Kevin Harvick is making a habit out of winning the NASCAR Playoffs race at Texas Motor Speedway to advance to the Championship Four every year.
The Round of Eight races in the NASCAR post-season started with Martin Truex Jr. clinching his spot to race for the championship in Martinsville. Yesterday (11/3) seven drivers started the AAA Texas 500 with the goal of winning the race to clinch their spot with Martin.
The first stage of racing Sunday afternoon was full of incidents on the track with a few of those playoff drivers seeing their hope of a clinch taken away. Those drivers began the challenge of salvaging the best finish they could to score as many points as possible.
Kevin Harvick won stage one of the race with non-playoff driver Aric Almirola scoring the win in stage two. Aric looked as though he might play spoiler to the drivers still in contention for the championship and win the race.
Kevin had to race back through the field after a pit road violation took away the track position he had near and at the front. Race back through the field he did. Kevin got back to the front to lead 73 of the final 80 laps of the race including the last 21 laps to score the win.
This was Kevin’s third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway. It was his third consecutive win in the fall, NASCAR Playoffs Texas win. The win locks him in the Championship Four with a chance to race for the 2019 title at Homestead-Miami along with Martin Truex Jr. in two weeks.
Two of Kevin’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates finished the race just behind him, Aric Almirola (2nd) and Daniel Suarez (3rd). Joey Logano and Alex Bowman finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete race results for the AAA Texas 500 here.
There is one race remaining in the Round of Eight. There are two spots available in the Championship Four. There are six drivers that want one of those two spots. See the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
The Round of Eight elimination race takes place at ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona. The Bluegreen Vacations 500 will take place Sunday, November 10th and decide which two drivers will be the last to advance to the Championship Four.
By: Buck Stevens
