Kevin Harvick dominates Nationwide race at Atlanta

Kevin Harvick dominated the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway en route to his third win of the season, driving the No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Joey Logano was second, and the No. 42 Turner Scott Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson finished third.

Just really proud of the race cars we put on the track this year

Kevin Harvick

"It was just a really boring race for me," Larson said. "The No. 5 was in a league of his own, and the No. 22 was in his own league."

Harvick took the lead from the pole-sitting No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of teammate Chase Elliott on lap 37 and led the remaining 159 laps of the race. Elliott led the first 36 laps, making for an entire race led my JRM.

"Just really proud of the race cars we put on the track this year," Harvick said. "This car was just a real bad to the bones Chevy."

Race summary

Harvick pulled away after taking the lead and pulled away again after each of the two yellow flags that waved in the race. At one point in the second half of the race, Harvick led by more than seven-and-a-half seconds and throughout the second half of the race, there were only 10 cars on the lead lap.

For much of the event, Elliott and Logano battled for second. Logano was second after a green flag cycle of pit stops completed around lap 57. Elliott got back up to second on a restart that followed a lap 73 caution, but Logano was able to move back into the runner-up spot after Elliott failed in his attempt to take the lead from Harvick soon after the restart. Elliott and Logano then swapped the second position back and fourth before Elliott was finally able to assume control of the positon. Logano retook second, though, on the second restart of the race that followed a lap 121 caution for sprinkling rain and maintained the position the rest of the way.

Other front runners talk about their day

"Just needed to be a little tighter earlier in the race," Logano said. "Just had to much time to make up at the end of the race."

The No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch finished fourth.

"Fourth in Nationwide is unacceptable," Busch said. "There were three or four cars here that were just ungodly fast."

Elliott lost position on pit road late in the race and wound up finishing fifth.

"Just messed up -- complete driver error," Elliott said. "Unacceptable on my part."

Finishing sixth through 10th were the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet of Regan Smith, the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Brian Scott, the 98 Biagi DenBeste Racing Ford of David Ragan was eighth and the No. 3 Richard Childless Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon finished ninth. Only nine cars finished on the lead lap.

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Elliott Sadler was the first driver one lap down, finishing 10th.