Veteran driver Kevin Harvick schooled the field to bring home the trophy in the Rinnai 250 Friday afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Once he got his No. 98 Stewart-Haas Ford up front, there was no looking back for Harvick. He led the most laps, 141-of-163, to capture the checkered flag at Atlanta.
It was Harvick’s 47th win of his Xfinity career and his fifth victory at Atlanta. He also tied Tony Stewart for winning at Atlanta with four different teams. Harvick, age 42, is also the second oldest winner at Atlanta with Harry Gant being the oldest at age 54.
Harvick commented on his domination of the race saying, “It’s just been a really good place for me obviously getting my first win here, and being able to run good cars here throughout the years.” He added, “The racetrack has stayed very similar to what it’s been for a number of years, it’s been a great racetrack for us.”
Stage 1 would be the only stage for the caution to come out, one for Cole Custer hitting the wall and the other for debris on the track. Stages 2 and 3 would both go caution free. Harvick won all three stages.
Joey Logano brought his No.22 Penske Ford home in second, 4.183 seconds behind Harvick. Logano did all he could do to try and catch Harvick to no avail. This was his third consecutive second-place finish at Atlanta.
“I don’t think we were even close. Kevin played with us all day long, we just kinda rode out there,” Logano said after the race.
Christopher Bell, who started on the pole, had a great run going in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota today, finishing in third place.
Bell stated, “Our Ruud Camry was really fast, it just wasn’t quite good enough to get up there and run with the No. 98.”
John Hunter Nemechek and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top five. Justin Allgaier, Austin Cindric, Kyle Benjamin, Ryan Truex and Ryan Reed finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be heading next to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Boyd Gaming 300, on March 3.
