Harvick makes it two wins in a row

LAS VEGAS — From his dynamic opening laps to his comfortable cruise to the checkered flag, Kevin Harvick was the safest bet in Sin City.

Harvick raced to his second straight NASCAR Cup win with a dominant performance at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, earning his 100th career win across the three national series.

“There was no catching that 4 [car],” secondplace finisher Kyle Busch said. “He was on rails.”

Harvick followed up his stellar performance last weekend in Atlanta with another victory in his Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. He led a track-record 214 of the 267 laps, won all three stages and capably held off Busch’s late charge to win in Vegas for the second time in four years.

“These last two weeks, we’ve just hit on everything we needed to,” said Harvick, who cruised home 2.9 seconds ahead of Busch.

Busch got close to his second win in his hometown with his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but couldn’t overcome the dominant leader. Kyle Larson finished third after winning the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, while defending champion Martin Truex Jr. was in fourth and pole-sitter Ryan Blaney fifth.

Harvick already matched his Cup win total from last season in three races — and he’s headed to Phoenix, where he has won five times since 2012.

Harvick also took a moment to savor a milestone. Only Richard Petty, Busch and David Pearson have won more races across the three national circuits than Harvick, the 42-year-old from Bakersfield with plenty of good years left on his tires.

“It’s been a lot of years accumulated with a lot of great race teams and people and situations,” Harvick said. “When you tag that triple-digit number to it, it really lets you realize that you’ve been fortunate to accomplish a lot of things.”