MARTINSVILLE, Va.: Kevin Harvick, a nine-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series this season won’t be chasing a championship next weekend at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway in a Game 7 moment after the Stewart-Haas Racing driver couldn’t recover from a gloomy day in the Xfinity 500.
Harvick’s problems in the penultimate race of the season started shortly after the race began in his No. 4 Mobile 1 Ford Mustang as the handling quickly went away south plummeting the 2014 Cup champion through the field.
Later an untimely flat tire sent Harvick to pit road and losing two laps to the leaders. A caution a few laps later allowed Harvick to gain one of the laps back but the Bakersfield, Calif. native had to fight over 100 laps to get back on the lead lap deep in Stage 3.
Once back on the lead lap, a better handling car allowed Harvick to make the climb through the field in the fight to the finish and ultimately a chance at a second championship.
Knowing the Cup points were extremely tight in the closing laps at Martinsville between Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, Harvick tried to shove his way into the Championship 4 on the last lap coming to the checkered flag when he nailed the left rear of Kyle Busch’s No. 18 Toyota Camry which sent both cars spinning and took Harvick for a likely tie with Keselowski to 17th at the checkered flag and eight spots below the cutoff.
While Martinsville was disappointing, it was more than just about Martinsville.
Last week’s 16th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway didn’t help either. Leading the race under a heavy mist early in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500, Harvick slid into the Turn 2 wall, damaging his car. Harvick would have to wait out a 72-hour rain delay to finish the race.
The 16th place finish should have felt like a win considering the front clip was bent, but Harvick lacked the points he would desperately need four days later.
“Yeah, we just weren’t good and everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford just kept battling to make it better and gave ourselves a shot there at the end,” Harvick said after the race “I tried to drive into the door of the 18 (Kyle Busch) to get that last point to make it and spun him out.”
Harvick admitted that his move on Busch coming to the checkered flag was an act of desperation.
“I don’t usually drive like that, but you’re trying to make it to the Championship 4 and doing everything you can. Sorry to put him in the middle of trying to gain a point, but not a great three weeks. Just came up short. Just not the night we needed.”
Despite being a Championship 4 caliber team all season long, Harvick’s calm-demeanor post-race was surprising to some knowing that a nine-time winner this season wouldn’t be challenging for
the biggest trophy of the season, but Harvick pointed out times have changed.
Harvick expressed it’s not about the whole season, it’s about the weeks during the Playoffs and making it through the three rounds that set the stage for the Championship 4.
The 58-time Cup Series winner is the first regular-season champion not to make the Championship 4.
“Look, these championships aren’t like winning like Petty and Earnhardt used to win them,” explained Harvick. “You have to put them together three weeks at a time and it comes down to one race and it came down to one race for us tonight and came up short.”
He added, “I’ve been punched in the gut a lot harder. We won nine races, had a great year, and like I said, the championship is kind of a bonus. It would be great to win it, obviously, but I’d rather go through the year and win races and do the things that we did and just came up short.
When asked how he justifies that he won’t be competing for a championship when his Stewart-Haas Racing team is clearly one of the top four teams in 2020, Harvick had a quick response.
“That’s the system that we work in and it’s obviously skewed more towards entertainment than the whole year, so it’s exciting to watch and has that format that goes with it and you take them as they come and we race within the system that they give us and do our best.
“It just didn’t work out for us. The last three weeks didn’t go exactly how we needed them to and you’ve got to be right when you get to this Round of 8.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01
