Sleeping Giant: Kevin Harvick Oozing with Confidence
The last four years have been wild for Kevin Harvick. The Stewart Haas Racing driver earned 21 of his 58 career Cup Series wins from 2018-2020 but came up short in the championship during each season. After an astounding nine victories in 2020, the veteran driver missed out on the championship round, and has yet to fully recover.
Harvick failed to win a race last season, the first time that has happened since 2009 when he drove for Richard Childress Racing. With his winless streak reaching 50+ races, the 46-year old has been the focus of retirement chatter, but the driver of the No. 4 Ford Mustang is nowhere near ready to discuss that possibility.
"I like where I race," Harvick stated. "I like Stewart-Haas Racing. I like the atmosphere. I like the people here. That’s really the biggest reason that I like to do it, especially this year. You’re with a group of people where you’re constantly problem-solving."
"I like the core group of guys that I started here with. That’s why they all came here, and I guess I would feel like I’m abandoning them if I didn’t go a couple more years." The team announced at the beginning of 2020 that they had signed Harvick to a two-year extension, keeping him in the car through the 2023 season.
Last season was a down year for SHR as a whole, with just one race win between their four cars. The implementation of the NextGen car has helped turn things around this season, but the entire organization has improved from a year ago. "I enjoy where this series is, and learning about the new car is not a bad thing to do as you go forward into the future and do something different. I still enjoy that challenge," Harvick said.
Chase Briscoe has already gotten the team back in victory lane this year, and has run well at every race this season. That success can be attributed to everyone in the organization. "We’ve put in a lot of time in the simulator," Harvick said. "We’ve been to two tests so far. We knew coming into this year that we had some habits we were going to have to break. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that, with all the adversity we’ve gone through. That is going to be our aggressive process until we get to victory lane."
Harvick's winless streak nearly came to an end last weekend at Richmond. He finished runner-up to race winner Denny Hamlin, marking his best finish since the 2021 Bristol Night Race. Crew chief Rodney Childers used a two-stop strategy late in the race to give his driver fresh tires in the closing laps. It nearly paid off, but just injected more confidence and positivity into the team.
“I’m just really proud of everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for just staying in there and having a great strategy and doing everything that they did all day,” Harvick said last weekend. “It was really the first clean day that we’ve had all year. The cars have been fast and we had a shot there at the end. It’s a great day for us and hopefully a little bit of momentum in a positive direction.”
That momentum is something that Harvick and the team hope to have heading into tonight's race at Martinsville. He might not have recent success (finished 15th, 17th, 9th, and 12th since 2019) but he has won here before. That win was more than a decade ago, and he has just five top-fives here in 41 starts, but this is a whole new ballgame.
In terms of short-track racing, Harvick sits tied for fourth on the list of active winners. His seven race victories are split between Martinsville, Richmond, and Bristol. Oddly enough, Harvick is the only Cup Series driver that has won at Martinsville in all three National Series. He won the Xfinity Series race in 2006 and is a three-time winner in the Camping World Truck Series.
"I’ve done this a long time, and there’s really not going to be a race track that I go to that I don’t leave thinking that I could’ve done better. Martinsville is the one I leave thinking that probably more often than some of the others," Harvick said. I have no idea how we’ve won there, but we have. It’s just one of those places that’s frustrating. Even on a day when you do well, you just leave there with your wires crossed."
This season has been a roller coaster ride for the No. 4 team. After a decent run at Daytona, Harvick got caught up in the big crash on the front stretch in the closing laps. He rebounded nicely with a 7th place run at Fontana, then finished 12 at Las Vegas, followed by a 6th place result at Phoenix. He finished 21st at the new Atlanta track before a solid 11th place finish on the road course in Austin, Texas.
The organization did very well yesterday with three cars qualifying inside the top six. Aric Almirola and Cole Custer will start 2nd and 3rd tonight while Harvick rolls off from the 6th position, his best of the season.
Last Sunday's runner-up finish was a true indicator of where this team is heading. Even if they don't snap their winless streak tonight, another solid finish will give this team all the fuel they need to keep that fire burning deep down inside of them.
