By the NASCAR Wire Service
There’s an arrest warrant out for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — or perhaps there should be — after the defending NASCAR Nationwide Series champion stole Saturday night’s NRA American Warrior 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Stenhouse grabbed the lead from Kevin Harvick on the final lap, after a restart with three laps remaining. Contact between the cars of Danica Patrick and James Buescher caused the eighth and final caution and set up the three-lap run to the finish.
Brad Keselowski, on fresh tires, passed Harvick for the second spot. Harvick ran third, followed by Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier.
Before the final restart, however, Harvick had the race in hand, leading 157 laps and opening an advantage that exceeded 16 seconds at one point.
Emblematic of Harvick’s dominance was a restart on Lap 127. Travis Pastrana had stayed out under caution for Eric McClure’s brush with the Turn 2 wall and led the first laps of his Nationwide career under yellow.
Under green? Another matter. Pastrana led the field to the restart, but before the field cleared Turn 2, Harvick had powered from fifth to first, as Stenhouse tried in vain to keep pace.
Harvick lost the lead briefly during a cycle of green-flag pit stops late in the race, but he was back in front for a restart on Lap 188, after NASCAR called the seventh caution of the night on Lap 182 of 195 for debris in Turn 1.
After the race, Harvick had harsh words for Keselowski, who threw a water bottle from his car before NASCAR called the debris caution. NASCAR officials said the water bottle was not the reason for the caution.
NRA American Warrior 300 Unofficial Results
1: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2: Brad Keselowski
3: Kevin Harvick
4: Elliott Sadler
5: Justin Allgaier
6: Austin Dillon
7: Kyle Busch
8: Cole Whitt
9: Sam Hornish Jr.
10: Michael Annett
11: Brian Scott
12: Denny Hamlin
13: Danica Patrick
14: Joe Nemechek
15: Jeremy Clements
16: Jason Bowles
17: Mike Wallace
18: Tayler Malsam
19: Danny Effland
20: Erik Darnell
21: Eric McClure
22: Mike Bliss
23: James Buescher
24: Benny Gordon
25: Kyle Fowler
26: Travis Pastrana
27: David Starr
28: Kasey Kahne
29: Tony Raines
30: Matt Carter
31: Robert Richardson Jr.
32: Reed Sorenson
33: Timmy Hill
34: Morgan Shepard
35: Jeff Green
36: Blake Koch
37: Fain Skinner
38: Chase Miller
39: Mike Harmon
40: Josh Wise
41: Carl Long
42: JJ Yeley
43: Joey Gase
