NASCAR: Kevin Harvick stays on roll, wins Cup race in Arizona; FRR driver Martin Truex Jr. finishes fifth.
AVONDALE, ARIZ.» Red-hot Kevin Harvick raced to his third consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory Sunday, holding off Kyle Busch for his record-extending ninth win at ISM Raceway.
Harvick patted the back window of his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in celebration, a nod to penalties in part fueled by social media photos last week of his buckled rear window after his victory in Las Vegas.
“I’ve been mad as all get out because this team does a great job,” Harvick said. “This organization does a great job and we’ve got fast race cars. And to take that away from those guys just really (ticked) me off last week. To come here to a racetrack that is so good for us is a lot of fun, and everyone was just determined this week, and we just wanted to just go stomp them. We didn’t stomp them, but we won. That’s all that really matters. Just proud of this team. Put a fire in our belly.”
Also the winner in Atlanta after crashing and finishing 31st in the seasonopening Daytona 500, Harvick is the first driver to win three consecutive Cup races since Joey Logano in 2015.
Harvick got in front of Busch on the last series of pit stops on the mile oval. Busch’s team dropped the jack and had trouble with the right rear tire on his stop with 53 laps left, allowing Harvick — who pitted three laps earlier — to slip ahead en route to his 40th Cup victory.
Harvick took the lead with 22 laps left when Ryan Newman finally made his last stop on the sunny afternoon after morning rain. Busch finished 0.774 of a second back.
Chase Elliott placed third, followed by Denny Hamlin in fourth and polesitter Martin Truex Jr. of Denver-based Furniture Row Racing in fifth.
“A solid day for us, not a great day and not what we were hoping for,” said Truex, who has three consecutive top-five finishes. “There were times in the race where we were really good and just lost some track position there with about 100 or 80 to go . ... We have a little work to do, but man, we’re right there. It’s like when you’re out fishing and you catch a bunch of fish and you feel like you’re throwing the right lure, but maybe it’s just not the right color — we need to get it dialed in. We’re so close.”