Kevin Harvick advances to season finale with dominating win at Phoenix

AVONDALE, AZ - A victory at Phoenix-and a dominating one at that-was exactly what Kevin Harvick needed to keep his hopes for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship alive.<br /> <br /> But a second-place finish in Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 did Jeff Gordon no good, thanks to a final-lap banzai run by Ryan Newman, who passed rookie Kyle Larson for the 11th position on the final lap to eliminate Gordon from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by a single point.<br /> <br /> Pole sitter Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, who shared the Chase lead entering the Eliminator Round's final event, both recovered from bizarre errors on pit road to join Harvick and Newman in next Sunday's championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.<br /> <br /> The driver who finishes highest among those four will claim the 2015 series title.<br /> <br /> "Wow, I guess that's what it feels like to hit a walk-off in extra innings there," said Harvick, who completed the season sweep at Phoenix with his fourth victory in the last five races there. "I could tell that we were probably going to have to win, because everybody was running up in the front of the pack that we were racing against. That was our goal coming in here and that's really the goal every time you come to Phoenix.<br /> <br /> "This place has just been phenomenal for me personally and for this team this year. To do that in front of all your almost hometown fans (Harvick is from Bakersfield, CA) and all these people who have been rooting for me since the mid-'90s is pretty unbelievable. Man, I think this says a lot about our team. I think we have been through a lot this year. They put our backs against the wall. We put it in Victory Lane and get to go on."<br /> <br /> As such, Harvick goes from desperation mode-needing a victory at Phoenix to advance to the season finale-to the role of favorite at Homestead, given the speed his cars have shown all season long.<br /> <br /> Asked to handicap the championship race, Gordon was emphatic, and for good reason. He chased Harvick to the finish line and fell 1.636 seconds behind in the final 12-lap run.<br /> <br /> "I like Harvick," Gordon asserted. "Yeah, I think Harvick looks really good