Sunday, March 8th 2015, 23:02 GMT
NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick took a deserved first victory of 2015 with a composed performance at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Harvick, whose win marked six consecutive top-two Cup finishes, reported a tyre vibration in the closing stages of the race but survived the minor scare to comfortably hold off the re-energised Martin Truex Jr.
Key to Harvick’s victory was a pass on Dale Earnhardt Jr with just over a quarter of the race remaining, having led for the majority before being caught out at a restart following a caution.
The Stewart-Haas driver, who led more than three times as many laps as anyone else, pulled a gap on Earnhardt before taking four tyres to his rival’s two in the final pitstops and repassing the Hendrick man without trouble late on.
Earnhardt slipped to fourth in the final reckoning, behind Furniture Row driver Truex and a charging Ryan Newman.
