CONCORD, N.C. — Stewart Haas Racing dominated the opening stage of Saturday’s Hisense 4K TV 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, with Kevin Harvick picking up his second NASCAR XFINITY Series stage win of the year.
Harvick led the final 38 laps of the 45-lap stint in his No. 41 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang, outdueling defending race winner Denny Hamlin for bonus points and a playoff point towards the owner’s championship.
A jumbled start led to a pass-through penalty for Austin Dillon, after he beat polesitter Justin Allgaier to the start-finish line, but Dillon was spared a major hit to his chances after Ryan Reed turned Christopher Bell into the frontstretch grass on lap two to draw an early caution flag.
That allowed Dillon to serve his penalty under yellow as opposed to green, dropping to the tail of the field for the restart at lap eight.
At that point, Harvick surged around the outside of Allgaier’s Chevrolet to assume the lead, while a tight condition eventually dropped Allgaier back to third behind Hamlin before Cale Conley’s spin off turn four drew another caution on lap 17.
A quick caution on the ensuing restart meant that it was lap 26 before green conditions fully returned, but Harvick led the rest of the way to win Stage 1 by 1.482 seconds over Hamlin at the green-checkered flag.
Cole Custer was the highest-placed XFINITY regular in third, looking to better his career-best finish scored at Charlotte last May.
“I think we’re pretty good,” Custer said during the stage break. “Just hopefully (circumstances can) keep us out front here and we can be there at the end. That’s the biggest thing … but we’ve got a pretty good car and hopefully we can stay up here.”
Custer was followed by Ryan Blaney, who rallied through the field after starting at the rear (unapproved adjustments), and Brennan Poole.
Tyler Reddick, Austin and Ty Dillon, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Reed completed the top 10.
In a shocking turn, Allgaier dropped all the way back to 12th and received no bonus points towards the championship after his pole start.
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
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