Harvick wins Xfinity race at Auto Club Speedway

Mar 21, 2015 - 11:44 PM Fontana, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Kevin Harvick became the first repeat race winner in the Xfinity Series this season after putting on a dominating performance in Saturday's Drive4Clots.com 300 at Auto Club Speedway.

Harvick, the reigning champion in the Sprint Cup Series, led 100 of 150 laps at this two-mile Southern California racetrack. He drove the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in this event. His first victory in Xfinity this season occurred on Feb. 28 at Atlanta.

The 39-year-old Bakersfield, California native won a Xfinity race at his home track for the first time after finishing second here four times in the past (2005, '06, '09 and '14). He also scored his 46th career victory in the series.

Harvick will start second in Sunday's 400-mile Sprint Cup race at this track. He is aiming for a West Coast sweep after winning at Las Vegas (March 8) and Phoenix (last Sunday). Harvick is the only driver who has multiple victories in each of NASCAR's top-two series.

"I'm just a lucky guy to be piloting really fast cars," Harvick said. "Everything is just clicking right now. You just have to keep riding the wave, and I'm fortunate to be the guy who's piloting these cars."

Harvick led the final 64 laps and crossed the finish line 3.317 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Brendan Gaughan. Erik Jones, who claimed his first career Xfinity pole earlier in the day, placed third, while Chase Elliott, the defending series champion, had his best finish this season with a fourth-place run. Chris Buescher completed the top-five.

Finishing sixth through 10th were: Brian Scott, Kyle Larson, who won this race last year, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith and Elliott Sadler.

Buescher's top-five finish coupled with a 14th-place run for Ty Dillon allowed Buescher to trim Dillon's lead in the Xfinity championship standings from 14 points to just five. Elliott is 15 points behind.

The series will take a break for the next two weeks before returning to action on April 10 at Texas.