Surging Harvick gets second victory in row

Kevin Harvick might be stamping himself as the man to beat in NASCAR.

The 2014 series champion took the lead from Joey Logano with 66 laps to go and held off Christopher Bell at Richmond ( Va.) Raceway on Sunday for his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Harvick, who ended a 65race drought last week at Michigan, won for the 60th time, the fourth time at Richmond and f irst time on the 0.75- mile oval since 2013. He matched Kyle Busch for ninth in career victories in the premier series and credited an increased understanding of the Next Gen car for his progress.

“We’re just going to keep doing the things that we’re doing,” Harvick said. “I think we just have to keep an open mind about things and keep progressing and keep understanding the car, understanding what we could have done better today.”

He even took some blame for allowing Bell to come so close at the end.

“I knew he was coming, but I forgot to shift down the front straightaway the last time,” he said. “I was not paying attention.”

Harvick’s victory also kept alive the intriguing battle for the f inal playoff position in the series with two races remaining in the regular season.

The 15 winners this year have all likely claimed playoff berths unless there are new winners when the series moves to Watkins Glen and then Daytona.

Bell f inished second, followed by Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott.

Logano, who led for 222 of the 400 laps, faded to sixth place.

Brown ends drought with top fuel victory

Three- time season champion Antron Brown raced to his first victory as a team owner in the Menards Nationals in Topeka, Kan.

Brown broke a 30- event NHRA drought, beating four- time defending series champion Steve Torrence in the top fuel f inal round for his 69th victory and f irst since the third race of the 2021 season. The 46- year- old Brown had a 3.902- second run at 309.49 mph.

“We kept our heads down,” Brown said. “We faced a lot of resistance, but this AB Motorsports team, we’re all one unit. I wouldn’t want to do this with anybody else.”

Bob Tasca III won in funny car, Troy Coughlin Jr. in pro stock and Joey Gladstone in pro stock motorcycle.