FORT WORTH, Texas — Kevin Harvick earned a shot at another NASCAR Cup championship, rocketing past polesitter Ryan Blaney in overtime Sunday to win at Texas.
Another late caution led to a third restart in the final 35 laps – with Harvick leading each time. Harvick led 177 of the 337 laps.
After taking the inside on the first two restarts, and briefly losing the lead after the second one, Harvick opted to start from outside for the green-white-checkered finish. By the time they got to the backstretch, Harvick had pushed his No. 4 Ford in front, and he raced to his eighth win of this season.
“I thought if I could keep him from finishing the corner I could drive back by him,” Harvick said. “It all worked out.”
It’s the second year in a row that Harvick, the 2014 Cup champion, won the fall race at Texas to get into the final four. Of his 32 starts in the Lone Star State, his only two wins are the last two fall races, but those are among his 20 top-10 finishes there.
“This place has been really good to me. I’m glad we got the win again here,” he said.
Harvick also won both stages at the 11/2-mile Texas track, the fourth time this season he’s done that and gone on to win the race.
With Joey Logano and Harvick locked in after winning the past two races, the series goes to Phoenix next week with only two spots up for grabs for the championship run at Homestead in two weeks.
Kyle Busch, a seven-time winner this year, and defending Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. are among the other six title contenders. They are comfortably above the cut line for points, but Clint Bowyer, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch or Chase Elliott could advance with a win in Phoenix
After the first of the late restarts, Harvick was on the inside and was able to keep Blaney from clearing him on the backstretch. Harvick was already starting to rebuild his lead – it had been nearly 4 seconds before the caution – when another yellow flag came out.
Harvick was on the inside again for the next restart, before Blaney was able to get by him on the outside and into the lead. Blaney led seven laps before Harvick went under him and was again putting distance between them before Joey Gase’s spin brought out the last of eight cautions.
Truex, who was close to clinching a title spot before that bump-and-run by Logano on the final lap to win at Martinsville last week, finished ninth. Logano was third. Elliott was sixth, followed by Kurt Busch and Almirola. Kyle Busch was 17th and Bowyer 26th.
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