Harvick Cashes Ticket For Final Four

It sure looked like Martin Truex, Jr. was on his way to his eighth victory of the season when he had the lead with 10 laps left at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.  All he had to do was avoid any mistake.  But that's exactly what happened and Kevin Harvick following closely behind lap after lap pounced on it.

Harvick drove deep into Turn 1 and it gave him just enough of a boomerang to get to the outside of Truex in Turn 2 while at the same time Truex had to slow down for lapped cars ahead of him.  From there Harvick drove away to his first win at Texas, second of the season and 37th of his career.

With the win Harvick is guaranteed a spot in the Final Four at the championship race at Miami-Homestead in two weeks.  Despite leading a race-high 107 laps, Truex settled for second place.  Denny Hamlin was third with Matt Kenseth fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.

Even though he didn't win the race, Truex clinched a spot in the Final Four based on points no matter what any other driver does.  With Kyle Busch having clinched a Final Four spot last week at Martinsville, it means that just one more spot is left and that will be decided next week at Phoenix International Raceway.