Kevin Harvick survived two late race restarts to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Phoenix, taking his second consecutive victory and fifth in the last six races at the track.

The 2014 champion took the lead from Joey Logano early on after a poor start from pole position, and dominated the first half of the race, with Logano again his main rival for much of that period.

Harvick continued to keep various opponents at arm’s length, including series returnee and Stewart-Haas teammate Kurt Busch, back from a three-week suspension from NASCAR.

Busch showed no sign of rustiness as he fought his way up the order methodically through the race, finally challenging for the lead with two thirds of the distance remaining.

Harvick then made the most of a caution period for his team-mate and boss Tony Stewart spinning with 76 laps to go, stretching a two-second lead out over a short period after the restart and using the clean air to his advantage.

With 24 laps to go, Stewart ended up in the wall for a second time, bringing the pack back onto Harvick’s tail for the run to the finish. But Harvick held off the challenge of Jamie McMurray – a mainstay in and around the top 10 all day after qualifying third – to become 2015’s first repeat winner after last week’s Las Vegas triumph.

“The restarts were just really slippery, and I learned that in the (XFinity Series) race yesterday,” said Harvick, who finished third in Saturday’s race. “You had to really maintain your entrance speed and really slide the thing through the center of the corner to try to help keep it pointed up off (the corner).”

McMurray admitted the final restart had hurt his chances.

“Matt McCall (crew chief) made a really good decision at the end to stay out (on old tires) and got us on the front row,” McMurray said. “That was a fun battle with Kevin. Those are the kinds you wish you could do over again, because I would have slid up earlier.
 
“It’s similar to plate racing with the engine package we have now, where if you don’t get the guy cleared, he can kind of stall you out a little bit. And I saw Kevin coming and I thought I could slide up in front of him, but I also knew it was for the win and that we would probably have wrecked there.”

Behind McMurray, Ryan Newman continued his strong start to 2015 by taking third ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ strongest driver all weekend, Kasey Kahne.

Busch came home fifth after a brilliant recovery – he and Jeff Gordon took four tires at the caution with 24 laps to go and the pair plummeted down the order as others changed only two. Gordon also recovered well – to ninth – after spending the majority of the day struggling with the No. 24 car.

His teammate Jimmie Johnson finished 11th after qualifying uncharacteristically low in 20th. The Hendrick Motorsports driver suffered contact with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Carl Edwards in the pits, forcing Johnson to revisit pitlane for repairs and lose more ground.

Tire wear was a vital issue all day, as both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Sam Hornish Jr. suffered right-rear tire failures.

Earnhardt had been mired back in the midfield after a pitlane speeding penalty and the tire failure sent him into the wall with just over 200 laps to go. By the time he returned to the pits, his Hendrick Chevrolet’s right rear was on fire and rescue crews struggled to put the flames out.

Hornish’s right-rear deflation didn’t put him out of the race, but did leave him many laps down and out of contention.

RESULTS – 312 LAPS:

LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Chase spots provisionally secured: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson