Harvick cycled back into the lead after a late-race round of green-flag pit stops but spent the final four laps furiously working to hold off Christopher Bell, who was on 12-lap fresher tires.
Bell got close but Harvick edged him by 0.441 seconds at the checkered flag to win Sunday’s race at Richmond (Va.,) Raceway.
“Yeah, boys! Great job! Great job!” Harvick exclaimed over his team radio as he became the first driver this season to win consecutive races. Harvick snapped a 65-race winless streak with his victory last weekend at Michigan.
Sunday’s win was also the 60th of his career and the 46-year-old native of Bakersfield, Calif., is now just one of 10 drivers who have won at least 60 Cup races in their career.
“You just don’t know. Like I said last week, the cars have been running good week-in and week-out and you see a lot better understanding of what’s going on with how we adjusted on the car through the first run and we’re able to get our car handling a lot better,” Harvick said. “I think as it got dark, the race track really came to our (car).”
Asked about the approach of Bell in the final laps, Harvick said, “Well, I knew he was coming, but I forgot to shift down the front straightaway the last time. I was not paying attention and he got closer than he should have.
“I made a mistake there a couple laps doing the same thing. I wasn’t shifting on the back and I was shifting in the front. There was a lot going on, and made a couple mistakes, let him get too close.”
With two straight wins coming just before the start of the playoffs, Harvick was asked about the importance of momentum in the playoffs.
“We’re just going to keep doing the things that we’re doing,” he said. “I think we just have to keep an open mind about things and keep progressing and keep understanding the car, understanding what we could have done better today, understanding what we could have done better in qualifying yesterday and do the same thing over and over.”
Chris Buescher ended up third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Chase Elliott ended up fifth.
Completing the top-10 were Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney.
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with Kyle Larson first off pit road.
On the restart on Lap 240, Larson was followed by Logano, Hamlin, Harvick and Almirola.
Entering Turn 3 on the restart, Ross Chastain got into Kyle Busch and…
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