Kevin Harvick is off to his best start since 2016 as he finished a respectable fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500. It’s his best finish in the Great American Race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway since he came home fourth in 2016.
Now, the rest of the season begins and it starts with the three-race West Coast Swing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and Phoenix International Raceway.
First up for Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang is the Pennzoil 400. It’s a place where Harvick has had a lot of success, as he has scored wins in 2015 and spring 2018 and a Busch pole last spring at the 1.5 mile oval.
In 2015, he started 18th, led five times for a total of 142 laps and beat runner-up Martin Truex Jr. by 1.640 seconds. In the spring 2018 race, he started second and dominated by leading 214 of 267 laps en route to beating runner-up Kyle Busch by 2.906 seconds.
Harvick has six top-five finishes and nine top-10s at Las Vegas. The 44-year-old driver has led 587 laps, has an average starting position of 16.4, an average finish of 14.2, and has completed 93.6 percent – 5,274 of 5,633 – of the laps he’s contested there.
He also has two 2004 and 2010 NASCAR Xfinity Series wins at Las Vegas and started three Truck Series races there in the late 1990s.
So experience is not a problem for Harvick at the desert track. He will make his 684th career Cup Series start and is looking for the 50th win of his career, which would put him in a tie with the late Junior Johnson on the all-time NASCAR win list.
A win would also extend his streak of winning at least one race in a season, which dates back to 2010.
KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
Is the West Coast Swing the barometer to see where everybody stacks up, or does it extend beyond that because we do Atlanta, Homestead and then Texas after that?
“Yeah, it’s tough to know. I mean, you know what you need to work on after you get done with the West Coast Swing, for the most part. But it’s tough to adapt to what you need to do because of the fact that your cars are already built. Because of the fact that the logistics of everything that happens is so difficult for the teams, it’s really hard to make any adjustments. So you’ve kind of got what you’ve got, going through the West Coast Swing. You might be able to make some adjustments for Atlanta and Homestead but, really, you’re going to need that Easter break in order to get your stuff together and make the changes. And even then, it’s going to be hard to put things into play because everything is done so far in advance. I think, as you look at it, it just depends on where you are and how hard you need to push things in order to make a change.”
Describe the moment you knew you’d made it in NASCAR. Perhaps the moment where you’re like, “I can make a living at this.”
“You know, I think you’re pretty naïve to that up until you actually make a living at it, because making a living at it is a little bit different than probably what you think it is before you start having a family and being married and trying to figure out, you know, what a savings account is. You’re so used to spending every dollar that you had in order to buy a faster racecar or get yourself in a different position or do something that you hadn’t done before. Until you actually start learning that you have to live life, you’re pretty naïve to know what you need to actually make it and have a real job. For me, I left home when I was 19 years old to go get a job working on the Wayne and Connie Spears truck hoping to get a chance to drive one of their cars or their truck. And that worked out. And then you take the next step and drove the 98 truck and then it was to Richard Childress Racing. And I think once I got to Richard’s and actually made it through the first year of the Busch Series and we’re able to win a few races. And then we signed that Cup sponsor with America Online and had some things lined out to run the next four years on the Cup side. That’s really when I thought, this might actually work out. Before that, it was really just the dream, something that you thought you wanted to do but didn’t really realize what it took to live life at that point.”
Who was the one person who helped get you where you are today? Perhaps the person who’s most behind your success?
“There might be one person who’s involved in each segment of the progression of your career, but there’s just way too many. I went through every step of the progression that you could. That was designed from go-karts all the way up through Late Models, through all the regional touring series. And I would say it was a different person at every segment as you went to move up. So it would be hard to narrow it to one person.”
