RICHMOND, Va. – Suddenly, and just as the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are approaching, veteran driver Kevin Harvick may be stamping himself as the man to beat.
The 2014 season champion took the lead from Joey Logano with 66 laps to go Sunday at Richmond Raceway, then held off Christopher Bell for his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Harvick, who ended a 65-race drought one week earlier at Michigan International Speedway, won for the 60th time on NASCAR’s top circuit – and the fourth time at Richmond but the first time on the 0.75-mile oval since 2013. The 46-year-old Stewart-Haas Racing driver matched Kyle Busch for ninth in career victories in the Cup Series and credited an increased understanding of the Next Gen car for his progress.
“We’re just going to keep doing the things that we’re doing,” Harvick said after climbing out of the No. 4 Ford. “I think we just have to keep an open mind about things and keep progressing and keep understanding the car, understanding what we could have done better today, understanding what we could have done better in qualifying yesterday and do the same thing over and over.”
He even took some blame for allowing Bell in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota to get so close at the end.