Kevin Harvcik passed Martin Truex Jr. coming to the white flag and ran away to win his fifth Cup race of the season Saturday night at Kansas Speedway.
“How about that?’’ Harvick screamed on his radio.
“God, you’re the man,’’ crew chief Rodney Childers said.
“That was cool,’’ said Harvick, who has won 41.6 percent of the Cup races this season.
MORE: Race results
MORE: Points report
Truex finished second. Joey Logano placed third, Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 101 laps, was fourth and Denny Hamlin placed fifth.
On the final restart with nine laps to go, Harvick restarted sixth. He used the outside line to get to second and reeled in Truex, who was on older tires than Harvick’s car.
Stage 1 winner: Ryan Blaney
Stage 2 winner: Kyle Larson
How Kevin Harvick won: The decision to pit for four tires late proved to be the key call and helped Harvick charge to the win in the final laps.
Who had a good race: Even though he wasn’t among the leaders most of the night, Martin Truex Jr. pulled out a second-place finish, his third consecutive top-two finish at Kansas. … Joey Logano placed third to earn his seventh top-10 finish in the last eight races. … Denny Hamlin was fifth, earning his fifth top-five finish of the season. He had only two top-five finishes at the same time last year. … Paul Menard matched his best finish of the season by placing sixth.
Who had a bad race: Ryan Blaney had his night end while battling Kyle Larson for third place with about 20 laps to go and hit the wall, ending his night. They made contact and Blaney hit the wall. He drove the car to the garage while Larson continued. Blaney finished 37th. … Matt Kenseth‘s return was not memorable. He battled an ill-handling car in his return, was lapped multiple times and eliminated in a late crash, placing 36th. … A loose wheel forced Brad Keselowski to pit under green and ended any chances for a strong finish. He placed 14th.
Notable: Kevin Harvick has won three of the four races on 1.5-mile tracks this season.
Quote: “Definitely my fault. Just trying too hard,’’ Ryan Blaney to Fox Sports 1 on his incident with Kyle Larson late in the race.
Next: The Monster Energy All-Star Race will be at 8 p.m. ET on May 19 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
