Kevin Harvick goes back-to-back with Richmond win

Discourse surrounding Kevin Harvick for much of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season generally questioned when he would finally win a race, which he last achieved in 2020. Now, he is suddenly a potential championship contender.

After riding a winless streak of sixty-five races, Harvick has won the last two races in a row with Michigan and Sunday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway. He took the lead from Denny Hamlin during green-flag pit stops with forty-eight laps remaining and never surrendered it.

He faced a challenge from Chris Buescher but kept the fellow Ford at bay with help from lapped traffic, before Christopher Bell joined the picture and tried to chase him down. However, Bell’s last-ditch effort failed as Harvick held him off to secure his sixtieth career Cup win, fourth at Richmond, and first at the Virginia track since 2013.

“I thought we had fended off the #17 (Buescher) pretty well, and then they told me that the #20 was coming, and I’m like, ‘Oh man, usually when you’re coming on new tyres, there’s no defense for that,'” Harvick said in his post-race press conference. “That’s why I was a little bit frustrated with myself with the not shifting part on the front straightaway because I gave up the big chunk. It should have never been that close, just a lapse in my attention span, I guess, would be the best way to put it.”

Bell settled for second, making for a very memetic finish as numbers 4 and 20 placed 1–2. Such an order has only occurred one other time in Cup Series history with Harvick and Matt Kenseth in the 2016 Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire.

“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,” commented Bell. “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. Very tough weekend for us. We didn’t practice very well and we didn’t qualify very well. And the guys did a really good job getting this Rheem Camry up front and where we needed to be at the end.”

Joey Logano dominated the race by leading 222 laps, but sank to sixth following stops. Ross Chastain led the second most circuits with 80 but once again found himself clashing with his peers after spinning Kyle Busch on lap 240, causing a stack-up that resulted in Erik Jones spinning him.

The wreck ended Jones’ day, and he would be one of two retirements alongside Ty Gibbs. Gibbs, once again filling in for Kurt Busch, exited with an engine failure.

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	13	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
2	21	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
3	18	17	Chris Buescher	RFK Racing	Ford	400	Running
4	3	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
5	23	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
6	17	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
7	6	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
8	32	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	400	Running
9	29	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	400	Running
10	10	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	400	Running
11	4	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	400	Running
12	33	2	Austin Cindric	Team Penske	Ford	399	Running
13	11	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	399	Running
14	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	399	Running
15	8	6	Brad Keselowski	RFK Racing	Ford	399	Running
16	12	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	399	Running
17	22	42	Ty Dillon	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	398	Running
18	2	1	Ross Chastain	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	398	Running
19	24	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	398	Running
20	5	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	398	Running
21	27	31	Justin Haley	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	398	Running
22	20	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	398	Running
23	15	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	397	Running
24	19	16	Noah Gragson*	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	397	Running
25	30	21	Harrison Burton	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	397	Running
26	7	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	397	Running
27	16	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	397	Running
28	31	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	397	Running
29	34	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	395	Running
30	25	77	Landon Cassill*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	395	Running
31	26	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	394	Running
32	35	15	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	393	Running
33	36	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	392	Running
34	28	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	391	Running
35	9	43	Erik Jones	Petty GMS Motorsports	Chevrolet	240	Accident
36	14	45	Ty Gibbs*	23XI Racing	Toyota	180	Engine