Kevin Harvick carries hot streak into today’s Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte.

CONCORD, N.C. — Kevin Harvick is well aware he’s in the midst of something special.

Harvick has won the past three NASCAR Monster Energy Cup races, including the $1 million AllStar race at Charlotte Motor Speedway last weekend. And while he is starting 39th in today’s Coca-Cola 600 after his Ford failed inspection three times prior to qualifying, he’s expected to be in the mix at the end.

“When you are on a hot streak, you are so confident not only as a driver but as a team,” driver Joey Logano said “It’s like you can’t do anything wrong. You just happen to be in the right spot at the right times. Their cars are really fast, they are really smart and they are really good. And Kevin is a great driver. … When you’re good, you’re good. He’s confident.”

Harvick’s failure to participate in qualifying wasn’t lost on his competitors, who are looking for any advantage possible in their attempts to reel him in. Logano joked that “it sure don’t hurt” that Harvick has to start at the back of the field.

But with this being 100 miles longer than any other race on the NASCAR circuit, Harvick has plenty of time to push to the front.

Harvick said his team knows things are going well, but they are staying focused and handling success in stride.

“You can feel that within the organization that what you could achieve by the time you roll through Homestead at the end of the year,” Harvick said. “It’s something you might not ever get to do again, so I don’t believe that those conversations will have to happen. Our goal is to playoff race every week and I think we’re doing that right now as an organization. That’s still the goal going forward.”

Harvick is looking to become the sixth driver to win the All-Star race and then follow with a victory in the 600.

Drivers say they must discount everything they learned from the All-Star race, as this will be a completely different setup than the exhibition event that had restrictor plates.

Harvick said he doesn’t think there’s anything he can take away from his All-Star victory except confidence. 19. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 187.526 20. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevy, 187.402 21. (24) William Byron, Chevy, 187.272 22. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevy, 187.110 23. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 186.625 24. (43) Darrell Wallace Jr., Chevy, 185.816 25. (15) Ross Chastain, Chevy, 187.624 26. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevy, 187.585 27. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevy, 187.493 28. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 187.279 29. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 186.890 30. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevy, 186.716 31. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 186.047 32. (96) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 185.103 33. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevy, 183.150 34. (23) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 183.138 35. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevy, 182.970 36. (66) Timmy Hill, Toyota, 180.222 37. (55) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevy, 178.974 38. (51) BJ McLeod, Chevy, 177.731 39. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, no time 40. (7) JJ Yeley, Chevy, no time

“I don’t think there was really anything similar about the way that the cars were built. The engine … nothing,” Harvick said. “There’s nothing that you can take from last week to this week other than just momentum and just the positive things that happened.”

Kyle Busch still leads the series point standings despite Harvick’s roll of victories and will start on the pole. Charlotte is the only track on the Cup schedule where Busch has never won a points-paying race.

“It’s important to me, but I’m not sure it’s important in the grand scheme of things,” Busch said. “It’s certainly important to me, and I would love to get that knocked out of the way and to be finished with it until another new track comes up on the circuit.”

XFINITY SERIES Keselowski wins hot one

CONCORD, N.C. — Brad Keselowski overcame a humid afternoon and an hour-long rain delay Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway to become the first repeat winner in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season.

“I don’t know if I have ever been that hot in a race car,” Keselowski said. “It was smoking out there.”

Ten drivers won the previous 10 Xfinity races.

Keselowski, a regular in NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series, has 38 career Xfinity victories, also winning the rain-delayed Phoenix race in March.

Keselowski won in overtime after the yellow flag came out for debris on the track with two laps remaining in the scheduled 200-lap race. He took off in Team Penske’s No. 22 Ford on a restart with two laps remaining and held off Cole Custer and Christopher Bell, who finished second and third respectively.

Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 93 laps and won the first two stages of the race, wrecked with 38 laps to go after an aggressive move on a restart. He tried to take the inside line and his tires hit the infield grass, causing his car to spin into Chase Briscoe.

FORMULA ONE Ricciardo on Monaco pole

MONACO — Daniel Ricciardo took a dominant pole position for today’s Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday, softening the blow for Red Bull after his teammate Max Verstappen failed to even start qualifying, having earlier crashed in final practice.

Ricciardo topped all three sections of qualifying, setting a lap record in the process for only his second career pole. The other was also in Monaco, two years ago.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel qualified second ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. In a further boost for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen was fourth ahead of Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.