Kevin Harvick Goes Back-to-Back With Richmond Victory

A warning was issued by Harvick last weekend after he punched his playoff ticket by winning at Michigan. That warning got much louder today as the veteran driver won again at Richmond, in what felt like three different races. Harvick took the lead with 66 laps remaining and put the rest of the garage area on notice.

"The cars have been running good, week-in and week-out," Harvick said. "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. I think as it got dark, the race track really came to our car."

"I knew he (Christopher Bell) 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.

This team was on the verge of missing the playoffs eight days ago, and now they may be the most dangerous team heading into the postseason.

"We’re just going to keep doing the things that we’re doing," Harvick continued. "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."

This is the 60th career win for Harvick, and his fourth victory at Richmond. The 46-year old became the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win at least 60 Cup races.

Bell was charging hard in the closing laps, but just ran out of time as he ran down the No. 4 car. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver overcame multiple obstacles in the race to still earn a runner-up finish. The team was penalized during a mid-race pit stop for having too many men over the wall, and Bell spun by himself shortly after a restart in Stage 2.

Still, it was a great runner-up finish that Bell credited to the team. "Really, really proud of Adam Stevens and this entire 20 group," he said. "The Rheem Camry didn’t feel very good at the beginning, and we had our fair share of troubles, and the pit crew really came through at the end there with some blazing stops and allowed us to get in front of Hamlin, who was on the same strategy as us and get up there and contend."

"I got held up pretty bad at the beginning of the run by a couple slower cars and that was ultimately the difference when you get beat by a couple car lengths. Just really fun and really fun race when you have different strategies and you have guys coming and going. I love whenever the races stay green and you’re able to play your cards a little bit different. Really proud of everyone on this 20 crew to be able to come back from how we started."

Chris Buescher had a great run and finished 3rd for just his second top-five finish of the season. Those numbers would surely be higher had it not been for a series of events that were out of their control. Still, it was a solid day for the RFK Racing team as Brad Keselowski had a decent day as well, finishing inside the top 15.

"Just burned the rear tires up," Buescher admitted. "Ultimately, that’s on me. Lapped traffic didn’t do us any favors, either, but ultimately just got to keep the rears under us a little bit better so we can have a little bit better shot there to get after him for the win."

"Everyone on our Fastenal Mustang did such a tremendous job overnight because we didn’t know we were in this position yesterday. I didn’t qualify real well, and everyone worked hard and had a fantastic race car today. It’s nice to be close and to keep progressing and getting better as we’ve gotten through the summer."

Denny Hamlin came up short in his bid to sweep the Richmond races this season, but still had another great finish in 4th. Chase Elliott had a very quiet day but ultimately collected another top-five finish, as he inches closer to clinching the regular season championship.

"The track was very similar there early and late," Elliott said. "I feel like it got a little faster. I didn’t think it was driving any better, but in comparison to people around us, we were going forward. So, just normal Richmond. I have been here and had cars like that where you are not driving good, but you are moving forward. Then you will have days where you feel like your car is driving good and you are not going anywhere or vice versa. This place is really strange and the track had gained a lot of grip there at the end too. There were obviously a lot of different strategies going on, and it was nice to get a top five out of a tough day yesterday.”

Joey Logano led a race-high 222 laps today and won Stage 2, but did not have the tires to hang on late in the race. "As the sun went down and the track cooled off, we lost some turn on our car," Logano said. "Kevin and some others got a lot better the last couple of runs in the race. When it was hot and slick, that was probably our strength with the Shell Pennzoil Mustang."

Martin Truex Jr did not get the win he needed to get into the playoffs, and actually lost ground to Ryan Blaney, despite finishing ahead of him. Blaney rounded out the top-ten on Sunday, and now holds a 26-point edge over Truex for the final playoff spot with two races remaining.

Truex and the No. 19 team had high hopes going into today's race, but they were never able to get to the lead and stay there. They had a close call when Ricky Stenhouse Jr got into the side of Truex as he was trying to pit. They will try again next week at another track where they have been strong. "We still have a great team and I know we can win races," Truex said. "If we can just get in the playoffs, I know we can go far. We just, we’ve got to get that win."

Kyle Busch had an eventful day but finally scored his first top-ten finishes in the last five races.

Ross Chastain dominated the first stage of the race after starting on the front row, but his day went downhill from there. He began sliding back on the Stage 2 restart and complained of a rear tire issue. Later, he got into the left-rear of the No. 18 Camry and brought out the caution. Ross was never able to find his way back to the front, and ended up finishing 18th.

"We were looking okay, and in a good spot just coming up through there working our way methodically through the field, and we got ‘Chastained’ this week," Busch said. "We restarted back in a decent spot. But then the next spin I think, was Christopher. That allowed the guys that were around us that we were kind of racing some of our team guys to come get tires and then they had 10 fresher laps on tires the whole rest of the day. So that kind of hurt us if we would have been on that strategy we would have run out of tires, but we also probably would have been in the top five. So just wrong side of the strategy there."

Ty Gibbs also found himself battling Kyle in Stage 2, and the two Toyota drivers exchanged bumper "nudges" as they fought for position on the track. Although the young driver was able to prevail in that tussle, his day came to an end on Lap 183 when an engine issue forced the No. 45 23XI Racing machine onto pit road.

The pressure is now on as the race for the playoffs reaches the chaotic stage. Two races remain in the regular season, with the road course at Watkins Glen up next, ahead of a trip to Daytona. Coverage for Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen begins at 3:00 ET on USA Network.