NASCAR returned to action for the first time in 70 days on Sunday at one of the oldest tracks on the schedule. Darlington Raceway is a beast of its own. It’s not called “Too Tough To Tame” for nothing.

So, without any practice to dial in their race cars this weekend, the usual suspects would be the ones to beat in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race right?

Well, it kind of was. Kevin Harvick dominated on the 1.366-mile South Carolina race track again. He’s finished in the top 10 in literally every race run this season as well as all seven times at the Lady in Black since joining Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. He’s also led 677 laps in those seven starts too — including 159 of which in a dominating win on Sunday.

Kurt Busch finished third for his fourth straight top seven result at Darlington and third straight top seven on the season.

Chase Elliott has won an Xfinity Series race at Darlington in the past to go along with two top five finishes now in his last three Cup Series starts there. Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five after scoring his fifth top 10 in his last six tries.

So, how was Alex Bowman second? Bowman’s previous two Darlington finishes with Hendrick Motorsports was 23rd and 18th respectively. On Sunday, he was in the top five all day. Bowman, brought his No. 88 Chevrolet home third in Stage 1, second in Stage 2 and runner-up in the race itself.

In fact, he had a chance to win on the final restart but Harvick got the best of him.

“It was a lot of fun to race a guy like Kevin (Harvick) at a place like Darlington,” Bowman said. “It sucks to finish second, but it’s really good to restart the season this way with a strong car off the truck. We just needed a little bit more … and just came up a little bit short.”

Bowman, said that there wasn’t much that he could do in hindsight to get his second victory in three races on the season.

“Not be on the inside is really the only thing,” Bowman said on if he could have done anything differently to beat Harvick there in the end. “I feel like watching it back, I could have been really aggressive and cut the corner into one a little bit and maybe cleared him. I was already pretty aggressive with that.  Maybe I could have acted like I was going to clear myself and got him to lift.  If he doesn’t lift, we both crash.  In three and four I got loose under him.  He did a good job of getting on my door, taking some side force away.

“You’re racing one of the best in the business at one of the most technical, hard racetracks we go to.  Just to have the opportunity to race him hard and clean like that was a lot of fun.”

Bowman, fresh off his newly signed contract for 2021 said that getting that deal done on Saturday gave him the confidence that it takes to compete for the win on Sunday.

“Yeah, for sure,” the Arizona native said of his deal and confidence it gives him now. “Obviously not having to talk about 2021 any more, just focus on the task at hand, going and contending for a championship is really good.

“Obviously my career has changed significantly since coming over to HMS.  They gave me a big break.  I’m very appreciative for that.  Really enjoying it.  Glad to have that squared away.  Ready to go try to win some more races.”

So, what is it though as to why he’s starting to surge, even on tracks without past success. Prior to 2020, Fontana was not a great track for him in the past. All he did back in March was lead 110 of 200 laps en route to a dominating victory.

“I’ve definitely found myself in some situations that I haven’t been in over the last couple years as our racecars have gotten stronger,” Bowman said of being stronger at tracks he never has been quick at in the past. “I feel like I’m learning a lot.

“It was really interesting trying to prepare for this race.  I spent the day yesterday at my shop.  I felt like I was doing something wrong all day, there was something that I needed to be doing different to prepare more.  If I didn’t go to my shop, I was just going to sit at my home all day and do nothing.  I hung out and cleaned my shop by myself all day.

“It’s just been really interesting to be in different situations and learn from them as well as learn what I can do off the racetrack to better prepare myself.  I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot with the off-the-racetrack stuff.  It’s definitely been a big improvement here lately.  Very appreciative of that, all the help that Josh Wise has been on that.

“On-track stuff, I feel like I’m learning every time out.  There are some restarts I wish I would have gotten better, things I’d do a little differently.  But I didn’t make any big mistakes today.  Definitely things I could improve on, but it was a good, solid day.”