Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-80):
● Harvick started first, finished fifth and earned six bonus points.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, said on lap six that his car was too tight.
● On lap 27, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Said car was a bit tight, but overall pretty good.
● Harvick reported the car was plowing when behind other cars.
Stage 2 Recap (Laps 81-160):
● Harvick started ninth, finished seventh and earned four bonus points.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, pitted on lap 83 for four tires, fuel and a chassis and track bar adjustment. Came in fifth and left ninth.
● On lap 120, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. Was seventh.
Final Stage Recap (Laps 161-268):
● Harvick started 10th and finished 10th.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, pitted on lap 164 for four tires, fuel and a round out of the left rear. The car was lacking rear grip and the stop was a bit slow.
● On lap 190, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and two rounds out of the left rear. Was 11th.
● Harvick pitted on lap 230 for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. Was 10th.
● After a caution right after Harvick had pitted, he restarted 17th on lap 241.
● On lap 252, while 11th, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.
● Restarted 16th on the final restart and ended up 10th.
Notes:
● Kurt Busch won the South Point 400 to score his 32nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Las Vegas. His margin of victory over second-place Matt DiBenedetto was .148 of a second.
● There were seven caution periods for a total of 36 laps.
● Twenty-five of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Harvick remains the championship leader after Las Vegas with a three-point advantage over second-place Denny Hamlin.
● Harvick earned his series-leading 25th top-10 of the season and his 12th top-10 in 23 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas.
● This was Harvick’s fourth straight top-10. He won Sept. 6 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, finished seventh Sept. 12 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway and won in the series’ last race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
● Harvick’s 12 top-10s at Las Vegas are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
● This is Harvick’s fourth straight top-10 at Las Vegas. He finished eighth in the series’ previous race to the track in February.
● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only three finishes outside the top-10 at Las Vegas. He has won twice (March 2015 and March 2018).
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“It was on the splitter for 100 percent of the race, just hit the ground and wouldn’t go on restarts and just didn’t do much well. We had a lot of trouble on pit road tonight, so definitely not the night we were looking for with our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, but salvaged a top 10 out of it and some stage points, so I think that big picture-wise it didn’t kill us. We did our job early in the race and got some stage points, and then were able to make something out of it there at the end and just salvage a decent night, but definitely wasn’t a clean night.”
Playoff Standings (with two races to go before the Round of 8):
1. Kurt Busch (3,041 points) 1 win
2. Kevin Harvick (3,104 points) +61 points
3. Denny Hamlin (3,101 points) +58 points
4. Brad Keselowski (3,059 points) +16 points
5. Martin Truex Jr. (3,058 points) +15 points
6. Joey Logano (3,054 points) +11 points
7. Chase Elliott (3,053 points) +10 points
8. Alex Bowman (3,052 points) +9 points
9. Kyle Busch (3,043 points) -9 points
10. Clint Bowyer (3,032 points) -20 points
11. Aric Almirola (3,025 points) -27 points
12. Austin Dillon (3,020 points) -32 points
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the YellaWood 500 on Sunday, Oct. 4 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. It is the fifth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race in the Round of 12. It starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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