Kevin Harvick passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 25 laps left and drove away to a 1.361-second win over the Joe Gibbs Racing driver in Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Harvick scored his first win of the season and the 35th of his career, second all-time in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.
Hamlin finished second, while Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers completed the top-five. Edwards holds a 41-point lead over Keselowski, as the series takes a two-week break before returning to action on March 20 at Bristol.
Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Paul Menard, Greg Biffle, who won last year’s race at Las Vegas, and Steve Wallace finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
Kyle Busch led 43 laps and was chasing Harvick and Hamlin during the final 25-lap green-flag run before contact with the wall in Turn 2 slowed his progress and dropped him to 16th at the finish. Busch, however, had the strongest car at the midpoint of the 200-lap race and led Vickers by 3.537 seconds when NASCAR yellow-flagged the race for the fourth time on Lap 104 because of a light rain shower.
RANK DRIVER POINTS BEHIND 1 Carl Edwards 505 Leader 2 Brad Keselowski 464 -41 3 Brian Vickers 457 -48 4 Justin Allgaier 449 -56 5 Kyle Busch 424 -81 6 Steve Wallace 423 -82 7 Kevin Harvick 414 -91 8 Greg Biffle 408 -97 9 Paul Menard 398 -107 10 Scott Riggs 359 -146 11 James Buescher* 347 -158 12 Mike Wallace 346 -159 13 Trevor Bayne 320 -185 14 Jason Leffler 312 -193 15 Joey Logano 311 -194 16 Tony Raines 311 -194 17 Brian Scott* 310 -195 18 Michael Annett 303 -202 19 Scott Lagasse Jr. 297 -208 20 Brendan Gaughan 293 -212 21 John Wes Townley 290 -215 22 Joe Nemechek 278 -227 23 Eric McClure 275 -230 24 Brian Keselowski 258 -247 25 Kenny Wallace 252 -253 26 Colin Braun* 249 -256 27 Michael McDowell 237 -268 28 Robert Richardson Jr. 237 -268 29 Danny Efland 234 -271 30 Mike Bliss 207 -298 31 Josh Wise 204 -301 32 Tony Stewart 195 -310 33 Kelly Bires 183 -322 34 Danica Patrick 183 -322 35 Denny Hamlin 175 -330 36 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* 174 -331 37 Willie Allen 167 -338 38 Parker Kligerman* 155 -350 39 Stanton Barrett 143 -362 40 Kasey Kahne 138 -367
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