NASCAR Cup Series: Kevin Harvick wins 2018 Foxwoods Resort Casino 301
By Asher Fair
Kevin Harvick earned his sixth victory of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season by winning the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick started off the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season by winning three of the first four and five of the first 12 races. However, had had not won any of the seven races that had been contested following the race at Kansas Speedway and before today’s Foxwoods Casino Resort 301 at New Hampshire.
Harvick, who started the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 in 14th place, ended his 71-day win drought by winning the race after a late battle with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch, who finished the race as the highest finishing Toyota driver in second in his #18 Toyota. Harvick’s teammate Aric Almirola recorded a season-high finish of third in his #10 Ford.
Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. finished the race in fourth place in his #78 Toyota ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, who was the highest finishing Chevrolet driver of the race in fifth in his #9 Chevrolet.
Harvick won the 301-lap race around the four-turn, 1.058-mile (1.703-kilometer) New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval in Loudon, New Hampshire by 1.877 seconds over Busch, but their battle was much closer than that winning margin would indicate.
Here is that intense battle and the contact that took place between the two drivers with seven laps remaining.
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The race featured a total of 10 lead changes among seven drivers. Aside of Harvick, six drivers led at least one lap of the race. Those drivers were Busch, Almirola, Truex Jr., Elliott, race polesitter Kurt Busch, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 94 laps led, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Kurt Busch finished the race in eighth place while Stenhouse Jr. finished in 30th. Truex Jr. won stage one and Elliott won stage two.
The race also featured a total of seven caution flag periods for 31 laps. Just four of those caution flag periods took place as a result of on-track incidents, as the usual two caution flag periods for the endings of stage one and two took place, as did a competition caution during stage one as a result of the fact that the track had recently been rained on.
Just three of the 37 drivers who started the race failed to finish it. Of the 34 drivers who managed to finish it, 19 finished it on the lead lap.
Here are the full race results of the 2018 Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
| Race Results |
| 1st – Kevin Harvick |
| 2nd – Kyle Busch |
| 3rd – Aric Almirola |
| 4th – Martin Truex Jr. |
| 5th – Chase Elliott |
| 6th – Ryan Newman |
| 7th – Ryan Blaney |
| 8th – Kurt Busch |
| 9th – Joey Logano |
| 10th – Jimmie Johnson |
| 11th – Alex Bowman |
| 12th – Kyle Larson |
| 13th – Denny Hamlin |
| 14th – William Byron |
| 15th – Matt Kenseth |
| 16th – Erik Jones |
| 17th – Paul Menard |
| 18th – Jamie McMurray |
| 19th – Kasey Kahne |
| 20th – Chris Buescher |
| 21st – Austin Dillon |
| 22nd – Daniel Suarez |
| 23rd – Ty Dillon |
| 24th – Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 25th – Ross Chastain |
| 26th – Michael McDowell |
| 27th – Corey Lajoie |
| 28th – Matt DiBenedetto |
| 29th – David Ragan |
| 30th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 31st – Kyle Weatherman |
| 32nd – Brad Keselowski |
| 33rd – Blake Jones |
| 34th – B.J. McLeod |
| 35th – Clint Bowyer |
| 36th – A.J. Allmendinger |
| 37th – Landon Cassill |
Next: Top 10 NASCAR drivers of all-time
Tune in to NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET next Sunday, July 29 for the live broadcast of the next NASCAR Cup Series race, the Gander Outdoors 400. That race is scheduled to take place at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.