Kyle Busch, Harvick divide stage wins at Texas Motor Speedway

Kevin Harvick won the first stage of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, leading 73 of the 85 laps.

Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford started second in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM), then took advantage of teammate and pole winner Kurt Busch’s first-lap bobble. The stage victory was his fourth through seven races this season.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

Harvick, a winner at the 1.5-mile track for the first time last fall, lost the lead only during the mid-stage exchange of green-flag pit stops. Denny Hamlin took over for 12 laps on an alternate strategy, but lost ground with a pit-road speeding penalty.

Kyle Busch finished second in the opening stage in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Kurt Busch and Joey Logano completed the top four. Kyle Larson rallied from the rear of the field to finish fifth in the first stage. His Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet failed pre-race technical inspection three times, requiring him to drop to the tail end of the pack during pace laps.

Defending series champion Martin Truex Jr. was poised to finish well in the points at the end of Stage 1, but crunched the outside retaining wall while running second on Lap 80. His Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota was done for the day and the stage ended under the yellow flag.

A Lap 2 incident off Turn 4 damaged the hopes of Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez and Paul Menard. All four continued, but were scored laps down in the running order.

Stage 2

Kyle Busch prevailed in a topsy-turvy second stage of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Busch jumped to the lead late in the segment, passing his brother, Kurt, with four laps left in Stage 2. The driver of the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota wrapped up his second stage win of the season.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Kurt Busch, the pole-starter, was second at the end of the stage. Joey Logano, Erik Jones and Clint Bowyer completed the top five.

Stage 1 winner Kevin Harvick lost ground with a sluggish pit stop when the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 team’s jack jammed after a stray lug nut that stuck in the mechanism. That incident dropped him from the lead to ninth place, and he fell further back with an unscheduled pit stop to remedy a loose wheel.

Harvick, who won last November at Texas for the first time, ended the stage in 15th place.

The race was scheduled for a 334-lap full distance.