Harvick on to second round

Kevin Harvick steamrolled his way into the second round of the playoffs by holding off Kyle Busch on Sept. 19 at Bristol Motor Speedway for his series-best ninth victory of the season.

Harvick denied the reigning Cup Series champion his first win of the season when he took the lead a little more than 100 laps from the finish and held off every challenge from Busch the rest of the way. Busch furiously tried to catch him as the two weaved their way through lapped traffic, but Harvick held firm in the No. 4 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Only six cars finished on the lead lap in a tepid event at the 0.533-mile bullring revered for bumping and banging. Track officials sold all 30,000 tickets allowed — making Bristol one of the largest sporting events since the pandemic — and the spectators crowded the fence as Harvick celebrated his second win of the playoffs.

Harvick also won the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway to open the playoffs.

“Bristol, baby!” Harvick shouted, arms raised to the crowd. “I was so jacked up when we started this race because of you guys. To beat Kyle Busch at Bristol ... just kept fighting, we didn’t have anything to lose. Just trying to win a race.”

Busch, who failed inspection twice before the race and drove from the back of the field to lead in his Toyota, was disappointed to finish second.

“Just didn’t have enough there at the end,” Busch said.

The first elimination race of the playoffs knocked William Byron, Cole Custer, Ryan Blaney and Matt DiBenedetto from title contention. All four were below the cutline at the start of the race and failed to produce a finish strong enough to get them into the next round.

DiBenedetto took a big swing with strategy during the first stage when he took just two tires on a pit stop. It cycled him into the lead briefly but 11 drivers on a full set of fresh tires passed him and DiBenedetto ended the stage 12th and ineligible for bonus points.