Harvick, Hamlin itching to get back to Victory Lane
Kevin Harvick learned the importance of survival when you don’t have the best car early in his racing career, whether it was in go-karts as a kid or late models in the long-defunct NASCAR Southwest Tour in the early 1990s.
“My first year in late models,” Harvick said, “I think I only got to run seven races because I wrecked the car every time we went out to the racetrack, and it took us a month to fix it because we couldn’t just go out and buy the parts and put it all together. We had to fix everything. That was something that just became ingrained in my head.”
The moral of the story? “When you have a 15thplace car and you can finish 10th with it,” Harvick explained, “that’s a victory.”
It’s not as sweet as a real win, though. And heading to Kansas Speedway this weekend, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion has yet to reach Victory Lane, even though it seems as if just about everybody else has. Brad Keselowski made it nine winners through the first 10 races last weekend at Talladega with an overtime pass for the victory.
It’s the fourth time since the modern era began in 1972 there have been that many different winners through 10 races.
“It’s not a position we haven’t been in before,” said Harvick, whose three Kansas wins are tied for most in history. “It’s a big science project, I can say that for sure. There are a lot of engineers on a lot of computers burning the midnight oil trying to make sure we start making some headway and getting our cars back to where we need them.”
He’s not alone as the series heads to the Heartland.
Denny Hamlin, another three-time winner at Kansas, has eight top-5 finishes in the opening 10 races but has yet to reach Victory Lane. He’s won two of the last three races at the mile-and-a-half oval just west of downtown Kansas City, including the “spring” race last season that was pushed to late July because of the pandemic.
It’s not that Harvick and Hamlin haven’t been fast; the two have spent most of the season running in the top 5. They just haven’t led the lap that matters the most.
“I mean, there’s frustration, for sure. But it doesn’t change my attitude or work ethic,” Hamlin said after a secondplace finish at Richmond a couple weeks ago. “I’m going to work just as hard to win next week and the week after that. You’re a competitor, you want to win. Especially when you have a great opportunity to win.”
Like Harvick and Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott hope to turn their success at Kansas into a long-awaited win.
Busch has more wins (six across all series) in the 20-year history of the track than any other driver, while series champion Elliott won the 2018 playoff race at Kansas and has six top-10s there in 10 career starts.
Keselowski, a two-time Kansas winner, will start on the pole Sunday based on the mathematical formula NASCAR is using for the majority of races this season. William Byron, who beat Hamlin to win at Homestead, will start outside on the front row.
FORMULA ONE
Valtteri Bottas took the pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimao and denied Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton a record-extending 100th Formula One pole.
Bottas clinched the
17th of his career and a much-needed one after he crashed in the last race and scored no points.
“It’s a good feeling to be on pole, it’s been quite a while,” Bottas said. “I’ve worked very hard this week.”
He was .007 seconds ahead of Hamilton and .34 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, making him the third different pole-sitter in three races. Hamilton and Verstappen earned the others.
“It definitely puts a smile on my face. I’ve been strong all weekend and it makes me really happy to put it all together,” Bottas said. “Qualifying hasn’t been my strong point in the first two races.”
Hamilton is aiming for his 97th win on Sunday, while Bottas goes for his 17th victory, and Verstappen his 12th.