Harvick Dominates in Texas

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kevin Harvick won the AAA Texas 500 from Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

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Harvick was dominant all day, and won both stages while leading 177 laps on his way to victory lane.  After chasing down Ryan Blaney late in the race, Harvick held him off on the final restart for overtime to continue his dominance in Texas. 

Harvick said his team has continued to perform well at TMS.

“This place has been really good to me; glad I got to win,” Harvick said.  “For whatever reason, since they repaved this place, this place has kind of fit everything that we do.”

Blaney beat Harvick on a late restart to take the lead, but Harvick was able to get back to the lead before the final caution. 

After watching the way Blaney got around Turns 1 and 2, Harvick said he used the younger driver’s handling against him.

“If [Blaney] wasn’t able to arc it into the corner, he couldn’t finish the corner,” Harvick said.  “He had a hard time staying in the throttle.  I just knew I needed to get down into the corner with him.”

Blaney said he tried to beat Harvick down into the corner, but that his car was so much better at the end.

“That was really the only shot we had to beat him,” Blaney said.  “We got by him one restart, and I just couldn’t hold him off; he was just really good.”

“Just needed to be mistake-free and then some, and we just couldn’t be that.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Ryan Blaney

3. Joey Logano

4. Erik Jones

5. Kyle Larson

6. Chase Elliott

7. Kurt Busch

8. Aric Almirola

9. Martin Truex Jr.

10. Austin Dillon

11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

12. Brad Keselowski

13. Paul Menard

14. Alex Bowman

15. Jimmie Johnson

16. William Byron

17. Kyle Busch

18. Ryan Newman

19. Jamie McMurray

20. AJ Allmendinger

21. Trevor Bayne

22. Ty Dillon

23. Chris Buescher

24. David Ragan

25. Darrell Wallace Jr.

26. Clint Bowyer

27. Regan Smith

28. Daniel Suarez

29. Michael McDowell

30. Denny Hamlin

31. Parker Kligerman

32. Ross Chastain

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Kyle Weatherman

35. Landon Cassill

36. JJ Yeley

37. Joey Gase

38. Matt DiBenedetto

39. David Starr

40. Corey LaJoie

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