Kevin Harvick shattered the field on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to score his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season. Harvick, who scored win No. 100 across all three of NASCAR’s National Series, dominated the field by leading 214 of the 267 laps in his No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford.
“We have definitely had three good race cars with the Xfinity Car and the Cup car and we had a good race car at Daytona as well and got caught up in a wreck,” said Harvick after the race. “As you look at the last two weeks and our 1.5-mile program in general it has been really good since I started here at SHR. They put a lot of effort into everything we do from every standpoint to get these cars going like they are.”
The California native started the afternoon in second and went to win all three stages of the Pennzoil 400. The No. 4 team had a little hiccup on pit road later in the running that pushed the Stewart Haas Racing machine back a couple of spots. However, on lap 195, Harvick re-took the lead and led all but six of the remaining laps.
“Yeah, we had some trouble getting through traffic there. That was our worst run as far as where the car was,” Harvick continued. “I don’t know if it was just the car, tire set, handling, whatever it was. We were just stuck in traffic and needed to come make an adjustment. We got everything situated on pit road and got a good restart. It was definitely not as good in traffic but when it was out front, it was on time.”
With the victory last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Harvick has two wins, two top five and two top 10 finishes through three races in 2018.
Kyle Busch spent some time leading the field at his home track on Sunday afternoon. However, when the 267-lap event ended later in the day, Busch sat second on the race leaderboard by 2.906 seconds. The Las Vegas native was one of the drivers that gained several spots on the final run despite having a vibration.
“Our M&M’s Camry was really strong there the last 100 laps of the race. Early on, just having to start the race on our qualifiers (tires) was really bad for us and then we over tightened and over adjusted for the second run,” said Busch after the race. “From there we were making small tweaks to it to get it back. It was rolling fast the last 100 laps or so. A lot of those guys would go and short pit on the long side of it and I think that helped us too getting back up through those guys, too.
The No. 18 M&Ms Caramel Toyota led the field for 10 circuits and went on to score their first top five and second top 10 finish of the new season.
One of the drivers to watch coming into the day was Kyle Larson. After starting fifth, Larson stayed upfront to finish third in stage one and two and went on to score a third-place finish.
Martin Truex Jr. and pole sitter Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.
Paul Menard was the last car to finish on the lead lap in ninth. Menard and the Wood Brothers Racing team brought home their second top 10 finish of the season.
“Just a solid day for the Motorcraft Ford Fusion. A great weekend for us,” said Menard after the Pennzoil 400. “We unloaded fast on Friday and fell behind a bit on Saturday. We all got together last night and talked about what we needed to do and it worked out for us. A solid car all day.”
Jimmie Johnson will not leave with a top 10 finish but will leave Las Vegas with a 12th-place finish following a slow start. Johnson, in the season opening Daytona 500, finished 38th and brought home a 27th last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet started at the rear of the field because they failed pre-race inspection three times. Car-chief Jesse Saunders was ejected as a result.
Notable drivers Kurt Busch and Chase Elliott had DNF’s after tangling on the frontstretch at lap 184. Busch, from Las Vegas himself, finished 35th after starting in third. Georgia native Chase Elliott finished 36th after starting sixth on the leaderboard.
“I was running the low groove and it just stepped out on me. I wasn’t even trying to fill the whole or go 100%,” Busch said when describing the incident. “I had it at 90% and I knew Chase was going to be on my outside and it was just that quick. We were back there in the dirty air, but turn four, I always know it is slick and I wasn’t even pushing through there and it stepped out on me. Ruined his day, ruined my day. I hate it for all the Chase Elliott fans and the Kurt Busch fans and my hometown fans. I wasn’t even pushing hard. I knew we had one more stop and then we were going to go. It just stepped out on me. It is ridiculous.”
“Yeah, I think he just got loose in the bottom there and I was, unfortunately, the guy that was up top,” said Elliott. So, we were just trying to be solid today and make the most of what our NAPA Camaro had, and I thought we were doing a pretty good job of that; kind of like what we did last week in trying to get a little bit better. I was just kind of there at the wrong spot and the wrong situation and I’m headed home early.”
The caution period before the incident with Busch and Elliott was brought out by Jamie McMurray on the backstretch. McMurray took his No. 1 Chevrolet to the garage after losing a tire and finished 36th.
“I blew a right-front tire. I don’t really know what happened. Up to that point we were definitely better than we were at Atlanta,” said McMurray. “I thought we had a good car. It was hard to pass today. The track really rubbered in and it seemed like the bottom was the preferred groove and when everybody was running the bottom it was pretty tough to pass, but we had a good car.”
The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will take place at ISM Raceway. The Ticket Guardian 500 will take place at 3:30 p.m. ET. on FOX and MRN.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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