Harvick denies Elliott a third straight at Nationwide

RICHMOND, Va. – Kevin Harvick pulled away on a restart with 47 laps to go and ended Chase Elliott’s two-race winning streak in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series with a dominating victory early today at Richmond International Raceway.

Harvick led 202 of the 250 laps in a race delayed nearly 3 1/2 hours at the start by rain Friday night. The victory was the 41st of his career in the series, and his record- extending seventh at 0.75-mile Richmond.

Elliott, the Georgia high-schooler and son of racing great Bill Elliott, was looking to win his third consecutive race and pad his points lead, but managed to do just the latter when Harvick was too fast.

“I think he just outdrove me a little bit, honestly” Elliott said. “Some of it was me. I kind of let him get too far out in front of me.”

The pair finished nearly 7 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Kyle Busch.

Rookie takes pole

Rookie Kyle Larson will start from the pole position tonight in the NASCAR race at Richmond International Raceway after a thunderstorm arrived just in time to wash out qualifying.

The field was set based on the fastest laps run in the first practice Friday.

The top starting spot comes in the 13th Sprint Cup Series race for Larson.

Larson’s top lap of 126.880 mph came on the third of 70 laps in the session.

Brad Keselowski will start on the outside of the front row, with Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne in the second row.