Kevin Harvick comes through again, wins at Kansas to move on to Chase's 3rd round
KANSAS CITY, Kansas — If Kevin Harvick needs a win to keep his Chase alive, odds are he’s going to get it.
Harvick won his second race of the Chase on Sunday at Kansas Speedway, passing Carl Edwards on the race’s final restart. The win means Harvick is automatically advancing to the third round of the Chase despite a terrible finish last week at Kansas.
Both Edwards and Harvick stayed out on the race’s final caution flag and Edwards chose the high line. Harvick had the better restart on the inside lane and pulled away from Edwards, who had to contend with teammate Kyle Busch on fresher tires.
“He didn’t have a car [behind] quite as close to him, and I was able to break that draft before I got to the middle of [turns 1 and 2] and get away from him, so that was pretty awesome,” Harvick said. “I just needed to go for and that is really the mindset we go into every race in the Chase was to go for, and we did.”
Edwards ultimately prevailed and finished second. Joey Logano finished third while Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Busch finished fifth.
Harvick’s 38th-place finish at Charlotte meant he entered Sunday’s race last in the Chase standings and eight points out of the top eight (who advance to the third round). It was a more dire scenario than he faced after the first race of the first round after finishing 20th at Chicago.
At New Hampshire, the race after Chicago, Harvick passed Matt Kenseth on the race’s final restart and led the race’s final six laps for the win, which moved him on to the second round. The win was even more vital when Harvick had a track bar issue the following week at Dover.
Oh, and at Dover in 2015, Harvick needed a win to advance to the second round. He only led 355 laps en route to the win and a second-place finish in the Chase. Yeah, this is becoming a bit of a pattern.
As Harvick is moving on to the third round of the Chase, there’s a big cluster of Chasers who have no earthly idea what their Chase fates will be after Kansas. Brad Keselowski’s car was destroyed on a spin through the infield while Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin also had issues, though Hamlin was fortunate enough to finish 15th.
Race results:
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Carl Edwards
3. Joey Logano
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Kyle Busch
6. Austin Dillon
7. Alex Bowman
8. AJ Allmendinger
9. Matt Kenseth
10. Kasey Kahne
11. Martin Truex Jr.
12. Ryan Newman
13. Kurt Busch
14. Ryan Blaney
15. Denny Hamlin
16. Tony Stewart
17. Trevor Bayne
18. Danica Patrick
19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
20. Paul Menard
21. Chris Buescher
22. Michael McDowell
23. Casey Mears
24. Matt DiBenedetto
25. Greg Biffle
26. Clint Bowyer
27. Landon Cassill
28. Brian Scott
29. Regan Smith
30. Kyle Larson
31. Chase Elliott
32. Michael Annett
33. Cole Whitt
34. Reed Sorenson
35. Joey Gase
36. David Ragan
37. Jamie McMurray
38. Brad Keselowski
39. Josh Wise
40. Aric Almirola
Chase standings:
1. Jimmie Johnson – Won at Charlotte
2. Kevin Harvick – Won at Kansas
3. Matt Kenseth, 3,074
4. Kyle Busch, 3,072
5. Carl Edwards, 3,069
6. Kurt Busch, 3,062
7.Martin Truex Jr., 3,058
8. Joey Logano, 3,045
9. Austin Dillon, 3,045
10. Denny Hamlin, 3,039
11. Brad Keselowski, 3,038
12. Chase Elliott, 3,020
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
