Harvick claims second straight win in dominant performance at Las Vegas
Three races into the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and Kevin Harvick has already equaled his win tally from 2017.
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford
Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images
Harvick claimed his second consecutive victory and the 39th of his career in a dominating performance at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was also Harvick's 100th national series win.
“As you look at the last two weeks and our 1.5-mile program in general it has been really good since I started here at SHR. They put a lot of effort into everything we do from every standpoint to get these cars going like they are. I have to thank everyone from Stewart-Haas Racing, Gene and Tony, it is fun to have them here when we win," he said in Victory Lane. "Everybody who helps put this thing on the race track, we couldn’t do it without them. And the fans for coming out to the racetrack today. We really appreciate you all coming out. It is always fun for me to win on the west coast and I didn’t have a lot of luck here until I came to SHR. It is great to win on the west coast for me.”
At the end of the second stage, Joey Logano won the race off pit road while Harvick fell back to fourth after sweeping the stage wins. On the restart, it was Team Penske 1-2 with Ryan Blaney trailing Logano.
Harvick was forced to battle slower traffic for the first time since the beginning of the race and briefly fell to fifth.
Ten laps into the run, the first incident of the race claimed Jamie McMurray, who pounded the outside wall out of Turn 2. Ryan Newman was the free pass, putting 15 cars back on the lead lap.
All the leaders decided to pit with the exception of Martin Truex Jr., who controlled the race for the restart. Logano, who opted for two tires, was second.
Kurt Busch and Chase Elliott crash
Racing resumed with 85 laps to and Logano quickly moved into the lead as Truex dropped like a rock. But just one lap after the restart, Kurt Busch bobbled and shot up the track into the side of Chase Elliott. Both cars crashed into the outside wall and were out of the race.
During the extended yellow for clean-up, Truex made his way down pit road for fresh rubber. “Well that didn’t work,” radioed crew chief Cole Pearn.
“I was running the low groove and it just stepped out on me,” said a dejected Kurt Busch. “I wasn’t even trying to fill the whole or go 100%. I had it at 90% and I knew Chase (Elliott) was going to be on my outside and it was just that quick. We were back there in the dirty air, but turn four, I always know it is slick and I wasn’t even pushing through there and it stepped out on me. Ruined his day, ruined my day. I hate it for all the Chase Elliott fans and the Kurt Busch fans and my hometown fans. I wasn’t even pushing hard. I knew we had one more stop and then we were going to go. It just stepped out on me. It is ridiculous.”
“I think he just got loose on the bottom there and i was unfortunately the guy up top,” said Elliott after emerging from the infield care center.
Final run
The caution was a lucky break for Jimmie Johnson, who got back on the lead lap after falling two laps down earlier. Racing finally resumed with 73 laps to go with Logano leading Harvick, but the No. 4 quickly took back control of the race.
Harvick pulled built up a two-second advantage, cruising out front until the pit window open. Brad Keselowski was the first to make his way down pit road with 50 laps to go. Harvick followed suit with 42 laps to go while Kyle Busch and Truex held off on pitting until just under 40 to go.
As pit stops cycled through, Harvick was back out front with a 3.5 second lead over Keselowski.
Kyle Busch passed Blaney for third with 22 laps to go, disposing of Keselowski and taking over second one lap later. However, Harvick remained three seconds up the road.
Harvick beat Kyle Busch to the line by 2.9 seconds, leading 214 of 267 laps. He leaves LVMS as the championship leader, three points clear of Logano and four points clear of Blaney.
Kyle Larson, Truex, Blaney, Keselowski, Logano, Erik Jones, Paul Menard, and Aric Almirola rounded out the top ten.
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 267 | -- |
2 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 267 | 2.906 |
3 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 267 | 13.304 |
4 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 267 | 15.166 |
5 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 267 | 16.715 |
6 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 267 | 18.562 |
7 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 267 | 20.582 |
8 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 267 | 20.898 |
9 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 267 | 26.848 |
10 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 266 | -1 |
11 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 266 | -1 |
12 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 266 | -1 |
13 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 266 | -1 |
14 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 265 | -2 |
15 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 265 | -2 |
16 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 265 | -2 |
17 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 265 | -2 |
18 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 265 | -2 |
19 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 264 | -3 |
20 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 264 | -3 |
21 | 43 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | Chevrolet | 264 | -3 |
22 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 264 | -3 |
23 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 264 | -3 |
24 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 264 | -3 |
25 | 51 | Cole Custer | Chevrolet | 264 | -3 |
26 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 263 | -4 |
27 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 263 | -4 |
28 | 72 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 262 | -5 |
29 | 15 | Ross Chastain | Chevrolet | 262 | -5 |
30 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 262 | -5 |
31 | 00 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | Chevrolet | 255 | -12 |
32 | 55 | Joey Gase | Chevrolet | 253 | -14 |
33 | 23 | Gray Gaulding | Toyota | 195 | -72 |
34 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 183 | -84 |
35 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 183 | -84 |
36 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 176 | -91 |
37 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 100 | -167 |
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