Busch Light Racing Team Report
Round 2 of 36 – Las Vegas 400 – Las Vegas
Car No.: 4 – Busch Light Ford Mustang
PR Contact: Joe Crowley, True Speed Communication (704) 875-3388 ext. 808 or Joe.Crowley@TrueSpeedCommunication.com)
Primary Team Members:
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Hometown: Bakersfield, California
Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina
Car Chief: Robert Smith
Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin
Engine Builder: Roush-Yates Engines
Headquarters: Mooresville, North Carolina
Engine Specialist: Robert Brandt
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama
Spotter: Tim Fedewa
Hometown: Holt, Michigan
Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois
Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina
Tire Carrier: Mike “Shrek” Morneau
Hometown: Oxford, Maine
Gas Man: Evan Marchal
Hometown: Westfield, Indiana
Jackman: Stan Dolittle
Hometown: Ninety Six, South Carolina
Windshield: Shawn Hopkins (also serves as interior mechanic)
Hometown: Chesterfield, Virginia
Road Crew Members:
Truck Driver: Rick Hodges and Stephen Mitchell
Hometowns: Raleigh, North Carolina and Woodville, Ohio, respectively
Engineers: Dax Gerringer and Stephen Doran Hometowns: Gibsonville, North Carolina and Butler, Pennsylvania,respectively
Mechanic: Richie Bean
Hometown: Bradford, Vermont
Tire Specialist: Jamie Turski
Hometown: Trumbull, Connecticut
Shock Specialist: Michael McCarville
Hometown: Kensington, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Mechanic: Allen Mincey
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Las Vegas Notes of Interest:
· Dynamic Duo: While this is Harvick’s 20th year in the NASCAR Cup Series, it’s his seventh with crew chief Rodney Childers, which is the longest pairing of any current driver-crew chief combination. Since joining forces at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2014, Harvick and Childers have combined to produce 26 points-paying victories, a victory in the non-points-paying 2018 NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 25 Busch poles, 107 top-five finishes and 154 top-10s while leading 9,611 laps. They won the 2014 championship, finished runner-up in the 2015 title chase to champion Kyle Busch, finished eighth in 2016 and third in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
· Harvick has career totals of 49 wins, 31 poles, 207 top-fives, 363 top-10s and 14,043 laps led in 683 starts.
· His most recent Cup Series win and Busch Pole bothcame in November 2019 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
· Harvick’s 49 career NASCAR Cup Series victories puts him in a tie with his boss, Tony Stewart, for 14th on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins list. He is third on the active driver list behind Jimmie Johnson and Busch. Harvick’s next win will tie him with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett for 13th on the all-time list with 50 wins.
· At Homestead in 2019, Harvick became just the 11th driver to have led 14,000 laps in his NASCAR career. He’s led 14,034 and trails 10th-place Busch, who has led 17,423, and Johnson, who is ninth with 18,834 laps led.
· Points Position: Harvick arrives at Las Vegas third in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 32 points, 11 markers behind leader Denny Hamlin.
· Harvick in the Cup Series at Las Vegas: The Pennzoil 400 will mark Harvick’s 22nd career Cup Series start at the 1.5-mile desert oval. He has two wins there (2015 and spring 2018) and one Busch pole (spring 2019). In 2015, he started 18th, led five times for a total of 142 laps and beat runner-up Martin Truex Jr., by 1.640 seconds. In the spring 2018 race, he started second and dominated by leading 214 of 267 laps en route to beating runner-up Busch by 2.906 seconds. He has six top-five finishes and nine top-10s at Las Vegas. The 44-year-old driver has led 587 laps, has an average starting position of 16.4, an average finish of 14.2, and has completed 93.6 percent (5,274 of 5,633) of the laps he’s contested there.
· Harvick in the Xfinity Series at Las Vegas: Harvick has made 11 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Las Vegas. He has two wins, one pole, six top-five finishes and seven top-10s. He has led 364 laps, has an average starting position of 7.0 and average finish of 9.3, and has completed 95.6 percent (2,120 of 2,217) of the laps he’s contested there. Harvick’s first Xfinity Series win at Las Vegas came in 2004, when he started 11th and led 14 laps, and his second in 2010, when he started second and led 82 laps. His lone Xfinity Series pole position came in 2007, when he ran 181.111 mph.
· Harvick in the Truck Series at Las Vegas: Harvick has started three NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series races at Las Vegas –1997, 1998 and 1999. He finished eighth in 1997 and ninth in 1999.
· 110 and Counting – Harvick scored his 100th career win in NASCAR’s top three series with his March 2018 Las Vegas win. He now has 110 total victories – 49 in the Cup Series, 47 in the Xfinity Series and 14 in the Truck Series. Only three other drivers in NASCAR history have passed 100 wins in NASCAR’s top three series: Richard Petty, David Pearson and Busch.
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
