FORT WORTH, Texas — Kevin Harvick became a five-time NASCAR Nationwide winner at Texas, leading 127 of 200 laps Saturday night. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had the most important finish, battling an ill-handling car that slid around the track all night and still managed to finish fourth. That got his No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford even with Elliott Sadler for the Nationwide points lead with two races remaining. “I didn't think we would get it back to a top-five car. We weren't near as far behind as we were at Kansas though so it gave us a little hope,” said Stenhouse, who came from two laps down to win the last race at Kansas. “The cautions came out and we were able to work on it as much as we could and I don't think there were any more adjustments we could do to it to get it tight enough.” Sadler was sixth, only two spots behind Stenhouse, on the final restart with 18 laps left at the 1 1/2-mile high-banked track. But the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevy started slipping back, and lost the points lead after dropping out of the top 10 with three laps left. He finished 11th. Stenhouse, the defending Nationwide champion, made up a six-point deficit in the standings. He has the tiebreaker because of his six victories, two more than Sadler. “It doesn't really matter now. We have to be leading after Homestead,” Stenhouse said. “That is still our goal and still what we have our eye on. We have gained some points the last two weeks which is good and you saw last year that if you tie it goes to the most wins and I think we have that covered right now and we will keep plugging away.” The series goes to Phoenix next week, where Sadler won and Stenhouse was third in the second race of the season back in March. The season finale is at Homestead. Harvick got his second Nationwide victory this season, and the 39th of his career. He finished in his No. 33 Chevrolet 1.63 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney's Dodge. Kyle Busch, the pole-sitter, was third. Busch is still winless in 20 starts on the Nationwide Series this season. He won at least eight races in each of the past four years, including a stretch of five consecutive wins at Texas from 2008-10 that made him the winningest driver in that series at the track before being matched by Harvick. — Agencies
