KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The Kevin Harvick Show kept right on rolling Saturday night at Kansas Speedway, as Harvick captured his fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season in thrilling fashion.
Harvick charged forward from sixth after the final restart of the night with nine laps left, using the strength of four fresh tires to run down late-race leader Martin Truex Jr., who stayed out on the final round of pit stops inside of 20 to go and appeared to be on his way to his third-straight Kansas win.
Truex had a 1.1-second lead over Harvick with five to go, but Harvick ate four tenths of a second out of the margin in a single lap and was on Truex’s back bumper with three laps remaining.
Finally, coming to the white flag, Harvick got a run to Truex’s outside in turns three and four and cleared Truex at the start-finish line, driving away to a three car-length victory in the No. 4 Busch Light Ford.
“Man, that was a wild last few laps,” said Harvick in victory lane. “I think if you look back on those last few laps of the race, I was really tight on the bottom, so I started driving on the top groove and told myself I was either going to drive into the wall or win this race. It started working and I made up a bunch of ground. I finally got to him and it put us in victory lane. I’m out of breath; that was hard work.”
Harvick is the first driver to win five of the season’s first 12 races since Jeff Gordon in 1997. Gordon went on to capture his second Cup Series championship that year, and Harvick is hoping to do the same.
“I’m excited, and anyone who can’t tell that … well, I’m really pumped,” noted Harvick. “We’re on such a roll right now. This team is firing on all cylinders and putting fast cars on the track every single week. I can’t ask for more from them or from Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s good times right now.”
The race ran remarkably clean for most of the night, with only a lap 30 competition caution and the two stage breaks at laps 80 and 160 slowing the pace prior to Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez making contact and crashing on the backstretch with 31 laps left.
That incident sent the leaders down pit road and saw stage two winner Kyle Larson get off the pit lane first, trailed by Harvick, opening stage winner Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.
Harvick stayed with Larson on the restart with 25 to go, charging out to the lead a lap later and driving away as Larson fell back behind Joey Logano, who moved into second at that point.
A charging Ryan Blaney eventually became the undoing of Larson, who led a race-high 100 laps.
Blaney was battling Larson for position at the back end of the top five when he tried to side-draft Truex on approach to turn one, causing contact twice between their two cars before Blaney’s right-front tire went down and he slammed the outside wall.
That drew another caution flag with 20 to go and split the field on strategy. Half the lead lap cars came down for fresh tires, while the top six drivers stayed out, led by Logano and Truex.
