Harvick masters stage 1 at Vegas

Kevin Harvick dominated a fast-paced opening stage in the Pennzoil 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harvick, the defending spring winner at LVMS, briefly lost the lead to Denny Hamlin at the drop of the green but wrestled the lead back at the end of the lap.

The driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang was uncatchable and stretched his lead to nearly 4 seconds during the opening half of the stage. The real action happened behind the leader as Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Austin Dillon all exchanged top five spots.

Harvick relinquished the lead to Joey Logano on Lap 44 when he made his first green flag pitstop. Logano pitted six laps later as Harvick’s Stewart Haas Racing teammate Daniel Suarez picked up the lead.

Two drivers, Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson, were assessed drive-through penalties for too many crewmen over the wall. Dillon had been running inside the top ten before the stop.

Suarez led for 12 laps before relinquishing the lead back to Harvick, followed by Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Logano and Erik Jones, who started 18th.

Harvick continued his blistering pace on the 1.5-mile oval and took the stage win with 4.5 seconds over Busch.

Logano, Hamlin and Jones passed Stenhouse, Jr. late in the stage and claimed third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

Stenhouse, Jr. ended up sixth followed by Martin Truex, Jr. in seventh and Chase Elliott in eighth. Daniel Suarez finished ninth by virtue of a two-tire pit stop as Brad Keselowski also claimed stage points and completed the top ten.