(Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. — Kevin Harvick and domination at New Hampshire Motor Speedway have gone together like butter.
Harvick, the 47-year-old from Bakersfield, California, has won at The Magic Mile four times over his legendary career, including back-to-back victories with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2018 and 2019.
But it could be something about flat tracks. Harvick has nine victories at Phoenix Raceway, a track where many drivers say handles similar to New Hampshire and is the same one-mile size.
“It’s just been a good place for us to race throughout the years. I grew up on a lot of the short tracks and flat short tracks out West, and we spent a lot of time at RCR at a lot of the flat tracks – and always ran good. That carried over to Stewart-Haas Racing and just wound up being one of our really good spots.
“It’s been a great place to race, and I’ve seen it go through some different transitions as far as the layout of the track. But, it’s been fun to come here.”
Generally speaking, Ford has struggled with overall performance in 2023. The manufacturer has just two Cup victories, those coming with Joey Logano at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the spring and Ryan Blaney in the Coca-Cola 600.
But Harvick has remained one of the more consistent blue oval drivers amongst the bunch. He has seven top 10s and sits ninth in driver’s points.
Three consecutive finishes of 24th or worse have served as a summer hiccup, but all things considered, Harvick feels that the No. 4 team is building toward a victory.
(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
“You just have to keep grinding away, and hopefully, you get some things that go your way like last year – keep the cars running well to put yourself in position, and then go from there,” Harvick said. “You look back at Nashville – the car was so fast. I think we ran the leaders down by like four seconds, and then a tire went flat. We had that same thing at Phoenix and at a couple other places, and it just hasn’t worked out.
“You just have to grind away, and that’s just kind of the nature of the beast. With this particular car, you’re just going to have some weeks that you’re ‘off.’ For the most part, we’ve been competitive. We’ve had a couple of chances to win races, and it just hadn’t all come together to be able to get to victory lane. From the competition side, I think everything has gone well, and the rest of it – we planned for and knew it would be more work than what a normal season would be.”
Harvick got hot during the summer months last season, winning back-to-back races at Michigan International Speedway and Richmond Raceway toward the conclusion of the regular season.
While a win this season would lock him in, he has the most points among drivers without a win. Just 11 points-earning drivers have victories with seven races until the playoffs, meaning Harvick has a cushion sitting 126 points above the cutline.
“It’s definitely different with this car, because it is so intense every week with the restarts and what you have to do to pass,” Harvick said. “For us, it doesn’t really change because in 2015, we just decided to race every week like it was a playoff week. If you have to switch gears, you’re in big trouble. It’s a different way to race.”
“I don’t feel like [intensity] changes anymore. I think there’s probably some desperation, as you saw with some of the circumstances at Atlanta – staying out, hoping for rain… and Chicago, trying to put yourself in position with the pit cycle and things like that. So, there’s definitely some ‘Hail Marys.’ They work every once in a while.”
Harvick will start 13th in Monday’s Crayon 301 at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
