Historically speaking, flat race tracks make Kevin Harvick happy.
Pardon the pun.
When it comes to tracks like Phoenix Raceway, Richmond Raceway or the track the NASCAR Cup Series visits this weekend, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, there’s no other type of track the Stewart-Haas Racing driver has had more success on.
Combined, Harvick has won on those 1-mile or less tracks 16 times. Nine wins have been at Phoenix, three at Richmond and Harvick is the active leader in wins at New Hampshire with four.
Harvck also has 13 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes at Loudon, both of which lead active Cup Series drivers.
“Flat tracks have always been really good for me in my career,’ Harvick said in a media release. “When you look at SHR and the things we’ve been able to accomplish at Loudon and Phoenix, they’ve kind of followed that same trend. A lot of that goes back to that open test time we had at Milwaukee (Mile) and Nashville (Superspeedway).
“Those are the places where we would practice and practice and practice. Our guys have done a great job of having a good short-track, flat-track program, and Loudon is a place that has followed along with Phoenix and the success that we’ve had there and to be able to capitalize on that success and continue it at another track.”
However, Harvick is in need of some of the magic he’s had in the past this weekend at the 1-mile track.
More: Rodney Childers on Generational Gap with Next Gen Car
Harvick enters Sunday’s race having not won at all since the 2020 Bristol night race – that’s 62 races without a visit to victory lane.
Through 19 races, Harvick is 11th in the points standings, but is the first driver outside the 16 car playoff field. He is 19 points behind Christopher Bell for the last spot.
Despite the No. 4 team’s success at Loudon, this will be the first time the Cup Series has been to the “Magic Mile” with the Next Gen car.
“For us, a lot … depends on the tire falloff and where things go from the handling of the car and what the pace is,” Harvick said. “You definitely still have to have good power, it just comes in a different range, and a lot of places we’ve gone this year, we’ve shifted, so New Hampshire will probably be the same way. You’ll probably be shifting in every corner.”
Crew chief Rodney Childers “feels good” about the team’s prospects, given how the team performed at Phoenix this spring (sixth place) and Richmond (second).
With no wins in almost two years, Childers said this season has “definitely not been what we want, for sure.
“For our team, we’re expected to go out there and win eight or nine races a year and when you don’t do that it’s a huge disappointment,” he continued. “You want to go into this new car and come out with a bang and I think we’ve all see that we obviously haven’t been able to do that and it’s taken a lot of adjustment from a memory standpoint, whether it’s driver, crew chief, road crew – everybody involved – it’s just trying to get our hands and arms wrapped around it and figure it out and go out there and compete, but, overall, I think you’ve also seen a wide variety of people winning.
“Maybe last year we would have never thought there could be 16 winners going into the playoffs, but this year it could happen. … I keep looking at the calendar and I’m like, ‘Man,’ I know the races are kind of counting down, but you look at those races and for a crew chief you look at how those races play out – what happens in those races, whether it comes down to restarts or pit stops, tire strategy or these road courses anything can happen. You just have to keep focused and keep plugging away and hopefully get better and we do feel like we’ve gotten better and better. The road course stuff and going to Road America is a little bit of a struggle for us, but I think we finished about (27th) there last year, so to finish 10th was a huge improvement for us.
“To be able to qualify bad and move up the whole day was important, but I think the key was Nashville (Superspeedway) and being able to run with the good cars all night and having a really good race.
“I hope that was a turning point for us and we can keep moving forward from there.”