While Kevin Harvick has had a solid season so far, Stewart-Haas has seemingly lagged behind their star driver. That all changed on April 16th 2023 at Martinsville. Harvick won his first stage since 2020, while SHR led a combined 264 laps. In this article, I compare Harvick’s situation to that of Kyle Larson earlier in the season. Kevin Harvick is ready to win and has been ready all season. Now that SHR has shown improvement as a whole, that first win may come sooner rather than later.
Momentum is building. pic.twitter.com/RrMamn6bJD
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) April 18, 2023
Harvick’s Season So Far:
Kevin Harvick currently sits third in the regular season points standings. During the first nine races, Harvick had eight top 20 finishes. Seven of those were top 15 finishes. Five of those were top 10 finishes, three of which were in the top 5. His one finish outside the top 20 was 33rd at Atlanta after the #4 car got loose after taking the lead and he spun in front of the entire field. Even in his worst race, Kevin Harvick was contending for a win.
Harvick’s least impressive race was quite possibly the Bristol Dirt Race. He was outside the top 10 for most of that race, yet he still managed to close with a top 10 finish. In that sense, his least impressive race was still impressive. This is especially true given how Harvick feels about racing on dirt at Bristol.
When you realize it’s your last Bristol Dirt race #4EVER pic.twitter.com/ELv9bpKIEz
— Stewart-Haas Racing (@StewartHaasRcng) April 8, 2023
Stewart-Haas Racing at Martinsville:
While NASCAR fans have seen Kevin Harvick run up front and contend for wins throughout this season so far, his teammates at SHR have not had the same success. While they ran rather well at Daytona, they ended up getting tied up in accidents. In general, Ford has looked strong at the super speedways. At all other tracks it certainly looked like Harvick was carrying most of the weight at SHR. This changed at Martinsville.
At Martinsville, Stewart-Haas Racing looked like their former selves. All four drivers performed well, despite the fact that the final running order didn’t necessarily reflect that. All four cars qualified in the top 10, and as a team they led over half the laps. Preece qualified on the pole and won the first stage. In the second stage, Harvick won his first stage since 2020 and certainly looked like a threat to win. While Preece and Harvick ended up outside of the top ten due to pit stop related issues, Briscoe and Almirola finished 5th and 6th.
While it could be said that SHR’s recent improved performance could be deceptive and limited to short tracks, I don’t see that as being the case. First, it does seem that Stewart-Haas seems to favor this short track package. Yet, this rules package isn’t limited to short tracks. It was first utilized at Phoenix, which Harvick would have most likely won if not for a late race caution. Furthermore, the rest of SHR did not perform on Harvick’s level at that race. After Martinsville, it is clear that the whole team has improved with the short track package.
Comparing Harvick and Larson:
Earlier in the season, Kyle Larson experienced a run of bad luck. Las Vegas and Phoenix come to mind. Larson was really strong over those two races, yet failed to win either of them. A late race caution at Las Vegas kept Larson out of victory lane. At Phoenix, it certainly looked like it was going to come down to a battle between Harvick and Larson. Larson would leave the field behind at the beginning of a run, and Harvick would catch him on the long runs. Larson led the most laps at Phoenix, but ended up 4th. Larson’s teammate, William Byron ended up winning both races.
Larson has since pulled off two wins, one at Richmond and most recently at Martinsville. Harvick looked rather strong at Phoenix, though he experienced the same bad luck with late race cautions that Larson had experienced the week before at Las Vegas. Larson currently sits 4th in the regular season points standings, one position behind Harvick.
Larson’s recent victories are more evidence of the idea that if you run up front consistently, you will eventually get your wins. Bad luck can only keep a consistently strong driver out of victory lane for so long. Given both drivers current positions in the regular season points, it is clear that they are consistently performing well. It is only a matter of time before we see Kevin Harvick, Rodney Childers, and the #4 team in victory lane this season.
Conclusions:
Stewart-Haas performing better as a team can only improve Harvick’s chances at getting into victory lane. Harvick’s back-to-back victories at Michigan and Richmond in 2022 reminded me of why he is often called “the Closer.” This goes back to his years at RCR and first years at SHR. Harvick had experienced some bad luck prior to those victories, despite running under the radar and up front.
While those victories in 2022 are still wins, they weren’t quite reminiscent of Harvick’s more dominating style of performance in 2019 and 2020. Stewart-Haas as a whole organization was much stronger then. SHR’s performance at Martinsville was reminiscent of the SHR from those two seasons. Harvick has been consistently strong all season, now his Stewart-Haas as a whole organization is showing strength.
While I doubt that the next gen car will allow us to see a driver pull off more than 5 wins in a season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Harvick in victory lane more than last year. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of one of the SHR drivers in victory lane this weekend at Talladega. Ford has been strong on the super speedways. Regardless, I expect that we will see SHR continue to improve and take their proper place among the top tier teams once again.
