Harvick looks to stay hot at Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas – There’s no doubt Kevin Harvick has been the dominant driver to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
Harvick has won three times, claimed 11 playoff points and established the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford as the car to beat early on.
It’s the kind of start that would afford Harvick the luxury of trying some things at Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway that could help him when the playoffs start this fall. That’s not the way Harvick, who will start second, is wired.
“You have to try and win and gain every bonus point that you can,” said Harvick, who, despite his early dominance, is ranked only seventh in points after getting hit with a major penalty after his win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “That’s really the goal to try to win every race that you can, possibly put yourself in position to win, try and take every stage point that you possibly can. You saw (2017 champion) Martin (Truex Jr.) do that last year and they were so dominant in gaining points. While you’re hot, try and take as many points as you can to get through race 26.”
Harvick is hot overall and at Texas Motor Speedway. He has four top-five finishes this year and is coming off his first Texas Cup win in November. That victory continued his streak of top-10 finishes at the track to seven, with five of those ending in top-four results.
Now that Harvick has finally conquered the track, he’s looking for more.
“As you look at the way that we have performed, especially since we’ve been at Stewart-Haas Racing, it was a big relief to check it off,” he said. “It’s a really big market for us, just for the fact that you have Mobil and Busch who spend time and money promoting this particular market and bringing a bunch of people to the racetrack, and not getting to victory lane was a little bit almost embarrassing, I guess you could say, just because of the fact we hadn’t done it.”
Harvick’s approach to his 2018 start isn’t his alone. As good as he’s been, it’s still April and a lot can happen between now and the start of the playoffs.