Harvick a Winner at Las Vegas Sprint Cup Race

Photo Credit: Isaac Brekken/AP

LAS VEGAS, NV – RIS – Kevin Harvick followed the pattern of the last race, and dominated the Kobalt 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Harvick led 142 of the 267 laps en route to his win, the first of the season and the 29th of his career.  The 2014 Sprint Cup Champion had a winning speed of 143.677 mph, but that doesn’t tell the story of just how much better he was than the rest of the field.  He passed cars at will and moved away once he got to the front.

"It’s so cool to win here in Las Vegas, and to start this West Coast swing off this way is pretty awesome," Harvick said in Victory Lane. "Just to be in front of all these fans I’ve raced in front of since about the mid-‘90s… it’s pretty special to win here."

Martin Truex, Jr. finished second and Ryan Newman was third.  Dale Earnhardt. Jr. finished fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.  An ill A.J. Allmendinger (flu-like symptoms) finished sixth, Brad Keselowski seventh, Kyle Larson eighth, Matt Kenseth ninth, and Joey Logano tenth.

At one point there were only 17 of the 43 cars on the lead lap.  Harvick won by 1.640 seconds despite trouble over the last few laps.  At first he reported to his crew that he had a vibration which was reported to Truex by his crew, but he held on to win the race.

"It wasn’t right," Harvick said. "Luckily we were able to hang-on to it and had a good enough lead to where we could pace ourselves and be able to keep the lead, I guess.
 
"It got to be a handful there at the end. For whatever reason we got really, really loose the last run. Tires started vibrating and we were just kind of hanging on. Glad the race is over at that particular point for our own good."

Truex denied that he knew anything about Harvick’s troubles.

"I noticed he was getting a lot bigger, and I asked 'Why in the world is Harvick so slow right now?'" Truex said. "They gave me my lap times and his and I'm like, "What's going on?'”

Harvick first took the lead on Lap 91.  He had qualified 18th and it took awhile to get through the field, but he got to the front, there was no doubt who was the fastest car.  In fact, only Joey Logano led enough laps to challenge him, but Logano only led 47 laps.  That is 182 laps with seven other cars leading the remaining 85 laps.  Most of the remaining laps were led on pits stops or off-sequence cars that pitted after Harvick.  There were six cautions on the day.

Pole winner Jeff Gordon started from the rear in a backup car because of an accident in the last minute of Saturday’s final practice. The four-time champion’s luck didn’t improve on Sunday. He ran into the back of Jeb Burton’s Toyota as both drivers were trying to avoid the Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, who had blown a tire and hit the wall ahead of them. Gordon finished 18th, one lap down. Gordon was the last driver before Harvick to post six straight top-two finishes, a feat he accomplished in 1996.

Johnson had the misfortune of a second flat tire only laps later and finished the day in 41st position.  Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne tangled later on and ended Edwards’ day with a 42nd place showing.

The next stop on the Sprint Cup schedule is Phoenix International Raceway where Harvick has won five of the last six Cup races.  That race is on March 15th and time will tell if Harvick can make that seven races in a row with a finish no lower than second.  Last driver to do that was Richard Petty in 1967.

Unofficial Finish:

  Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Winnings Status Tms Laps
1 18 4 Kevin Harvick Jimmy John's/Budweiser Chevrolet 267 48 5 141.5 $431,815 Running 5 142
2 8 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Chevrolet 267 43 1 117.1 $268,950 Running 1 3
3 7 31 Ryan Newman Caterpillar Chevrolet 267 42 1 103.4 $236,980 Running 1 14
4 4 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Nationwide Chevrolet 267 41 1 123.5 $184,455 Running 2 4
5 19 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Office Toyota 267 39 108.7 $162,380 Running
6 22 47 AJ Allmendinger Clorox Chevrolet 267 38 94.1 $162,703 Running
7 11 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 267 38 1 102.8 $170,461 Running 2 9
8 5 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet 267 36 102.3 $156,078 Running
9 6 20 Matt Kenseth DeWalt Toyota 267 36 1 92.4 $157,206 Running 1 1
10 2 22 Joey Logano Pennzoil Platinum Ford 267 35 1 102.6 $165,853 Running 3 47
11 10 1 Jamie McMurray CESSNA Chevrolet 267 33 86.9 $144,426 Running
12 24 27 Paul Menard Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet 267 32 80.8 $121,010 Running
13 23 33 Brian Scott(i) Whitetail Chevrolet 267 0 74.6 $128,068 Running
14 16 16 Greg Biffle Cheez-It Ford 267 30 77.5 $141,793 Running
15 28 55 Brian Vickers Aaron's 60th Anniversary Dream Machine Toyota 266 29 70.3 $137,274 Running
16 34 41 Regan Smith(i) Haas Automation Chevrolet 266 0 70.3 $123,160 Running
17 3 5 Kasey Kahne Time Warner Cable Chevrolet 266 27 102.0 $121,660 Running
18 1 24 Jeff Gordon 3M Chevrolet 266 26 76.4 $157,196 Running
19 30 21 Ryan Blaney(i) Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford 266 0 63.0 $101,660 Running
20 25 3 Austin Dillon DOW Energy & Water Chevrolet 265 24 75.2 $146,796 Running
21 20 15 Clint Bowyer 5-Hour Energy Toyota 265 23 62.0 $137,418 Running
22 13 18 David Ragan M&M's Crispy Toyota 265 22 53.8 $143,651 Running
23 37 38 David Gilliland Love's Travel Stops Ford 265 21 47.8 $123,318 Running
24 29 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Medallion Bank/Camping World Ford 265 20 45.5 $126,380 Running
25 17 13 Casey Mears GEICO Chevrolet 264 19 68.5 $118,593 Running
26 15 43 Aric Almirola Smithfield Ford 264 18 72.5 $134,771 Running
27 21 10 Danica Patrick GoDaddy Chevrolet 264 17 60.4 $104,710 Running
28 35 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford 264 16 51.1 $137,185 Running
29 31 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Fastenal Ford 264 15 53.7 $103,385 Running
30 32 95 Michael McDowell KLOVE Radio Ford 264 14 42.9 $93,610 Running
31 26 51 Justin Allgaier Brandt Chevrolet 263 13 49.1 $112,457 Running
32 38 35 Cole Whitt Speed Stick Ford 262 12 37.7 $94,210 Running
33 12 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet 262 11 52.6 $118,724 Running
34 39 98 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford 261 10 32.8 $91,310 Running
35 42 40 Landon Cassill(i) Carsforsale.com Chevrolet 261 0 32.6 $91,085 Running
36 40 23 JJ Yeley(i) Dr. Pepper Toyota 260 0 32.4 $90,845 Running
37 36 34 Brett Moffitt Shaw's Southern Belle Seafood Ford 260 7 36.6 $90,614 Running
38 43 62 Brendan Gaughan(i) South Point Hotel & Casino Chevrolet 258 0 26.0 $85,290 Running
39 33 46 Michael Annett Cypress Chevrolet 257 5 43.3 $81,290 Running
40 41 26 Jeb Burton # MaximFantasySports.com Toyota 254 4 26.4 $78,790 Running
41 9 48 Jimmie Johnson Kobalt Tools Chevrolet 236 4 1 94.7 $121,226 Running 2 45
42 14 19 Carl Edwards Comcast Business Toyota 227 3 1 75.3 $69,290 Running 1 2
43 27 7 Alex Bowman Nikko/Toy State Chevrolet 28 1 35.7 $65,790 Engine