Kevin Harvick cruises to victory at the Brickyard 400

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
Updated

Kevin Harvick was untouchable at Indianapolis on Sunday.

Harvick was dominant at Indy as he drove away over the final nine laps for a five-second victory and his second Brickyard 400 win of his career.

Harvick led 118 of the race’s 160 laps after starting on the pole. He had a ridiculously awesome car that couldn’t get passed. Seriously. There were no passes for the lead outside of the first lap after restarts or during pit cycles and Harvick’s car was only passed on track for the lead once. That came when Ryan Blaney got him on the first lap following a third-stage restart.

But Harvick had the faster car and that proved itself over the rest of the race.

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman got the final two playoff spots in the 16-driver playoff field. Newman entered the race tied with Daniel Suarez for the final spot in the playoffs but finished eighth as Suarez was 11th.

Bowyer and Newman making the playoffs means Jimmie Johnson will miss the playoffs for the first time since the format was introduced in 2004. Johnson crashed out of the race when he went three-wide underneath teammate William Byron at the beginning of the race’s final stage.

Harvick’s win is his third of the 2019 season and positions him to be fourth when the playoffs begin next week at Las Vegas.

Despite the lack of passing at the front of the field, Sunday’s race was oddly intriguing. Brad Keselowski and Erik Jones had a huge crash that resulted in Keselowski’s car being lodged in a tire barrier.

Kyle Busch’s engine exploded and Martin Truex Jr. suffered significant damage in a first stage pit road chain-reaction crash. The lack of passing was awful. But the race was saved by good cars having bad or eventful days.

Playoff standings

1. Kyle Busch, 2,045 points

2. Denny Hamlin, 2,030

3. Martin Truex Jr., 2.029

4. Kevin Harvick, 2,028

5. Joey Logano, 2,028

6. Brad Keselowski, 2,024

7. Chase Elliott, 2,018

8. Kurt Busch, 2,011

9. Alex Bowman, 2,005

10. Erik Jones 2,005

11. Kyle Larson, 2,005

12. Ryan Blaney, 2,004

13. William Byron, 2,001

14. Aric Almirola, 2,001

15. Clint Bowyer, 2,000

16. Ryan Newman, 2,000

Race results

1. Kevin Harvick

2. Joey Logano

3. Bubba Wallace

4. William Byron

5. Clint Bowyer

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Ryan Blaney

8. Ryan Newman

9. Chase Elliott

10. Paul Menard

11. Daniel Suarez

12. Austin Dillon

13. Ty Dillon

14. Aric Almirola

15. Chris Buescher

16. Ryan Preece

17. Michael McDowell

18. Matt DiBenedetto

19. Corey LaJoie

20. David Ragan

21. Alex Bowman

22. Ross Chastain

23. Reed Sorenson

24. Ryan Sieg

25. BJ McLeod

26. JJ Yeley

27. Martin Truex Jr.

28. Garrett Smithley

29. Josh Bilicki

30. Kurt Busch

31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

32. Matt Tifft

33. Kyle Larson

34. Daniel Hemric

35. Jimmie Johnson

36. Parker Kligerman

37. Kyle Busch

38. Brad Keselowski

39. Erik Jones

40. Landon Cassill

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

More from Yahoo Sports: