MORE: Harvick dominates Las Vegas | Picks up 100th career NASCAR win
Coming into the season, much of the talk — rightly so — was centered around NASCAR’s young talent set to take the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series by storm after big names such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have stepped out of their race cars over the past few years.
With drivers like Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Daniel Suarez (the list goes on) making names for themselves at the top level, it’s easy to get excited about the future. Kevin Harvick, 42, took the conversation back into the present the past two weekends, however, winning both Atlanta and Las Vegas in convincing fashion.
https://twitter.com/KevinHarvick/status/970499307198734336
Fellow 42-year-old Jimmie Johnson took notice, and playfully threw a jab at the “young guys,” and succinctly summed up his race via emoji.
https://twitter.com/JimmieJohnson/status/970462603335016449
https://twitter.com/JimmieJohnson/status/970464999687700480
https://twitter.com/JimmieJohnson/status/970481109422223361
https://twitter.com/KevinHarvick/status/970500536079437824
Another … let’s just say, “not-so-young-guy” … chimed in to offer his congratulations to the 2014 champion.
https://twitter.com/MarioAndretti/status/970497422983139328
Despite Harvick’s dominance, two “young guys” in Larson and Blaney both finished in the top five, but the Chip Ganassi Racing driver knows there’s a bit to make up when it comes to catching the No. 4.
https://twitter.com/KyleLarsonRacin/status/970470502148988928
Larson — along with Michael Waltrip — also made sure to give props to Matt DiBenedetto after the 26-year-old grinded out a season-best 22nd-place finish.
https://twitter.com/mattdracing/status/970478413348716544
https://twitter.com/KyleLarsonRacin/status/970519823317807105
https://twitter.com/mattdracing/status/970520495492943872
https://twitter.com/MW55/status/970469454285910018
https://twitter.com/mattdracing/status/970470328676769792
https://twitter.com/MW55/status/970471927675469824
Kurt Busch, while he didn’t quite enjoy the same success as his victorious SHR teammate, still had a pretty good evening despite crashing out of the race.
MORE: Busch collides with Chase Elliott
https://twitter.com/KurtBusch/status/970506160204853248
And finally, a few other drivers chimed in on their respective races and one thing is clear — they all can’t wait to get to Phoenix for Sunday’s TicketGuardian 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
Think we all agree on that one!
MORE: Las Vegas takeaways | Full schedule for Phoenix
https://twitter.com/ClintBowyer/status/970460405490368512
https://twitter.com/dennyhamlin/status/970466838030290944
https://twitter.com/keselowski/status/970478507213164544
https://twitter.com/jamiemcmurray/status/970477930290843650
https://twitter.com/Aric_Almirola/status/970475413171523584
Hard fought day in Vegas for the @SpeedcoPM #38 team. Had some great strategy that didn’t quite work our way and made lots of adjustments the 2nd half. @Team_FRM has done a nice job building faster cars that still have more potential.
– David Ragan (@DavidRagan) March 5, 2018