Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-40):
● Started fifth, finished first.
● The No. 98 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang restarted third on the lap-16 restart and immediately drove to the lead.
● Harvick maintained the lead until a pit stop under caution on lap 37. Several cars stayed out and he restarted 10th.
● Harvick made the pass to retake the lead on the final lap of the stage.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 41-80):
● Started first, finished first.
● Harvick and the Hunt Brothers Pizza team led every green-flag lap of Stage 2.
● The No. 98 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford came to pit road for four tires and fuel at the conclusion of Stage 2.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 81-163):
● Started first, finished first
● Harvick brought the Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford to pit road with a 6.250 second lead under green for four tires and fuel on lap 128.
● He led the remainder of the event.
Notes:
● Harvick scored his series-best fifth win in 17 XFINITY Series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
● It was his 47th win in 341 XFINITY Series starts and his 98th win in NASCAR’s top-three series.
● Harvick’s last Xfinity Series win prior to today was at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California in March 2015.
● The win marks the second Xfinity Series win for Stewart-Haas Racing. SHR teammate Cole Custer scored the organization’s first win at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in the 2017 season finale.
● Harvick swept both race stages, led four times for a race-high 141 laps and scored the win.
● Only seven of the 40 cars entered into the race finished on the lead lap.
● Harvick’s SHR teammate Cole Custer finished 39th after being involved in a wreck on lap 10.
● This was Harvick’s first NASCAR XFINITY Series start of the year for Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste.
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 98 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste:
“The race track has stayed very similar to what it’s been for a number of years. I think as you look at the techniques and the things that I do in the car, they give me what I want in the car as far as the feeling it just applies here. It’s been a great race track for us. I was frustrated last year here. We didn’t leave here with the trophy on either day and that’s always our goal is to win one day. I’ve just got to thank Hunt Brothers Pizza, Fields, Haas Automation, Ford, Jimmy John’s, Busch, Mobil 1, Morton Buildings, Textron Off-Road, Ollie’s, LiftMaster, everybody who puts all this effort into this XFINITY program. Last year was our first race here together as a team and on the race track it was our second race total – Cole ran Daytona – so they’ve done a great job at Stewart-Haas Racing. I’ve got to thank Gene Haas, Joe Custer and Fred Biagi and Bill DenBeste, and everybody who works on this thing. It’s a great day.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Boyd Gaming 300 on Saturday, March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race starts at 4 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FS1.
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