NASCAR at Atlanta results: Kevin Harvick scores dominant victory

Kevin Harvick left no doubt who had the best car Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, thoroughly dominating the Folds of Honors QuikTrip 500.

Harvick led 181 of a possible 325 laps and overcame an issue on pit road to earn his first victory of the 2018 Monster Energy Cup Series season. Brad Keselowski finished second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.

“Kevin, man, he was just in a league of his own,” Keselowski said.

The win was Harvick’s second at Atlanta and his first since 2001, when he was making his third series start. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has routinely been in contention over the 26 Atlanta races since that win -- including leading 100-plus laps in five of the past six races -- but never was able to pick up the checkered flag.

“For five years this car has been so fast at this particular race track,” Harvick said. “I love racing here and it’s good to be back in this Victory Lane. Finally. It took a while.”

Harvick’s only stumble all afternoon came during an early pit stop under caution when a malfunctioning air gun necessitated a second trip down pit road. He would fall to 19th on the subsequent restart, but within 38 laps he had worked his way back to front.

A late-race caution negated Harvick’s sizeable lead, giving Keselowski and Hamlin a shot to beat him, but Harvick had a trouble-free restart when the green flag waved and pulled away.

“It was great getting into this race car and knowing that everybody knew that they had to beat our car,” Harvick said. “I’m just really, really happy with everything that we’ve done at Stewart-Haas Racing over the last five years, and this is a great start to getting ourselves in the playoffs and doing everything that we need to do.

“We overcame a lot of things today. We got a late-race restart that we drove off and won the race with, so there are so many demons that seem to haunt us here for a long time.”

Joey Logano finished sixth, followed by pole-sitter Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.

Austin Dillon, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 last weekend, had a nondescript race finishing 14th. Rookie Darrell Wallace Jr., who finished runner-up to Dillon at Daytona, placed 32nd on Sunday after being involved in a late incident.

Seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson labored through a difficult afternoon, starting 22nd and only getting as high as 10th during a cycle of green-flag pit stops. A spin on Lap 160 damaged the No. 48 Chevrolet and he would fall multiple laps down, finishing 27th.

The second Cup Series race of the season was run under the threat of inclement weather. Rain in the morning and into the early afternoon pushed the initial start time from 1:06 p.m. ET to 3:32 p.m. ET. But once the rain stopped and NASCAR was able to dry the track, the race was run without Mother Nature causing further interruption.