Kevin Harvick wins for 5th time in last 6 races at Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Kevin Harvick's remarkable hot streak continued Sunday, when he scored a dominating victory in the CampingWorld.com 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.
Harvick has won four of the last seven races he's run dating back to last year, and he's finished second in the other three, putting him within hailing distance of Richard Petty's all-time NASCAR record of 11 consecutive top-two finishes, set in 1975.
Sunday's victory was Harvick's fourth in a row at PIR and fifth in the last six races at the 1-mile desert track. Once again, Harvick's No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet led the most laps in the race, as he and the team appear just about bulletproof right now.
"The bond between this team is really special," said Harvick. "Rodney Childers (crew chief) and myself and the engineers. Everybody gets along so good, it's just -- it's almost scary, how well things are going. And you don't want to talk about it too much because you want it to keep going. But just really proud and love these guys."
The 2014 champ led 224 of 312 laps to win over Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.
"That was a fun battle with Kevin," said runner-up McMurray, who nearly pushed his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet past Harvick on a late-race restart. "Those are the kind that you wish you could do over again."
"I was pretty quick, but just a little late," lamented Newman.
In his first race back since being suspended Feb. 20, Kurt Busch finished fifth in a second SHR car. "The way that we raced today was with heart," said Busch.
Harvick started from the pole after dominating the entire weekend, but it was Joey Logano who went to the lead from the outside of Row 1, with Harvick falling briefly to fourth before quickly advancing to second.
After pressuring Logano, Harvick took his first lead on the day on Lap 26, quickly opening a big lead on Logano.
Logano got passed for second place by teammate Brad Keselowski on Lap 36, the two Penske Fords hoping to run down Harvick.
Harvick led all the way until a restart on Lap 119, when he lost the lead on pit road and then got shuffled back to seventh after contact with Kyle Larson on the restart. That handed the lead to Keselowski.
At the halfway point, the order was Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr. and Harvick, but within two more laps, Harvick was up to second place, in hot pursuit of the Penske Ford.
Finally, on Lap 170, Harvick ducked under Keselowski at the entrance of Turn 1 to reassume the lead.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a melted bead on his right-rear tire and then a hard crash in Turn 2 on Lap 181, knocking the fan favorite out of contention and ending his streak of three consecutive top-five finishes.
That sent the field down pit road on Lap 188, Logano using a two-tire pit stop to retake the lead ahead of Harvick, Ryan Newman, Keselowski and Truex.
Harvick passed Logano on Lap 199, just one lap before a caution for debris on the frontstretch.
On the restart, Kurt Busch came up to second behind Harvick and ahead of the Penske Fords of Logano and Keselowski.
>> CampingWorld.com 500 photo gallery
Then on Lap 288, Tony Stewart's SHR Chevrolet hit the frontstretch wall.
Under caution, Harvick and eight other drivers stayed out, while most of the rest of the lead-lap cars pitted. Busch, who was second, restarted 10th, the first of the drivers to pit.
The race restarted on Lap 296, only to see Danica Patrick spin in Turn 4 to send the track yellow again.
This time, the green waved on Lap 301, setting up a shootout to the finish.
And from there, Harvick was never really challenged as he scored the 30th race victory of his Sprint Cup career.
