Kevin Harvick snaps 65-race winless streak
BROOKLYN, Mich. – For Kevin Harvick, a trip to Michigan was just what the doctor ordered.
Harvick won the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, his sixth career victory at Michigan International Speedway (2010, 2018, 2019 and a sweep of two races in 2020).
The win, his first since September 2020, snapped his 65-start winless streak and most likely punched his ticket into the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
He’d led just 13 laps the entire season (11 at Atlanta, one at California and one at Darlington) but took the lead on the race’s final restart in lap 163 on Sunday and did not relinquish it.
“Good timing for sure,” Harvick said of his win to USA Network. “Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us. They know we thrive in these types of situations.
“A lot of things went our way today, which we haven’t had happen a lot this year . ... Once I got clear track today that baby was hunting.”
Bubba Wallace, who won a Cup pole for the first time in his career, took second, finishing in the top 10 for his career-best fourth straight race. Denny Hamlin, who won Stage 2, took third, followed by Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Despite continuing a solid stretch, Wallace was emotional after the race. He lamented what he saw as a missed opportunity on the final restart that let Harvick get out to a big lead and saw him battle Logano for the better part of the next 20 laps.
During that time, Harvick stretched his lead out to nearly five seconds; by the time Wallace passed Logano with 17 laps left, it was too late to catch the leader.
“I’m replaying everything I could’ve done differently,” Wallace said, fighting back tears. “All in all an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team.
“Wish we could’ve got Toyota in victory lane; wish we could’ve got McDonald’s in victory lane. She was fast all week, man. I’ll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.”
Sunday was the eighth consecutive victory for Ford at MIS (43rd all time), with Ford taking three of the top five spots as the company walked away with another Heritage Trophy.
Toyota (Wallace, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.) took the other three spots in the top six with Chevrolet (Kyle Larson, Erik Jones and Alex Bowman) finishing seventh through ninth.
The action got started early with the race’s first shake-up. Just moments after the first restart, on lap 22, the masses came around Turn 2 and what appeared to be an attempted pass led to a crash.
“I don’t know what started it, but the No. 10 got spun in front of me and I got wedged between him and the wall,” said Kyle Busch, whose day was done after lap 24 and his career-worst stretch of missing the top 10 extended to eight consecutive races.
“(My frustration) on a scale of 1-10? Infinity.”
Christopher Bell won the first stage and led at three separate points for a total of 31 laps before a late crash that caused him to finish 26th.