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Kevin Harvick Wins the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas

While Harvick wins the race, Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Elliott Sadler are virtually tied for the points lead after Sadler had a rough night.

Tom Pennington

Even though Kevin Harvick runs a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series, the Sprint Cup veteran always finds a way to make things interesting.

Tonight was no exception.

Harvick led 127 laps and dominated the majority of the race. He was able to hold off a hard-charging Ryan Blaney to win the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch finished third after leading the opening 63 laps of the race. Ricky Stenhouse Jr, who struggled for most of the night, somehow managed to drive his way into the top-5 and ended up finishing fourth. Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five in fifth.

Austin Dillon finished in sixth, Sam Hornish Jr, who started 23rd, finished seventh after having a terrible opening pit-stop. Justin Alliger finished in eighth. Kevin Swindell, who has only run in just five Nationwide Races this season, gives his team much needed confidence with a ninth place finish. And rounding out the top-10 is Joey Logano.

Elliott Sadler had a rough night. Sadler and his team struggled to keep up with ever-changing track surface as he ends up finishing in eleventh. Because he finished eleventh and Stenhouse Jr finished fourth, Sadler and Stenhouse are now tied for the Nationwide Series points lead.

Things were heated post-race as Austin Dillon made contact with Denny Hamlin with cars coming to pit-road. Its unknown as to what happened to cause that reaction.

With just two races to go, the NASCAR Nationwide Series now heads to Phoenix International Raceway for the Great Clips 200. The points battle is ever so tight now that the points lead is virtually tied now between Elliot Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. While the points are at a deadlock, Sadler has the edge over Stenhouse going into Phoenix as he won the spring race this year.

With just two races left in the Nationwide Series season, its all going to come down to who finishes ahead of who, and who makes the least amount of mistakes.

Buckle up everyone, as the fight for the Nationwide Series Championship will start to get interesting.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.