30	51	Josh Bilicki		Chevrolet	323	11 laps
31	27	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	319	15 laps
32	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	312	22 laps
33	77	Quin Houff		Chevrolet	202	132 laps
34	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	199	135 laps	40
35	38	David Ragan		Ford	189	145 laps
36	52	Garrett Smithley		Ford	188	146 laps
37	66	Timmy Hill		Toyota	156	178 laps
38	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	67	267 laps
39	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	52	282 laps
40	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	52	282 laps