Harvick would start off the 2018 season with a DNF at the Daytona 500, after being involved in a crash just halfway through the race finishing 31st, but would earn dominant back-to-back wins at Atlanta (his first since 2001) and Las Vegas. This would be the first time Harvick would earn back-to-back wins since 2015 where he won at Las Vegas and Phoenix. It would also be his 100th career win across NASCAR's top three series. However, his win at Las Vegas would not count toward the playoffs as he received an L1 penalty for the rear window of the car not being braced at all times. He has docked 20 points, crew chief Childers fined $50,000 and car chief Robert Smith suspended for the next two races. Despite Childers being absent in the Phoenix race and the penalty from last week, Harvick was able to score his 40th career win and would finally earn three wins in a row after four previous attempts, for the first time in his career. Coming to California, four in a row would not work for Harvick, as he was involved in a wreck with Kyle Larson early in the race, and would finish 35th place, nine laps down. He finished fifth at Martinsville, second at Texas, seventh at Bristol, fifth at Richmond, and fourth at Talladega. At Dover, Harvick dominated by leading the most laps and scoring his fourth win of the year. The following week at Kansas, he was again dominant, scoring the pole, finishing second in both stages and taking the lead with two laps to go to win his fifth race of the season. This tied the most wins for Harvick in a season. Harvick was the first driver to win five of the first 13 races since Jeff Gordon in 1997. A week later in the All-Star Race, Harvick continued his winning streak yet again, winning stages 1 and 3 and held off Daniel Suárez to win for the first time in 11 years after winning it in 2007 driving the No. 29 car for RCR. Over the next seven races, Harvick would finish outside the top five only twice: at Charlotte after a tire failure, and Daytona after getting caught in an Overtime wreck. At New Hampshire, Harvick stayed in the top 10 for most of the race and with less than 15 to go, Harvick used the bump and run on Kyle Busch and held onto the lead to get his sixth win of the year, the best in his career. He finished fourth at Pocono and 10th at Watkins Glen. Coming into Michigan, Harvick had finished second six times since winning there in 2010. He won both stages and led 108 laps en route to his seventh win of the season.
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