Kevin Harvick won the regular NASCAR season before Sunday's race reached the final stage. Then he won the race.
"What a year," Harvick told NBCSN after his seventh win of the season.
"What a seven years," Harvick added, referring to his Cup Series championship in 2014.
Harvick gained enough stage points in the second Drydene 311 Cup race at Dover International Speedway to win the regular season before the final pre-playoff race at Daytona next weekend. The No. 4 Ford driver stayed up front and closed the first and second stages in first place, then he put over three seconds between him and second-place finisher Martin Truex Jr. at the checkered flag.
Harvick attributed his success this season to the "grit" of his Stewart-Haas Racing team. With the regular season victory, the Ford driver gained 15 additional playoff points.
"With Denny winning yesterday we needed to win today and we're gonna need all the points we can get," Harvick said on NBCSN.
Saturday's Dover race winner, Denny Hamlin, was in the hunt running in the top-five in the final stage, but with under 80 laps left, Hamlin was forced to pit for a loose wheel and went a lap down. Hamlin finished in 19th.
Daytona road course winner Chase Elliott was out of the conversation, and out of the race, even earlier. Nine laps in, Logano tapped the back of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s No 47 Chevrolet, spinning the driver to the inside wall and forcing drivers behind him to check up. That caused contact between the front of Elliott's No. 9 and the rear of Kyle Busch's 18. Elliott wasn't able to keep running with the damage and headed to the garage. After a top-10 finish the day before, Stenhouse Jr. was also out of the race.
