Harvick Wins at Phoenix, Championship Round Set

Originally written for CLNS Radio.

Kevin Harvick won the Quicken Loans 500 on Sunday from Phoenix International Raceway to clinch his spot in the Championship Round at Homestead.

Photo courtesy Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Harvick needed a win to compete for the Championship next weekend.  Harvick said this may have been one of the biggest wins of his career.

“I guess that’s what it feels like to hit a walkoff in extra innings,” Harvick said.  “Both races here have just been bad to the bone.  Everyone on our Budweiser team has been great.”

Harvick dominated the race, leading 264 of 312 laps.  The class of the field, he ran away from Jeff Gordon on the final restart.  Gordon needed to win the race to move on to the Championship Round.  Instead, he finished one point behind Ryan Newman following his last-lap comeback.

Newman stayed out during a late caution, but he quickly fell into the danger zone.  On the final lap, Newman and Kyle Larson made contact going into Turn 3.  Newman was able to pick up the spot and the point he needed to get past Gordon.

Next week, the Sprint Cup Championship will be decided between Harvick, Newman, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin.  The rules are simple: whoever finishes first of those four drivers becomes the Sprint Cup Champion.

Unofficial results:

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Jeff Gordon

3. Matt Kenseth

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Joey Logano

7. Kurt Busch

8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

9. Greg Biffle

10. Marcos Ambrose

11. Ryan Newman

12. Martin Truex Jr.

13. Kyle Larson

14. Jamie McMurray

15. Carl Edwards

16. AJ Allmendinger

17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

18. Aric Almirola

19. Brian Vickers

20. Tony Stewart

21. Kasey Kahne

22. Danica Patrick

23. Paul Menard

24. David Gilliland

25. David Ragan

26. Michael Annett

27. Ty Dillon

28. Reed Sorenson

29. Landon Cassill

30. J.J. Yeley

31. Michael McDowell

32. Alex Bowman

33. Joey Gase

34. Kyle Busch

35. Casey Mears

36. Mike Wallace

37. Justin Allgaier

38. Austin Dillon

39. Jimmie Johnson

40. Clint Bowyer

41. Josh Wise

42. Cole Whitt

43. Mike Bliss

Photo courtesy Sean Gardner/Getty Images