Harvick Holds Off Hard-Charging Keselowski for Virginia 529 College Savings 250 Victory

Harvick Matches Mark Martin With Track-Record Fifth Nationwide Series Victory

Kevin Harvick won the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 “under the lights” at Richmond International Raceway Friday night, tying the track record for career NASCAR Nationwide Series victories. Harvick held off a hard-charging Brad Keselowski, edging the series points leader by just 0.256 seconds with the crowd on its feet at the end.

“It was great racing there at the end,” said Harvick, who matched Mark Martin’s five-win total in the series at Richmond. “I caught lapped traffic in the wrong place. It was closer than I wanted. I’m sure it was exciting to watch. This new car is fun and you can bounce it off the wall and I didn’t even slow down. It was an exciting last couple of laps. It was a great effort by the team.”

“We just weren’t good enough to beat Kevin, legit, tonight,” said Keselowski. “Our car was really good for about 20 laps. I had to pace my car if I was going to have anything for Kevin. That traffic gave us a chance. It was a great finish. I loved it. These cars put on a great show.”

Trevor Bayne improved on his eighth starting position and finished third. Rounding out the top five positions were Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson.

Driving the new NASCAR Nationwide Series car for the first time at Richmond International Raceway, Harvick led the field to the green flag in the 900th race in the history of the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

With two laps to go, the fans were on their feet cheering as Harvick fishtailed coming out of turn 2, Keselowski hard on his tail. Keselowski edged up next to Harvick on the backstretch but was not able to make a pass stick in turn 3 when he locked up his brakes.

On the last lap, Keselowski ran hard through turns 1 and 2 and made a strong run going down the backstretch. Looking to make an outside move on Harvick, Keselowski lost traction and fishtailed coming out of turn 4, leaving Harvick to take the win by 0.256 seconds

The average speed of the race was 98.039 mph.

Tonight’s victory was Kevin Harvick’s 37th career NASCAR Nationwide Series win. Harvick lead 170 of the 250 laps.

There were nine lead changes amongst 6 drivers (Harvick, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola, Elliott Sadler and Ryan Newman. The race was slowed by 6 caution periods for 30 laps.