Keelan Harvick wins at Kern for second CARS Tour West Pro Late Model victory of season

Keelan Harvick won the Military Appreciation Night Mission Bank 125 for his second CARS Tour West Southwest Pro Late Model race of the season at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway on Saturday night.

“The Rackley WAR guys brought me a really fast car and I just tried to do my best with it,” Harvick said. “Taylor Mayhew and everybody out there is tough competition so it’s really cool to get the job done.”

The 13-year-old led 79 of the race’s 125 laps to pick up a commanding victory at the Bakersfield half-mile, holding off Jaron Giannini through lapped traffic late in the fourth race of the season.

Harvick previously won earlier this year in Las Vegas and this weekend returned to the site where he picked up his first career Pro Late Model win one year ago this month.

“I was just trying not to burn the right front up,” Harvick said. “I kind of burned it up there at the end just going too hard. I was just trying to judge my gaps with lap traffic and not let him get too close.”

Harvick started from the pole and led the field of 11 to the green flag for the fourth Pro Late Model race of the season, but on the opening lap Taylor Mayhew drove around the outside of Harvick off the exit of Turn 2 to take the early lead.

Mayhew held onto the lead for the opening laps as Buddy Shepherd worked his way to the front, with the two Bakersfield natives battling for the top spot early on.

Shepherd started fourth and made his way past Mayhew by Lap 20 before beginning to pace himself out front in clean air, as Harvick moved past Mayhew for second.

Shepherd topped both Friday and Saturday final practice sessions and felt this weekend was a good opportunity to capitalize on the setup his team had underneath him.

The trio broke away slightly from the rest of the field through the opening stages of the race, pacing their equipment over the first 40 laps with Giannini riding in fourth.

Robby Sawyer worked his way into sixth early on, slotting in behind Jeffrey Peterson, who was pulling double duty after winning the Limited Late Model feature just a half-hour earlier.

A competition caution flew on Lap 45, bunching the field back up as the sun set behind the Bakersfield oval.

As the field entered the restart zone, Shepherd jumped out of line from the lead before his car came to a stop exiting Turn 2, bringing out the caution moments later. After leading 20 of the opening 45 laps, Shepherd pulled into the work area with fuel pump issues and was done for the night, ending his evening with an 11th-place finish.

On the ensuing restart, Harvick and Mayhew resumed their battle for the lead, with Harvick reclaiming the top spot around the outside, just as Mayhew had done to him on the opening lap of the race.

Peterson and Giannini battled for third while Mayhew’s teammate and second-place driver in the Pro Late Model standings, Robby Sawyer, remained close behind.

Kyle Keller entered the event holding a 17-point advantage over Sawyer for the championship lead, but the winner last time out in Stockton struggled with a tight condition throughout the race while battling around seventh with James Hamlin, who entered third in points.

Keller continued fighting the same handling issue throughout the night and struggled to make up ground on the leaders. He eventually fell off the lead lap and finished ninth as he tried to minimize the damage in the championship standings.

A scheduled caution on Lap 75 for a work stoppage brought the field down the frontstretch and to the attention of their crews as teams worked on their cars for the final 50 laps.

Coming to the restart, Mayhew, who was running second, was penalized by race officials for not maintaining his line after choosing for the restart, forcing him to the rear of the field and moving Giannini up to second position.

As Harvick restarted the race with 50 laps to go, Mayhew wasted little time charging back through the field. Within 10 laps, he had worked his way back inside the Top 4.

Up front, Harvick and Giannini paced themselves, consistently matching one another’s lap times. A few car lengths behind them, Mayhew charged back into the Top 3 while running quicker times than the leaders.

With 20 laps to go, Mayhew’s pace began to level off as he settled into third position.

In the closing laps, Giannini mounted one final charge on Harvick as the leaders worked through lapped traffic. While Giannini gained ground through one end of the speedway, a tight condition off Turn 4 prevented him from fully capitalizing as the laps wound down, ultimately settling for a second-place finish.

“I wanted to get in and get through the center well and I just got a little tight off,” Giannini said. “In three and four, just kind of got tight in the center, just had to open the wheel up so we weren’t losing all that speed down the straightaway. We know we can do it now. We definitely have a good notebook and we have some more races coming up here soon. So I’m looking forward to it.”

Following his penalty after the Lap 75 caution, Mayhew rallied from the rear of the field to finish on the final step of the podium.

“It’s unfortunate for us to even lose a chance at the race because of something silly like that, but it happens,” Mayhew said. “Hats off to my guys. We could have won, but that mistake allowed us to burn our stuff up trying to come back through traffic. They know we were there the whole time, so that’s good.”

Peterson and Sawyer remained locked in a battle throughout the second half of the race, with Peterson bringing home fourth while Sawyer recorded his second straight top-five finish in fifth.

CARS Tour West Pro Late Models- Military Appreciation Night Mission Bank 125
Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway
May 16, 2026

1. Keelan Harvick
2. Jaron Giannini
3. Taylor Mayhew
4. Jeffrey Peterson
5. Robby Sawyer
6. Nash Youngren
7. Jaiden Reyna
8. James Hamlin
9. Kyle Keller
10. Bristol Borneman
11. Buddy Shepherd