Kevin Harvick quickly pulled away from the field on the day’s final restart and kept it in his rear-view mirror the rest of the way, winning Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuickTrip 500 to complete a weekend double at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Harvick also won Saturday’s X-finity Series race, leading a combined 322 laps in notching two convincing early-season victories.
He started third on Sunday, won the opening stage and led a race-high 181 laps, including the final twenty-five, en route to his 38th Cup Series win and second at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The first one came 17 years ago as Harvick began his stint as Richard Childress Racing’s replacement for the late Dale Earnhardt. His margin of victory on Sunday was 2.6 seconds over Brad Keselowski, and Clint Bowyer rode home in 3rd place, giving Ford a sweep of the top three positions. Denny Hamlin and defending Monster Energy Series champion Martin Truex, Jr. completed the top five. William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports was the highest-finishing rookie, in 18th place .
Team Penske had a strong day with two cars among the top six. Keselowski won the second stage and led 38 laps on his way to 2nd place overall. Joey Logano ran 6th and took over 1st place in the standings with a six-point edge over Ryan Blaney heading into the race next weekend in Las Vegas. Blaney finished 12th on Sunday.
The race included five cautions for 28 laps. There were 24 lead changes among eight drivers: Harvick, Keselowski, Hamlin, Truex, Logano, Kyle and Kurt Busch, and Ryan Newman.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
1. Joey Logano @ 89 points
2. Ryan Blaney (-6)
3. Denny Hamlin (-12)
4. Kevin Harvick (-14)
5. Clint Bowyer (-15)
6. Austin Dillon (-19)
7. Martin Truex, Jr. (-20)
8. Kurt Busch (-21)
9. Paul Menard (-23)
10. Aric Almirola (-23)
For the complete driver standings, please visit the official page on nascar.com.
