Up until this month, Kevin Harvick had been winless in his last 65 races.
But over the last two weeks, things have changed dramatically for Harvick, and he’s been seen as one of the most dangerous drivers entering the forthcoming NASCAR playoffs.
Harvick won for the second week in a row on Sunday, holding off Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano at the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway in Virginia. Harvick won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan last weekend.
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"It’s like I said last week, the cars have been running good week in and week out. We were able to get the car handling a lot better after the first run," he told NBC Sports after the race.
Harvick took the lead from Logano with 66 laps remaining in the race. Logano led more than 200 laps in the race before he relinquished the lead to Harvick.
For Harvick, it was the 60th win of his career. It was the fourth time he won at Richmond and the first time in the 0.75-mile oval since 2013.
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But his win didn’t exactly spruce up the playoff picture.
The final position for the playoff is still wide open. The 15 winners this year have all likely claimed their spot in the playoffs unless there are new winners when the series moves to Watkins Glen next week and Daytona for the regular-season finale.
Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. have been battling it out for the final spot. Blaney is 26 points up on Truex for the 16th spot.
Elliott, Logano, Hamlin, Bell, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Kyle Busch are all locked into the playoffs. Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Kurt Busch all have one win and are seemingly clinched barring any late-season chaos.
Kurt Busch missed another race as he recovered from a concussion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
