Harvick powers to 2nd straight win Coming off stirring romp in Atlanta, his Stewart-Haas Ford takes all 3 stages
Not many wins are more emphatic than Harvick’s 100th.
Harvick led 144 of the first 160 laps and comfortably won the first two stages.
He was fourth out of the end-of-stage caution after Stage 2, with Joey Logano getting in front with an exceptional pit stop.
But Harvick reclaimed the lead off another restart with 73 laps to go after Kurt Busch wrecked along with Chase Elliott.
Harvick emerged from his last pit stop with a threesecond lead on Brad Keselowski, and Busch couldn’t catch up.
Harvick was even more dominant in Vegas than Truex last year.
Truex led all three stages and 150 laps last year on his way to a victory that propelled him into his championship season.
This year for the first time, NASCAR will return to Vegas for a second race, which will also be the playoff opener in September.
Teams used this trip to gather data and information for the return trip, although the temperature could easily be 50 degrees higher than the balmy 53 degrees at Sunday’s race.
“The adjustments we made today are going to help in the fall,” Kyle Busch said, “[although] I think the track is going to be a lot slower with the heat.”
Meanwhile, Kurt Busch’s career-long drought in his hometown continued. He lost control and ran Elliott into the wall shortly after a restart early in the final stage. The crash necessitated a long caution for fluid cleanup. The 39-year-old Busch has never won at the Las Vegas speedway, which was built while he grew up in town. He failed to win the Cup race in Vegas for a 17th time. He has started on the pole twice but has only one top-five finish here despite calling it a top priority.
SUNDAY’S RESULTS