Kevin Harvick powered past Kyle Busch and held off charging Brad Keselowski to score his second NASCAR Nationwide series win of the season Friday night at Kentucky Speedway. Harvick, driving for Junior Motorsports was able to overcome earlier pit road issues to rally back for his 42nd career Nationwide win.
Brad Keselowski was the class of the field for most of the race, but a pit road speeding penalty on the final stop of the night sent him back in the field. Despite the setback, Keselowski was able to battle back through the field thanks in large part to two cautions; he passed Busch with three laps to go but ran out of time and finished second.
Behind Busch in third Paul Menard was fourth, Ryan Blaney fifth. Last week’s winner Brendan Gaughan was sixth, Ty Dillon seventh, Brian Scott eighth. Kyle Larson and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top ten.
Regan Smith’s bad luck at Kentucky continued when he crashed on lap 169. He was able to continue but finished 28th.
Sadler took over the Nationwide series points lead, four points ahead of Chase Elliott who finished 12 and eight points ahead of Smith.
The series heads to Daytona International Speedway next Friday night.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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