Harvick wins Chicagoland Nationwide race

It's very easy to assume that Kevin Harvick loves having fun in the Nationwide Series while driving that #5 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Harvick scored his fourth series win of the season in that car, as well as his 44th career series win, by winning the Jimmy Johns Freaky Fast 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway. Making the win sweeter was the fact that Harvick's car was sponsored by the race sponsor, Jimmy John's Sandwich Shops, who has enjoyed a long term professional relationship with this driver.

Harvick led a total of 42 laps and took command of the race for good on lap 161 of the scheduled 200 laps. His margin of victory was a decisive 2.108 seconds over runner up Kyle Larson. Kyle Busch, who led a race high 141 laps, was third while Ryan Blaney and Trevor Bayne completed the top five.

Harvick's big move of the race came prior to the final pit stop of the race. That's when crew chief Ernie Cope talked his driver into taking two tires instead of four. Cope's line of thinking was twofold: first, he didn't want to take a chance on a pit road error, in the middle of a four tire stop, that would cripple track position. Second, Cope was well aware that there were 23 cars on the lead lap and he wanted to get his driver off of pit road as quickly as possible. Obviously, the plan worked very well.

In the Nationwide Series championship run the news is also very good for JR Motorsports. Points leader Chase Elliott finished tenth in this race and now holds a 15 point advantage over team mate Regan Smith who finished second in the race.

In the series' tight owner's point championship there are only 15 points separating Penske Racing's #22 team and the #54 team from Joe Gibbs Racing.