The site of this weekend’s Monster Energy Series stop was about 2,000 miles west of where the tour raced a week ago. But Sunday’s outcome in Las Vegas
was much the same as it was seven days before in Hampton, Georgia: a dominating victory for Kevin Harvick. His #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford led a race-high 214 laps, including the final 37, as Harvick notched his second victory in three starts this season and his second Cup Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He becomes the first driver with back-to-back wins since Kyle Busch doubled up at New Hampshire and Dover during last year’s playoffs.
Harvick started second on Sunday, swept the first two stages and led the race on five different occasions. His margin of victory over runner-up Busch was nearly three seconds with Kyle Larson, Martin Truex, Jr., and pole winner Ryan Blaney completing the top five. Darrell (Bubba) Wallace, Jr. was the highest-finishing rookie, in 21st place.
With Sunday’s dominating performance, Harvick has now led 395 of the 592 laps possible in his last two starts, two thirds of the combined race distances. After winning each of the first two stages in yesterday’s race, he cashed out with 60 championship points that lifted him to the top of the regular-season standings.
Truex, the defending Monster Energy Series champion, was chasing his second consecutive Vegas victory but fell three positions short after collecting Top 10 finishes in each of the first two stages.
Sunday’s race included 11 lead changes, three fewer than last year. There were four cautions for 29 laps.
UPDATE 3/08/18: Kevin Harvick’s Team Penalized After Las Vegas Race
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
1. Joey Logano @ 132 points
2. Ryan Blaney (-1)
3. Kevin Harvick (-17)
4. Martin Truex, Jr. (-17)
5. Kyle Busch (-28)
6. Kyle Larson (-28)
7. Brad Keselowski (-33)
8. Denny Hamlin (-35)
9. Paul Menard (-36)
10. Austin Dillon (-38)
For the complete driver standings, please visit the official page on nascar.com.
