Take 5: What we learned after playoff bubble shakeup at Michigan

Along with Kevin Harvick scoring his second victory this season, Ryan Newman and Daniel Suarez also were big winners as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff bubble was flipped upside down at Michigan International Speedway. Now with only three races to go in the regular season, here are the five most prominent takeaways from the Irish Hills.

Here comes Harvick: After scoring eight finishes outside the top 10 in the first 19 races of the 2019 season, Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing bunch are hitting their stride as the regular season closes on completion. The team has earned two wins in the last four races and hasn't finished worse than seventh in that span. Still, crew chief Rodney Childers is adamant there's still more work to be done to boost Harvick up into championship-contending discussion.

Backyard bragging rights
Ford Performance has now won four consecutive races at Michigan -- Clint Bowyer (June 2018), Kevin Harvick (August 2018), Joey Logano (June 2019) and Harvick again (August 2019). The streak means the coveted Michigan Heritage Trophy, awarded to the winning manufacturer of each race at the 2-mile speedway, stays with the Blue Ovals on home turf.

Is desperation setting in?
The No. 48 Chevrolet of driver Jimmie Johnson showed glimmers of speed through the weekend, but hitting the outside wall on Lap 15 dashed all hopes of gaining points on drivers he’s fighting on the playoff bubble. A 34th-place finish leaves Johnson 12 points below the cutline heading to Bristol. So, is it time to panic? "It's a little easier when it's not on you, and you can call it a mechanical or a flat or get caught up in a wreck," Johnson said. "But I'm behind the wheel, and I'm the one that got us in the fence. … The guys around that cutoff point all seem to be having bad luck."

Good before the last drop
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski were 1-2-3 for the final restart and appeared to be the class of the field in the closing laps. But in what played out as a fuel mileage race to the finish, the Team Penske Fords came up short as all three drivers had to pit before the checkered flag waved. "We needed more gas," Logano said as he tried to crack a grin despite the misfortune. "It just happens, right? We were in the lead and we were going for it. I didn't want to go back to second, third, fourth to save fuel. If the caution comes out, you look dumb. … It's just one of those things."

Truex recovers in milestone race
Martin Truex Jr. celebrated his 500th career Monster Energy Series start on Sunday at Michigan, but it wasn't the start to the party he expected. Forced to start at the rear of the 38-car field after failing Sunday's pre-race inspection twice, Truex and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team rallied to win Stage 1, then used fuel strategy for a stout fourth-place finish. "It's always the easiest to come through the field that first run," Truex said. "We certainly did a good job of that. We were able to drive up and take the lead. Thought we had the best car at that point in the race."