Harvick nabs 60th Cup Series win at Richmond

Kevin Harvick has won at Richmond Raceway to claim his 60th win in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The 2014 series champion saw off a late charge from Christopher Bell to take his second win in as many weeks, after breaking a 65-race winless streak last time out.

Kyle Larson started on the pole, with once again Ty Dillon replacing Kurt Busch in the #45 car.

Ross Chastain dominated and won Stage 1, after an early caution on Lap 3 for Tyler Reddick.

Joey Logano then found his way to the front and was able to take victory in Stage 2.

Aric Almirola in a ‘must win’ situation to make the playoffs ripped his way through the field, starting from 32nd and making his way into the top five in the first two stages.

Just laps into the final stage of the race, Chastain and Kyle Busch found trouble in Turn 4.

Playoffs contender Martin Truex Jnr sustained light contact in the incident, with Erik Jones going heavily into the back of Chastain and retiring from the race.

Bell also found trouble a few laps later, spinning off Turn 4 after a strategy gamble to get him back on the lead lap.

The hard racing continued well into the final stage, with cars running in the very top lane, which is uncommon at Richmond Raceway.

After a three-wide battle and light contact, Larson, who was running second, fell back into 15th before coming down pit road for a scheduled green-flag pit stop.

After a top five run, Chase Briscoe’s car briefly caught fire while on pit road, but was able to continue, losing three laps in the process.

Last week’s winner, Harvick began chasing down leader Logano, in a bid to get his second win in a row.

The pair continued to battle for the lead, with Roush Fenway-Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher looming in third, hoping to get an upset victory.

Harvick eventually took the lead with 66 laps remaining.

Meanwhile, Bell had taken fresh tyres late and drove his way up to second place, but it was too late for the #20 car and Harvick took his second win in a row by just 0.4 seconds

“Like I said last week, the car has been running good week in, week out but we had a much better understanding of the car after making adjustments from the first run,” Harvick said.

“As it got dark, the race track really came to our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang.

“I knew he [Bell] was coming, but I forgot to shift down the front straightaway there on the last lap and he got closer than he should’ve.

“We just gotta keep doing the things we’ve been doing, keep progressing and understand the car.”

NASCAR returns next week for the second-last race of the regular season at Watkins Glen, where the battle to the playoffs continue, and Kimi Raikkonen makes his NASCAR Cup Series debut.