Kevin Harvick reflects on chasing victory as Hall of Fame career winds down
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kevin Harvick is having a season to remember.
It just hasn't included a victory.
Harvick announced prior to the 2023 season that this would be his last.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver has had a more-than-respectable year with six top-5s and 13 top-10s. He appeared to have added one more of those Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway as he crossed the finish line just 0.012 seconds after race-winner Ryan Blaney.
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Harvick's second-place finish, though, was changed to 38th after NASCAR found that not all his windshield fasteners were secure. Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli said the team would not appeal.
Still, Harvick seeks a trophy in his final season.
Before he found out about that violation, Harvick didn't seem overly frustrated about a near-miss at Talladega. It was his last race at a superspeedway, where the wrecks are some of the biggest and most violent on the circuit.
"We always want to win, but I'm never disappointed when they're rolling at the end of these races," Harvick said about just finishing the race.
Nine days before Talladega, at a celebration of his career at Texas Motor Speedway, he seemed philosophical about the possibility of not winning a race in his final season. Overall, the Fords and SHR have been a little bit behind this year. Harvick was the only SHR driver to make the playoffs.
Whether it was race strategy or another unfortunate circumstance, Harvick has had 12 races in which he has led laps but hasn't won. He also has had nine finishes outside the top 20.
"We've been in position to win, and we've run last [this year]," Harvick said. "We've had everything in between two. But that's not the first time."
Harvick, who will join the FOX Sports broadcast booth for Cup races starting in 2024, said going winless wouldn't taint his legacy. And why would it? He has 60 Cup victories and the 2014 Cup championship.
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Sports and racing can be cruel, and if Harvick doesn't win, he knows it can just be part of the cycle of the ups and downs of most careers.
"Obviously, we would rather win," Harvick said. "Winning is always more fun. I could have walked away from it a few years ago and been content with it.
"I race because of the fact that I like what I do. And I like the people that I'm around. So being around the people is really what I enjoy the most and I enjoy seeing them win and be happy."
There have probably been as many frustrating days as there were fun days this season. Harvick finished five laps down at Bristol a couple of weeks ago to get eliminated from the playoffs.
Typically after a performance such as that one, a driver might start thinking about what his team needs to do at that race the next time they go back. But Harvick doesn't have any of those thoughts. He moves on to the next race.
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Harvick indicated that most teams are a little more inconsistent with NASCAR's Next Gen car, which was introduced last season.
"With this particular car, every car in the field has been in somewhat of a position like that where they just have weekends where you miss it," Harvick said.
"We had this exact conversation at the beginning of last year — there's just going to be some weekends where you just totally miss it and look like a complete buffoon. And that's what we did [at Bristol]. Two weeks before that [at Darlington], we were the best car."
That view likely has allowed Harvick to move past any disappointment from Bristol.
"You have to be OK with knowing that there's going to be some days when you go out there and run five laps down," Harvick said. "You don't want to do that, but it's going to happen at some point and ours happened at the wrong time."
So what are Harvick's goals with five races left in the year? As he said, he obviously wants to win. There's really no building on anything for next season. The team will have a rookie in Josh Berry in the seat next season.
"There's way more to it than just winning and losing," Harvick said. "It's the most interesting thing I've ever been a part of because there's so much more to it. And it would take me hours to sit here and explain it to everybody.
"Everything that comes with the whole picture this year is much more complex than a win or a loss — in how you represent yourself and the things that you say, and the things that you do, and all that goes with it."
What comes with the whole picture this year is that every week, fans and track personnel thank Harvick for his 24-year Cup racing career. He is being celebrated everywhere he goes.
So in a way, he wins every weekend. He just isn't being celebrated in victory lane.
"It's interesting when you get to a point of having to answer that question, because it's just been such a weird year," Harvick said. "Win or lose you, you halfway get celebrated on a weekend. So it's a little bit strange.
"It's never been that way as I've gone through the rest of my career because if you didn't win and have the success that you had, it was the end of the world. That part of it is a totally different thought process. But it would be more fun to win."
Thinking Out Loud
NASCAR appears set to release its 2024 schedules this week and that will be a good thing.
Fans who go to races often plan vacations around the races — or going to the race is the vacation. They need to get those days off on their work calendars sooner rather than later.
And while it would be convenient for the industry to know earlier for travel purposes, the real challenge for the teams is matching sponsors to races.
Teams that have multiple sponsors often have a draft of sorts depending on how many races each sponsor has paid for. They need a schedule to determine which sponsors will do which race. Some sponsors like a certain market and some prefer a certain date, so they need to see how those correlate.
In The News
--Both Stewart-Haas Racing's Ryan Preece and Wood Brothers Racing's Harrison Burton will return to their rides next season. SHR confirmed Preece's return and Roger Penske said Sunday that Burton will be back (Wood Brothers is a Penske affiliate).
--NASCAR likely will release its 2024 schedule this week. In announcements last week, the NASCAR All-Star Race will return to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the second consecutive year, but the historic track will undergo a repave for the 2024 event. Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced that its Cup race weekend will return to the oval instead of the road course.
--Stewart Friesen and Greg Van Alst both were treated and released from the UAB Hospital after hard crashes in the truck race Saturday at Talladega. Van Alst said he has a fractured vertebra. Friesen's team has not yet commented on the extent of any injuries.
--Kyle Busch will run five truck races next season for Spire Motorsports, which has bought Kyle Busch Motorsports. Busch also will be a consultant for the team.
--Xfinity Series driver Sammy Smith will move from Joe Gibbs Racing to JR Motorsports for the 2024 season.
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Stat of the Day
The five playoff races have been won by playoff drivers. That's not uncommon. But this year, all five have been different drivers: Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, William Byron and Ryan Blaney.
They Said It
"That one might have been about four feet. The others were about two." —Ryan Blaney on his close victories at Talladega
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
