After opening the 2015 season with back-to-back second-place finishes, defending Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick turned it up a notch Sunday with a convincing victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Harvick led a race-high 142 laps in his Number-4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet, including the final sixteen – beating runner-up Martin Truex, Jr to the finish by a second-and-a-half. Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt, Jr and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.
Dating back to the final three weeks of last season, Harvick has now finished either first or second six races in a row. And he’s won three of the last five on mile-and-a-half ovals: at Charlotte and Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2014, and now Las Vegas in 2015.
Sunday’s victory also lifted Harvick into the early-season lead in the standings. He’ll carry a nine-point advantage over Earnhardt into the next event next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.
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[box type=”shadow” title=”Unofficial Points Standings” ]
DRIVER POINTS BEHIND LEADER
1. Kevin Harvick (1) 134 —
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 125 -9
3. Joey Logano (1) 123 -11
4. Martin Truex Jr. 118 -16
5. A-J Allmendinger 100 -34
6. Kasey Kahne 92 -42
7. Jimmie Johnson (1) 91 -43
8. Denny Hamlin 87 -47
Casey Mears 87 -47
10. Matt Kenseth 85 -49[/box]
– Written by John Singler
Motor Racing Network
Concord, North Carolina
