Kevin Harvick goes wire-to-wire in CARS Tour Northwest at Stateline Speedway

After leading all 150 laps, Kevin Harvick scored the victory in Saturday night’s CARS Tour Northwest Road to the Idaho 200 Pro Late Model feature at Stateline Speedway.

The 2027 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee started from the pole position and paced the field around the quarter-mile Idaho oval from green flag to checkered flag. However, a late red flag and two restart violations inside the final 10 laps dramatically reshaped the running order before Harvick ultimately pulled away to secure the win. The victory also secured Harvick an automatic starting spot in the Idaho 200, Stateline Speedway’s crown jewel event.

“I think the key for me is my car had good drive up off the corner, so I could get my car rotated and get right back to the throttle in the center of the corner,” Harvick said. “So I was able to carry that speed all the way off the exit consistently without spinning the back tires.”

The victory came in Harvick’s first appearance at Stateline Speedway, a track where drivers quickly learned the outside groove became the preferred lane as runs progressed.

“Yeah, we had heard that the high line was going to be the place to be, which for me is something that I enjoy doing,” Harvick said. “When the top came in like that, it was something that I felt pretty comfortable with and felt really good about our car. It’s a very technical racetrack and we wound up having a good night.”

A series-record 37 cars entered the series’ first trip to Idaho. After a tightly contested qualifying session that saw the top eight drivers separated by just one-tenth of a second, Harvick led the 24-car field to the green flag.

Utilizing the high groove, he quickly built a gap over son Keelan Harvick and controlled the pace throughout the opening stages of the event.

The first caution of the evening flew on the second lap of the race when Ryan Phipps spun into the infield following a checkup exiting Turn 4. Tyler Herzog made incidental contact with Phipps while trying to avoid the spinning car, while Marshall Hallett spun in an effort to avoid the incident.

Former Stateline Speedway champion and Idaho 200 winner Haeden Plybon soon emerged as Harvick’s closest challenger early in the race. The Spokane native remained within striking distance for several laps before another caution slowed the field on Lap 17.

That incident involved Sydney Hamlin and 2025 Idaho 200 champion Andrew Riehl. Contact between the two sent Hamlin’s machine briefly up over Riehl’s left rear tire before both drivers came to a stop near the frontstretch. Both drivers were able to continue.

Points leader Ethan Ebert also used the caution period to make adjustments to his car. Entering the event with an average finish of 4.5 through the first two races, Ebert’s team worked to free up a tight-handling race car with air pressure adjustments.

As the laps clicked away, the battle for positions behind Harvick intensified. Keelan Harvick, Plybon and Jaron Giannini spent several laps racing door-to-door for third position, with Harvick utilizing the outside lane while Plybon and Giannini fought for position along the bottom as the field gradually migrated toward the top groove over the course of the evening.

The complexion of the race changed with 10 laps remaining.

Entering Turn 3, Trayten Tarr made contact with Mitch Kleyn, sending the No. 9K slamming into the outside wall. The impact caused significant damage and brought out a red flag for cleanup. Kleyn climbed from his car under his own power, while race officials parked Tarr for the contact.

The caution erased a comfortable lead Kevin Harvick had built and set up a 10-lap sprint to the finish.

On the ensuing restart, Keelan Harvick lined up alongside his father on the front row. As the field accelerated through the restart zone, Keelan Harvick got a strong launch and pulled ahead of the No. 29 entering Turn 1. The move carried Kevin Harvick up one groove, allowing Plybon to briefly make it three-wide for the lead before the caution flag was displayed.

Before a lap could be completed, race officials ruled that Keelan Harvick had committed a restart violation and moved him back one row for the next restart attempt.

Under the series restart procedures distributed to competitors, the leader maintains control of the restart and the second-place driver may not accelerate before the leader.

The ruling elevated Plybon to the inside front-row position alongside Kevin Harvick, who once again kept the outside lane.

On the following restart, Plybon lined up alongside Harvick and got a strong launch. The No. 55 accelerated ahead of the leader and was out front by the time the pair reached the start/finish line. Officials once again displayed the caution flag and ruled that Plybon had committed a restart violation, assessing the same penalty and moving him back one row in the running order.

Because neither restart attempt resulted in a completed green-flag lap, the penalties reshuffled the front of the field. Herzog moved into the front-row starting position for the next restart, while Plybon restarted third and Keelan Harvick lined up fifth.

The third restart attempt proceeded without issue, but Keelan Harvick’s night would end not in the way he wanted it to.

With eight laps remaining, Jason O’Neil made contact with the rear of Harvick’s car exiting Turn 4, sending the teenager spinning from fourth position. Harvick sustained heavy front-end damage in the incident, including the loss of his hood, and retired from the race seven laps short of the finish.

That caution set up one final restart, where Kevin Harvick was finally able to clear Herzog and establish enough separation to drive away for the victory.

Herzog, who returned to competition after a year-and-a-half absence while recovering from a concussion, earned his best finish to date in CARS Tour West/Northwest competition with a runner-up result after working his way forward from a 14th-place qualifying effort.

“I knew once I got on the front row, I had a shot, but Kevin had a lot more drive off,” Herzog said. “It means a lot. I do have high expectations and I like winning. But there’s nothing to complain about a second-place finish. It was a good run, and hopefully we can do it again.”

Plybon recovered to finish third at his home track and offered his perspective on the restart ruling that moved him back in the closing laps.

“I honestly thought we fired off at the exact same time,” Plybon said. “I didn’t hit the gas pedal until he hit the gas pedal and I thought we were good to the line. I sent it into Turn 1 and I was going to have him probably clear coming out of Turn 4. I didn’t have him clear coming out of two, but they threw the yellow or whatever and pushed me back. And I think that kind of screwed us a little bit, but I guess we’ll have to do better next time.”

Thomas Stanford recovered from early damage to finish fourth, while defending Idaho 200 winner Andrew Riehl completed the top five.

CARS Tour Northwest Pro Late Models- Race to the Idaho 200
Stateline Speedway
June 13, 2026

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Tyler Herzog
3. Haeden Plybon
4. Thomas Stanford
5. Andrew Riehl
6. Alan Cress
7. Ethan Ebert
8. Michael Knutson
9. Jaron Giannini
10. Logan Cole
11. Zander Peters
12. Jason O’Neil
13. Sydney Hamlin
14. Ken Bonney
15. Casey Jeske
16. Wyatt Gardner
17. Keelan Harvick
18. Trayten Tarr
19. Mitch Kleyn
20. Zach Riehl
21. Ryan Phipps
22. Alex Lessor
23. Madex Moran
24. Marshall Hallett