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Kevin Harvick smokes field, wins at Las Vegas

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Kevin Harvick made it to victory lane for a second week in a row by dominating in Vegas to win the Pennzoil 400. Harvick now has 100 wins across NASCAR's race series.

Kevin Harvick did it again. For the second consecutive weekend, Harvick scored a dominating win, putting his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in Victory Lane Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harvick has led the most laps in each of the last two races. He led 214 of the 267 laps Sunday and won both stages.

Kyle Busch placed second, giving Toyota its best finish of the season. Kyle Larson took third place and was followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney.

MORE: Race results

MORE: Points report
Harvick took the lead during a green-flag pit cycle with 37 laps to go and cruised to his 39th career Cup win and second at Las Vegas. He will go for his third consecutive win next weekend at ISM Raceway (formerly Phoenix Raceway). Joey Logano was the last driver to win three races in a row, doing so in the 2015 playoffs at Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega.

Sunday’s win was Harvick’s 100th career across NASCAR’s top three series. He becomes the fourth driver in NASCAR history to win 100 or more national series races, joining Richard Petty, Kyle Busch and David Pearson.
STAGE 1 WINNER: Kevin Harvick

STAGE 2 WINNER: Kevin Harvick

HOW DID KEVIN HARVICK WIN: For the second weekend in a row, Kevin Harvick had the best car and there was no way anyone was going to beat him unless something happened to him.

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Team Penske’s drivers finished fifth, sixth and seventh, extending top-10 streaks at Las Vegas. Ryan Blaney placed fifth (third consecutive top-10 at Vegas). Brad Keselowski was sixth (sixth top 10 in a row at Vegas). Joey Logano was seventh (fifth top 10 in a row at Vegas). ... Martin Truex Jr. finished fourth for his second consecutive top-five finish. ... Erik Jones (eighth) scored his first top-10 finish of the season. ... Aric Almirola placed 10th for his first top-10 result of the year. ... Cole Custer placed 25th in his Cup debut.

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Chase Elliott was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver on the lead lap for more than half the race but saw his race end when Kurt Busch got into his car and both wrecked. Elliott finished 34th. Busch placed 35th. ... Denny Hamlin got hit with a speeding penalty entering pit road and finished two laps down in 17th. ... Rookie William Byron struggled, finishing four laps behind the leaders in 27th.

NOTABLE: In his last four races on 1.5-mile tracks, dating back to last season, Kevin Harvick has three wins and finished no worse than fourth. ... Kevin Harvick’s fast start has already given him 13 points with two race victories and three stage wins.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I don’t know about catching (Kevin Harvick). He was quite a bit faster than everybody,’’ Kyle Larson after finishing third.

NEXT: The Cup series races at 3:30 p.m. ET March 11 at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.

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