Kevin Harvick fends off Blaney in overtime to win at Texas

Harvick held off Ryan Blaney in a two-lap overtime to the win Sunday’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, repeating his victory in this race of a year ago.

The win is Harvick’s eighth this season and 45th of his career.

Harvick will now join Joey Logano as two of the four drivers who will compete for the 2018 series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway in two weeks.

"I'm just really, really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing for these cars that we've had for really five year now," Harvick said. "I'm just have to thank everyone who helps us, really eveybody at the shop. 

"We've been working day after day to make speed. This place has been really good to me. We finally knocked that barrier (win) down (last fall) and win in front of all these fans at Texas. So, thank you guys!

"The expectations are to win. Like I told you guys before the race, we don't race for points, we race for wins. We don't count our fingers and or toes trying to figure out how to make it in. Today we earned our way in and we're going to race again next week and try to win another race and then see what we can do at Homestead."

This is also the fourth time in five seasons Harvick will be competing for a championship under the current playoff format.

Logano finished third, Erik Jones was fourth and Kyle Larson completed the top-five.

Rounding out the Top 10 were Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola, Martin Truex Jr. and Austin Dillon.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, Logano was the first off pit road thanks to a two-tire pit stop and held the lead when the final stage went green on Lap 177.

Brad Keselowski quickly powered around Logano and into the lead shortly after the restart.

With 150 laps to go in the race, Keselowski held a small lead over Blaney with Logano running in third.

On Lap 210, Kyle Busch was forced to pit under green after taking the wave-around during the stage break caution. Harvick, the first driver who took four new tires during the stage break, moved into third.

Daniel Suarez went around off Turn 2 on Lap 226 to bring out a caution and set up a round of pit stops. Logano was the first off pit road and took over the lead on the restart on Lap 231. He was followed by Blaney and Keselowski.

Jimmie Johnson had to restart from the rear of the field after his tire changer went over the wall too soon.

With 90 laps to go, Harvick had moved up into the second position and began running down Logano in an attempt to make a pass for the lead.

On Lap 248, Truex was forced to pit under green after complaining of a loose wheel. He was running seventh at the time.

To make matters worse, Truex was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes and was forced to make a pass-thru penalty. After serving the penalty, Truex was running 26th and two laps down.

On Lap 254, Harvick made his way around Logano and back into the lead.

Harvick’s had moved out to a more than 2.4-second lead over Blaney with 65 laps to go as Logano ran in third, followed by Almirola and Kurt Busch.

On Lap 282, Harvick hit pit road under green for what would be his final stop for fuel. Several other drivers followed suit.

Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 294, Harvick emerged with a more than 4-second lead over Blaney, followed by Almirola, Logano and Jones.

David Starr spun off Turn 2 to bring out another caution. The top six in the running order elected not to pit so Harvick remained out front when the race returned to green with 32 laps remaining.

Caution was displayed again with 28 laps remaining as Darrell Wallace Jr. got into Chris Buescher, who hit the outside wall, and then Matt DiBenedetto slammed into the back of Buescher.

The race returned to green on Lap 311.

On the restart, Blaney and Harvick raced side-by-side with Blaney grabbing the lead with 22 laps to go as Harvick dropped into second.

With 17 laps to go, Harvick cleared Blaney off Turn 2 to reclaim the lead.

Joey Gase and Daniel Suarez were involved in a wreck with two laps to go which sent the race into overtime. Harvick led the way, followed by Blaney, Larson and Logano.

Cla	#	Driver	4506	Laps	Time	Laps Led
1	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	337		177
2	12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	337	0.447	40
3	22	Joey Logano	Ford	337	0.816	54
4	20	Erik Jones	Toyota	337	1.335
5	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	337	2.084
6	9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	337	2.193
7	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	337	2.510
8	10	Aric Almirola	Ford	337	2.691
9	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	337	2.824
10	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	337	3.873
11	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	337	3.892
12	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	337	4.032	50
13	21	Paul Menard	Ford	337	4.246
14	88	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	337	4.257	3
15	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	337	4.376	11
16	24	William Byron	Chevrolet	337	4.655
17	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	337	5.497
18	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	335	2 laps
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	335	2 laps
20	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	335	2 laps
21	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	335	2 laps
22	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	335	2 laps
23	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	335	2 laps
24	38	David Ragan	Ford	335	2 laps
25	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.	Chevrolet	335	2 laps	2
26	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	334	3 laps
27	95	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	332	5 laps
28	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	332	5 laps
29	34	Michael McDowell	Ford	331	6 laps
30	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	331	6 laps
31	96	Parker Kligerman	Toyota	329	8 laps
32	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	326	11 laps
33	7	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	326	11 laps
34	99	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	323	14 laps
35	00	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	321	16 laps
36	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	321	16 laps
37	51	Joey Gase	Ford	317	20 laps
38	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	300	37 laps
39	97	David Starr	Toyota	287	50 laps
40	72	Corey Lajoie	Chevrolet	269	68 laps