Harvick making last trip through NASCAR
Billy the Kid. Wyatt Earp. John Wayne. Every generation has its Western icon. For all intents and purposes, Kevin Harvick has cemented himself among the greats, checking off all of the above during his reign as the “King of Phoenix.”
As NASCAR celebrates its 75th anniversary, we'd be remiss not to acknowledge the greatest driver to ever compete at Phoenix Raceway, while synonymously honoring the impact he's had in Arizona as he prepares to call it a career and ride off into the sunset at the conclusion of 2023.
There was a point in time where you'd head out to the track in Avondale or tune in at home, and it wasn't just an assumption, but a fact, that Harvick was going to dominate and win at Phoenix. Plain and simple.
From November 2013 to March 2015, “Happy” ruthlessly won four consecutive races in the desert. Although rain is often a saving grace in the desert, it forced Harvick to settle for a runner-up outing, breaking his torrential streak. The following event, he ended up back in victory lane, giving him five wins in six races over nearly a three-year span.
Harvick owns just about every alltime record at Phoenix with nine wins, 29 top-10s (72.5% rate), 1,663 laps led and an 8.7 average finish. While these stats would be legendary by themselves, what makes them even more absurd is he was able to sustain this dominance through 40 starts, which is essentially unheard of.
“We've probably dominated Phoenix because we spent so much time there learning and tearing stuff up and doing the things you're not supposed to do at the racetrack,” Harvick said. “It's a racetrack that we put a lot of emphasis on throughout the years because of the fact that we felt like some of our best race tracks were the flat tracks and Phoenix was one of those.
“And for me, it was always kind of a sense of pride to go there and run well because I know I have a lot of fans and friends and people that come to that racetrack. It's always fun to tell war stories
about Phoenix and the things that you did wrong after you've won a race in modern times.”
While Harvick will be immortalized by his nine current NASCAR Cup Series victories at Phoenix — most notably his sixth win, which propelled him into the Championship 4 and the 2014 title — he argues his most memorable moment came in 2002. That's when he won his first race at the one-mile track in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driving
for his team, Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
Although he hasn't won a Cup race in Arizona since 2018, Harvick has stood the test of time at Phoenix through team changes, repaves, reconfigurations, news crew chiefs — you name it.
In total, Harvick has 14 national series wins in the Valley of the Sun and he'll look to add to his tyrannical stats in the United Rentals 500 on Sunday, where he's seeking an unprecedented
20-straight top-10s at Phoenix going back to 2013.
“It feels somewhat arrogant and cocky to look at your own stats, especially when they're good,” Harvick said. “I'm never going to tell you that I'm impressed with any of my stats, because I feel like they could be better. I never sit down long enough to let myself get engulfed in comparing stats to other people, because it makes me feel weird.”