KANSAS CITY, KS.: It may not have been a win in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, but the performance from Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 Subway Racing Ford Mustang sure felt like one.
It’s no secret that Harvick and his team have struggled to repeat their dominance of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season and while winless through 34 Cup races in 2021, Harvick did find himself beating on the back door of Kyle Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro ready to pounce if the Hendrick Motorsports driver made a mistake.
Larson though hasn’t made many mistakes this season and Sunday was no different.
Despite running down Larson for the race lead, Harvick’s opportunity to take the lead from the nine-time Cup winner this season was short lived as the handling dwindled slightly on the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang sending Harvick back to third when the checkered flag waved.
Four of Harvick’s 10 top-five finishes have come on the 1.5-mile tracks this season, including both events at Kansas Speedway.
“We were just getting tight at the end of the runs and the 5 (Larson), 9 (Elliott) and 1 (Kurt Busch) cars could really hold it wide open,” explained Harvick. “I needed to get past the 5 so I was trying to hold it wide open and had a lot of wheel in to it and got a little tight as we went to the last half of that run.”
While Harvick recorded back-to-back top-five finishes for just the second time this season, the team’s performance at Kansas Speedway could be argued as one of their best performances on the intermediate tracks this season.
Start-to-finish, Harvick’s No. 4 Subway Racing Ford Mustang remained consistent and steady allowing the 58-time Cup Series winner to remain mixed inside the top-10 throughout the whole 267 laps.
Harvick acknowledged the uptick in performance on the mile-and-a-half tracks.
“I am really proud of everyone on the Subway Ford Mustang,” added Harvick. “We closed a huge gap at 1.5 mile race tracks and everyone is doing a great job.”
Harvick was eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs following the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL earlier this month and while the championship may be out of his grasp, fifth in the standings and winning a race is not.
Harvick has two more chances to achieve both at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Oct. 31 and the season finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway on Nov. 7.
“There are only four guys that are going to make it into the top-four. We want to finish fifth in the points and try to get to Victory Lane.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
