Kevin Harvick on costly Atlanta mistake: 'I didn't follow what I preach'
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Kevin Harvick won the first two stages of Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but a huge late-race mistake ensured that he wouldn't win the final one.
Leading an astonishing 293 of 312 laps after starting on the pole, Harvick maintained his lead after the final round of pit stops with 16 laps to go.
But a costly penalty for being too fast entering pit road forced him to relinquish the lead and fall to the tail end of the field.
After battling back to finish ninth, Harvick kicked himself for the mistake.
"I just hate donking them myself, and making the kind of mistake I preach about all the time that we don't need to make; to beat yourself," Harvick said. "And to do it yourself, I didn't follow what I preach. That part is hard for me to swallow."
Although victory slipped away from the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team, Harvick was still able to look at the positives as he assumed the points lead, now four points ahead of teammate Kurt Busch.
"The good thing is that the car was really fast and we didn't know what we had when we got here," Harvick said. "We had a great weekend, the whole time. One way or the other, I've figured out every way to lose races here after being so dominant."
