Phoenix NASCAR: Kevin Harvick takes second straight victory

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 team-mate 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.

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 tyres 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 #24 car.

His team-mate 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.

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

Earnhardt had been mired back in the midfield after a pitlane speeding penalty and the tyre 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