Following a 21-race winless drought, Kevin Harvick wins Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at Loudon. (Photo Credit: Josh Jones/TPF)
By all means, Kevin Harvick capitalized on a moment at New Hampshire. In this case, he backed up his nickname by winning Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
On that note, he earned his fourth win at “The Magic Mile” all while defending his race victory from 2018.
Much like last year, the 43-year-old Bakersfield, Calif. native successfully defended his race win by staving off a Joe Gibbs Racing competitor. Certainly, Denny Hamlin mustered up some formidable bids for the win against Harvick in the final laps.
Even though Harvick only led 41 laps, he won the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301. (Photo Credit: Josh Jones/TPF)
“It was a heck of a finish, closer than we wanted,” Harvick said.
By the same token, the 2014 Cup champion found himself in the lead thanks to a call atop his team’s pit box by crew chief Rodney Childers. While most of the leaders pitted with 35 to go, the No. 4 Busch Ford Mustang stayed out on the track.
As a result, Harvick restarted in the lead and held the top spot for the remainder of the race. With this in mind, Harvick worked his way through traffic with a determined Hamlin hot in pursuit.
“I was really questionable about how that was going to go, and the thing took right off,” Harvick observed. “The only thing that was not good for us was we got the traffic and my car started pushing.
I knew he (Hamlin) was going to take a shot…I would have taken a shot. (So) I just stood on the brakes and tried to keep it straight. I just didn’t want to get him back on the inside and let him have another shot. (And) I at least wanted to be in control of who was going to have contact in (Turns) Three and Four.”
For the most part, the two competitors raced aggressively but kept their battle relatively clean, trading paint on the final lap. Heading into Turn One, Hamlin used the chrome horn on Harvick. However, the Californian was relentless, correctly anticipating the Virginian’s next moves.
All things considered, Harvick’s victory shouldn’t come as a surprise. Indeed, he’s shown speed on a consistent basis. At times, he’s simply fallen victim to bad luck while leading races.
In fact, prior to Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, the wily veteran only led 441 laps. All in all, while only leading 41 laps, 35 of those were on the final moments of the race.
In spite of some tough setbacks, the Californian proved relentless when it mattered. (Photo Credit: Josh Jones/TPF)
“It’s been — we’ve all made a ton of mistakes,” Harvick observed. “And I think as you look at it, they haven’t all been in winning positions. But, you could go right from the beginning of the year and say, ‘Okay, well, we chose the wrong direction on the cars.’ But they’ve done a great job of getting the cars back with speed and performing well, and we’ve made mistakes.
I think in the end, everybody — like I said to several people earlier, whether our cars are slow or fast, whether I run it into the wall or he (Childers) makes a call that doesn’t work out or whatever the case may be, we show up the next week, and the only thing we think about when we make the first lap on the racetrack is we have a chance to win.”
In this case, Harvick and his No. 4 team made the right moves and calls to win their first race of 2019. For this reason, it’s not foolhardy to think that this Stewart-Haas Racing collective can reel off multiple victories.
Overall, Harvick excels at winning and burning down the house. (Photo Credit: Josh Jones/TPF)
Nevertheless, Round 20 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season proved fruitful for this perennial title contender. At last, Harvick secured his spot in the Playoffs.
Above all, Kevin Harvick no longer has to answer questions about when he’ll return to the winner’s circle. Instead, he can consider the endless possibilities for more wins thanks to another Magic Mile triumph.
