Harvick revs up for playoff with victory
INDIANAPOLIS – Kevin Harvick understands and appreciates Indianapolis Motor Speedway, perhaps as well as anyone in NASCAR. The history. The challenge.
This place has been on his mind since his childhood in Bakersfield, California, when he watched hometown hero Rick Mears race in the Indianapolis 500 and ultimately win it four times, and throughout his own 19-year career.
“I didn’t win the Indy 500, but I came about as close to it as you probably can,” Harvick said Sunday after dominating the Big Machine Vodka 400 for the second time, ending a 16-year wait.
“It’s something that you don’t really realize when you’re a young kid that is most likely not going to happen. But I’m lucky, and I’ve been able to live that out and win a couple races here, and it’s been fun.”
While Indy has been all about winning since 1911 – since ’94 in NASCAR – the story of Sunday’s Brickyard also involved playoff intrigue and plenty of stops and starts.
When the 10-race Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin next weekend in Las Vegas, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson will not be among the contenders. A four-time Brickyard winner, Johnson virtually needed a fifth win to advance, but a crash ended his afternoon and his unrivaled 15-year playoff streak.
Clint Bowyer, who came into the race above the cutoff line, ended up fifth to hold his position, and Ryan Newman finished eighth to leapfrog Daniel Suarez for the second of two spots available. Suarez smacked the wall to bring out the first caution flag but rallied to finish 11th.
The 26th Brickyard had plenty of wrecks. The race included nine caution flags for 48 laps, plus a 12-minute red.
Perhaps all of the interruptions helped Harvick’s rout look a bit less one-sided.
The pole-sitter led 118 of the 160 laps, pulled away on a restart with nine to go and finished more than six seconds ahead of Joey Logano. Bubba Wallace followed, giving Ford a sweep of the top three positions.
Harvick waited – not always so patiently – for a day like Sunday at Indy.
He was one of just three drivers in the field who also took part in 2003, his previous victory, along with Johnson and
Kurt Busch. That win was his fourth in NASCAR’s top division; Sunday’s was his 48th, moving him into a tie for 15th on the all-time list.
In the meantime, Harvick knocked out nine top-10 finishes in the Brickyard, won the 2014 series championship and become father to 7-year-old son Keelan and 1-year-old daughter Piper.
Keelan, who asked every year if he could kiss the bricks, finally got his chance. (They don’t taste very good, he decided, but the experience is sweet.)
“Being able to share these moments with them is way better than the race win itself because … it’s not something that most people get to do,” Harvick said. “I get to take them to work, and we’ve been fortunate to be successful at it, so it’s definitely one of those situations that you kind of have to look at and smile because they actually pay me to do it.”
Kyle Busch had wrapped up the regular-season title a week ago, so a blown engine Sunday wasn’t a serious setback in his quest for a second title.
He’ll take a lead of 15 points over Denny Hamlin and 16 over Martin Truex Jr., both teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing, into the playoffs.
Harvick enters the playoffs fourth in the standings, 17 behind Busch and with momentum on his side. All three of his victories have come in the past seven races, during which he has finished worse than seventh just once.
“Winning this close to the playoffs – on really different styles of racetracks – is definitely a good thing,” Harvick said. “It’s good timing.”
And this one came at a particularly good place.