LONG POND, Pa. — As the NASCAR Cup Series season rages on, more tracks on the schedule are being checked off Kevin Harvick’s list of final appearances.
Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway will be the 2014 Cup Series champion’s 44th and final run at the 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped track. His lone win at the facility came in 2020. As Harvick reflected on his countless runs in Pennsylvania, the Tricky Triangle is in a league of its own.
“Pocono is just a unique race track. For me, it’s been one of my favorite places to come to as I’ve been at SHR and even at RCR,” Harvick said. “We’ve had some good times and good runs here, and so it’s always one of my favorite parts of the year and times of the year to come up, especially when it’s 75-76 degrees and the rest of everything we’ve been doing is burning hot, especially since we’ve gone to one race and seen the infield and the campers and the crowd.
“It’s always been a great area for fans, for us and it’s like all the rest of the race tracks that we go to. It’s something I’ve been prepared for and, for me, I’m enjoying the last times going to the race track and hearing all the stories and the fans and everything that comes with it.”
Harvick’s season has been quietly solid since the drop of the green flag at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway in February. Currently 12th on the playoff grid with a hefty 137-point advantage above the cutline, Harvick’s been a bright spot for a struggling Stewart-Haas Racing team.
With eight top-10s and five top-fives, Harvick continues to surge towards the playoffs.
However, a victory at Pocono would elevate the No. 4 team in more ways than one.
“Mentally, a win is always better, and I think for us we’ve been close a few times with just things not going right on the days that the cars have been the fastest,” Harvick said. “We just keep plugging along and keeping our head down and grinding away like we always do and hopefully you hope that cycle of fortunes turns on the day when your car is fast and if it’s not on a day when your car is fast, you hope that you’re in the right spot at the right time. But, yeah, winning would be better.”
‘Happy’ Harvick rolls off the grid fourth Sunday, with a car that’s to his liking after limited time on track on Saturday.
Harvick concluded, “I think we ran eight, nine or 10 laps straight there and felt comfortable with the car and then quit a little bit early to get it cooled off, so we’ll just go race tomorrow (today) and see what happens.”