Kevin Harvick wins at Las Vegas, punches another ticket to Chase

Last season’s Sprint Cup champion will have the opportunity to win another.

Despite feeling some bad vibrations in the car in the final laps, Kevin Harvick managed to easily hold off Martin Truex Jr. to win Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first series victory and all-but ensuring him a chance to compete in this season’s championship Chase.

Ryan Newman finished third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth and Denny Hamlin was fifth.

The win is the 29th of Harvick’s career and first at Vegas. Harvick has now won three of the series’ last six races.

Turning point

On Lap 230 of 267, teams began the final green-flag pit stops of the race. Earnhardt took two new tires while Harvick took four and Earnhardt came off pit road first. Before the rest of the cars had finished their stops, Harvick had already powered around Earnhardt and put himself back into position to reclaim the lead on Lap 253.

Three who mattered

Kevin Harvick: Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing seems to have picked up where it left off from last season, when Harvick won his first series championship.

Martin Truex Jr.: What a difference a year makes. Truex had one of worst seasons of his career last year but he’s been on fire in 2015 and was in position to claim the win if Harvick faltered at the finish.

Jimmie Johnson: Johnson appeared to have a rocket ship Sunday but was forced to pit under green early in the race for a loose wheel and then wrecked on Lap 173.

Observations

<bullet> No question Harvick remains the class of the SHR organization but the difficulties for Tony Stewart to start the 2015 season have been perplexing. Certainly, Stewart seemed particularly flustered with the performance of his car almost from the start of the race.

<bullet> Ford, particularly Roush Fenway Racing, used to own Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Sunday’s race was another mediocre performance for the struggling organization as its three teams finished 14th, 28th and 29th.

Next race

CampingWorld.com 500

Where: Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, Ariz.

When: 3:30 p.m. ET March 15.

TV: Fox.

Radio: Motor Racing Network.

N@SCAR

Three tweets from Sunday’s race:

This story was originally published March 8, 2015 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Kevin Harvick wins at Las Vegas, punches another ticket to Chase."