NASCAR: Harvick takes checkers in Xfinity race

Published 10:20 pm Saturday, March 21, 2015

The Associated Press

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — Kevin Harvick apparently isn’t satisfied with dominating just one NASCAR race series this year.

Harvick earned his second Xfinity Series win of his phenomenal season Saturday, easily holding off Brendan Gaughan at Auto Club Speedway.

Harvick led 100 of the 150 laps in his JR Motorsports Chevrolet while cruising to victory on the 2-mile oval in his native California.

“We’ve been close to winning here before, but today was a day that was pretty much flawless from start to finish,” Harvick said. “Everything is clicking right now, and you’ve just got to keep riding the wave.”

Harvick is hanging ten on a tidal wave lately: He has won two Sprint Cup Series races and finished second in the other two heading into Sunday’s race. He also won the Xfinity race at Atlanta, and finished third in his only other start.

The record is intimidating, but Harvick is making it look fairly easy. He was 3.317 seconds ahead of Gaughan on Saturday, suggesting the Sprint Cup field should be even more wary of the field’s streaking leader.

The 39-year-old Gaughan had a career-best finish in second place

Pole sitter Erik Jones finished third, and Chase Elliott was fourth. Chris Buescher sits second in the Xfinity points standings after finishing fifth, just five points behind overall leader Ty Dillon, who was 14th at Fontana.