NASCAR Xfinity Series
Kevin Harvick claims Kansas victory to earn spot in next round of Chase
NASCAR Xfinity Series

Kevin Harvick claims Kansas victory to earn spot in next round of Chase

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:19 p.m. ET

Kevin Harvick won the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, securing advancement into the next round of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.

Matt Kenseth absolutely dominated the first 125 laps, leading 115 of them.

Harvick took the lead from him on Lap 126 and held it for the next 43 laps. He regained it for good from Carl Edwards on a restart with 30 laps to go, then held it for the rest of the way.

Harvick credited not only his entire No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team, but the Hendrick Motorsports engine and chassis shops, for helping him come up with the win. SHR is in the final year of a technical racing alliance with Hendrick, as the company will be switching manufacturers from Chevrolet to Ford beginning next season.

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"These races are so hard to win, and these guys are so good at the details. You put their backs against the wall and they get better.  I'm really proud of them," Harvick said.

The victory means Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet and the 2014 Sprint Cup champion, is guaranteed to advance to the next round of the Chase along with Jimmie Johnson, who clinched his spot in the next round by winning a week earlier at Charlotte. The Chase playoff field will be trimmed from 12 drivers to eight after next Sunday's race at Talladega.

That means all the other remaining Chase drivers will be scrambling to avoid elimination at 'Dega, which put a premium on winning or at least getting a solid finish out of Kansas.

Harvick knew that going in. He advanced to the Round of 12 in the Chase by winning at New Hampshire in Race No. 2 of that round. This was Race No. 2 of the new round, so the victory, Harvick's fourth overall of the season, takes the pressure off him going into Talladega.

"I think the best thing is that we prepare for every race the same," Harvick said in Victory Lane. "I try every week to find something to motivate myself and I know the rest of these guys (on the No. 4 team) do the same thing. It’s hard to keep yourself motivated and continue to perform at a high level. Being able to do it for three years now says a lot about the character of this team and the things that they do.

"It's like they say: anything that is really, really hard to get and come by, there are going to be some obstacles and some bumps in the road. I am just really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

The top six finishers in the race were Chase playoff participants, with Edwards ending up second, Joey Logano third, Jimmie Johnson fourth, Kyle Busch fifth and Austin Dillon sixth. Kenseth eventually finished ninth, Martin Truex Jr. was 11th and Kurt Busch 13th, giving Chasers nine of the top 13 spots in all.

One Chaser who encountered early trouble was Denny Hamlin, who brought his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road on Lap 38 after experiencing a front-right tire rub. He fell all the way to 35th in the running order after a lengthy 35.4-second stop that became necessary when his crew also discovered something wrong with his front splitter.

But after one more subsequent stop to work on the issue with his splitter, Hamlin began a slow recovery march toward the front. By Lap 155 he was up to sixth, although he eventually encountered more trouble and fell to 15th by the finish.

Meanwhile, Chase Elliott, yet another playoff participant, wrestled the lead from Harvick on Lap 169 -- just before a series of green-flag pit stops were to take place.

Five laps later, Elliott surrendered the lead to make a pit stop. And immediately after that, just after re-taking the lead following the stops, Elliott had to come back to pit road for a left-rear tire rub, dropping him all the way to 24th. He later got into the wall, and finished 31st.

Calamity struck for Brad Keselowski, the only Chaser to finish worse than Elliott. It happened on Lap 190, when he got loose in front of Hamlin as the two battled to stay in the top 10. The end result was that Keselowski went for a wild ride through the infield grass, destroying his No. 2 Team Penske Ford and ruining his afternoon. He finished 38th in the 40-car field.

Meanwhile, Edwards seized command of the lead at about that point and held it for most of the rest of the way, leading 61 laps in all, until getting beat off the front row by Harvick on a restart with 30 to go.

"I just got two good restarts against the No 19 (of Edwards)," Harvick said. "He didn’t have a car 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. I just needed to go for it and that is really the mindset we go into every race in the Chase was to go for, and we did."

 

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