Take 5: Las Vegas

A cool but sunny day in the Las Vegas desert was a welcome break from last weekend's damp forecast in Atlanta. The result, however, was the same for the second straight week with Kevin Harvick rolling to victory. With the first leg of the three-race West Coast swing complete, here are five key takeaways from Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This may seem like a familiar drumbeat, even though results from a small sample size of three races may not constitute an alarming trend, but Hendrick Motorsports had little to show for its day in the desert with none of its four cars finishing on the lead lap. Chase Elliott led the charge early but a final-stage crash relegated him to 34th place. Jimmie Johnson was tops for Hendrick in 12th, with Alex Bowman (16th) and rookie William Byron (27th) further back.

Harvick's effort led another solid day for Ford teams, which placed six drivers among the top 10 Sunday at Las Vegas. Included in that mix were all three Team Penske entries, with pole-starter Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano filling out fifth through seventh in the final rundown. Ford teams also hold the top three spots in the Monster Energy Series standings, with Harvick, Logano and Blaney sitting 1-2-3 after three races.

Kevin Harvick's stat line so far in the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is impressive: Two wins in three races, leading 395 of the season's 799 laps, and 100 national series wins for his career. Harvick also wrestled away the premier-series points lead, but he also has an advantageous head-start in another category: Playoff points. His two regular-season victories and three stage wins upped his total to 13. Austin Dillon, the Daytona 500 winner, ranks second with five.

Paul Menard appears to have found some level of comfort in his new home with Wood Brothers Racing. Menard finished ninth Sunday at Las Vegas, and wound up 10th in both stages to pick up a couple of extra points. Sunday's outcome gives Menard two top-10 finishes so far this year, just one shy of the three top-10s he registered in all of the 2017 season.

Harvick's hot start has put the rest of the Monster Energy Series field on notice, and there's a solid chance the winning ways continue next weekend at ISM Raceway. Harvick is the all-time wins leader at the Phoenix-area track with eight career victories at the 1-mile facility. A triumph there would give NASCAR its first three-race win streak since Kyle Busch swept through Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis in July 2015.