by Rence Brown CARS Tour Media (with additions/edits by NW Motorsports News)
STATELINE, Idaho (July 17, 2026) — Kevin Harvick picked up where he left off in June, collecting his second CARS Tour Northwest Pro Late Model victory at Stateline Speedway and of the 2026 season Saturday night in the 27th annual Idaho 200.
After earning the outside front-row starting position by winning June’s Road to the Idaho 200, Harvick led the final 131 laps to capture the Idaho 200 victory, adding his name to the long list of winners in the prestigious event. The victory was worth $15,000.
“I think we made it a little bit better,” Harvick said. “We were just tight through the middle of the corner, but they had a ton of options on the racetrack as to where you could run your car. I found some things that would work on the restart and then try to take care of the right front tire, and it all worked out.”
Harvick led flag to flag for 150 laps to win a June 13 race at Stateline.
The 2022 Idaho 200 winner Haeden Plybon set a new track record in qualifying and led the field of 26 Pro Late Models to the green flag in the 200-lap feature.
After qualifying third, Ebert looked to be on his way to another strong finish before mechanical issues forced him to the hot pit early in the race. Through the opening four races of the season, Ebert had averaged a 4.5 finishing position. His crew attempted to get him back onto the track, but ultimately finished the night with a 26th-place finish, 152 laps down.
Plybon led the opening 69 laps, working his way through heavy lapped traffic while maintaining his advantage over Harvick and eventually lapping up to 11th place.
The race’s first caution flew on Lap 70 when Andrew Riehl suffered an engine failure entering Turn 1 and laid oil across the racing surface, sending both Thomas Stanford and Plybon into the outside wall as they slid through the oil.
Stanford entered the night third in the championship standings, just 17 points behind Ebert, but his night came to an early end along with Riehl’s.
Right as the race was red flagged for cleanup, Plybon brought his wounded car to the hot pit where his team repaired what they could.
Harvick then took command of the lead and began to put some distance between himself and second-place Vito Cancilla, while Plybon began charging back through the field. He climbed as high as eighth before the scheduled Lap 100 break.
Just before the break, Johvan Dillon and Rowdy Rupunski battled for third when the two made contact on the frontstretch, leaving Dillon with a tire rub on his right front.
During the break, Dillon’s crew repaired the damage while Dillon and Rupunski climbed from their cars and talked through the incident on the frontstretch apron. After saying their peace, the two shook hands, chalked it up to hard racing and walked back to their cars for the second half of the race.
When the race resumed, Harvick once again jumped out front with Cancilla settling into second as the field began working through the final 100 laps.
With 35 laps remaining, Casey Jeske, Nick Gibson and Plybon found themselves locked in a three-car battle for fifth.
The trio raced under a blanket, swapping lanes nearly every lap before contact on Lap 174 sent Gibson sliding through the infield and back onto the racing surface in Turn 2. Plybon took advantage of the opening, driving three-wide into Turn 3 to clear both Gibson and Jeske and moved back into the top five for the first time since the Lap 70 incident.
Even with a debris caution setting up one final restart with 14 laps to go, Harvick never faltered. He pulled away from the field over the closing laps to claim the Idaho 200 victory, with Cancilla finishing second.
For Cancilla, it marked another runner-up finish in the Pacific Northwest, and he believes his first CARS Tour Northwest victory is getting closer.
“I feel like we’re going to get that first place and it’s going to be one heck of a night,” Cancilla said. “I’m really looking forward to that, and I do think that when time goes on, we’re going to get even faster. I’m really just glad that they built me a really good car for this race and we’ll see what we can do in the next race.”
Rupunski’s third-place finish marked his best career result in CARS Tour Northwest competition, while Dillon and Plybon rallied back to complete the top five.
For pole sitter Plybon, overcoming the early damage made the fifth-place finish feel like a victory in itself.
“We led the first 69 laps or so before then the No.7 lost the motor right in front of us,” Plybon said. “Unfortunately, we got caught in his oil and hit the wall and knocked the upper control arm mount over and bent. We passed a lot of cars and honestly we came out of here with a pretty clean race car after all that. It’s not the win we wanted, but we’ll take it.”
Defending champ Andrew Riehl was 14th, two laps down while another former Idaho 200 winner from 2023, Nick Gibson was seventh completing all 200 laps.
27th Annual Idaho 200 finish (Top 10)
1. Kevin Harvick; 2. Vito Cancilla; 3. Rowdy Rupunski; 4. Haeden Plybon; 5. Johvan Dillon; 6. Casey Jeske; 7. Nick Gibson; 8. Zander Peters; 9. Chase Gardner; 10. Trace Thompson. (All only driver to finish 200 laps.)
Lap leaders: Plybon 1-69; Harvick 70-200