NASCAR at Las Vegas 2015 Results: Winner, Standings, Highlights and Reaction

Kevin Harvick kept up his exceptional form by taking the checkered flag in Sunday's Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. NASCAR highlighted Harvick's win:

Two runner-up finishes to begin the 2015 season had to leave Harvick wanting more, and he achieved just that with another stellar performance in winning by approximately 1.6 seconds over Martin Truex Jr.

Harvick had a tremendous run in Las Vegas, and sportscaster Chris Myers referenced how well the reigning Chase for the Sprint Cup champion has fared in recent starts:

Below is a look at the top finishers from Sunday's NASCAR showcase, along with an updated overview of the overall standings:

Pos.	Driver	Laps Led
1	Kevin Harvick	142
2	Martin Truex Jr.	3
3	Ryan Newman	14
4	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	4
5	Denny Hamlin
6	AJ Allmendinger
7	Brad Keselowski	9
8	Kyle Larson
9	Matt Kenseth	1
10	Joey Logano	47
11	Jamie McMurray
12	Paul Menard
13	Brian Scott
14	Greg Biffle
15	Brian Vickers
16	Regan Smith
17	Kasey Kahne
18	Jeff Gordon

Pos.	Driver	Points
1	Kevin Harvick	134
2	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	125
3	Joey Logano	123
4	Martin Truex Jr.	118
5	AJ Allmendinger	100
6	Kasey Kahne	92
7	Jimmie Johnson	91
8	Denny Hamlin	87
9	Casey Mears	87
10	Matt Kenseth	85

USA Today's Jeff Gluck applauded Ryan Newman's outing:

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was near the front for much of the race, and he adopted a bold late-race strategy in an effort to gain an edge on those ahead of him, per NBC Sports' Dustin Long:

ESPN's Marty Smith praised the efforts of Harvick and Truex, as the latter notched his third straight top 10:

The success Harvick had at the end of the 2014 campaign has carried over into this year. Young star Joey Logano, who won the Daytona 500, has been among those seemingly capable of staving Harvick off.

Logano appeared on his way to another easy, strong result before he sped on pit road, as Fox Sports noted, costing him valuable ground after he'd led 47 laps in the beginning:

Several other notable drivers had difficulties, most notably last week's winner in Jimmie Johnson. The only man to win this race four times blew out a tire and crashed, as captured by NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola:

A broken oil cooler caused Carl Edwards to miss out on the end of the race. Edwards spun out into the first turn and made contact with Kasey Kahne. Both were in the top five at the time, though Kahne managed to bounce back and salvage a decent 17th-place finish.

Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press logged what Edwards had to say about the accident:

Jeff Gordon captured the pole for the Kobalt 400, but the savvy veteran ultimately couldn't capitalize on it. His website's official Twitter account noted how Jeb Burton's collision with Gordon's No. 24 car was a hindrance:

The costly clash happened right after Johnson went careening into the wall, and while Gordon continued racing, his car didn't recover.

But the biggest story from Las Vegas is Harvick's continued dominance in notching his 29th career Sprint Cup victory. As outstanding as it was that he won last year's Chase, Harvick is evidently not content to rest on his laurels, and he seems keen to continue reigning atop NASCAR this season.

Next week's race is the CampingWorld.com 500, hosted by Phoenix International Speedway. It began in 2005, so Harvick and Gordon are the only two-time winners in the young event's history.

Everyone who's claimed the top prize in Phoenix has been a top-tier driver, though, so it won't be a surprise to see a big name in Victory Lane next Sunday. With the way Harvick has been running as of late, he has as strong of a chance as anyone to win yet again.