Harvick Finishes Solid Fifth at Texas

Race Winner: Austin Dillion of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 2 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-105):

Harvick started fifth and finished third and earned eight bonus points.

● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, led for much of the first stage before pitting on lap 64 for four tires and fuel. 

● Said car was not handling well in turns one and two.  

 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 106-210):

Harvick started 15th and finished fifth and earned six bonus points.

● On lap 108, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.

● Harvick brought the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang to pit road for four tires, fuel and a chassis and tire pressure adjustment.

 

Final Stage Recap (Laps 211-334):

Harvick started sixth and finished fifth.

● Harvick pitted on lap 214 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment.

● During a large accident on lap 219, Harvick got through with minimal damage. He pitted on lap 221 for four tires and fuel and the team made sure everything was fine.

● On lap 246, Harvick was in fifth and pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.

● Harvick pitted on lap 308 for four tires and fuel. 

● He couldn’t quite get to the front, but finished a respectable fifth.

 

Notes:

● Austin Dillon won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 to score his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Texas. His margin of victory over second-place Tyler Reddick was .149 of a second.

● There were 10 caution periods for a total of 45 laps.

● Only 18 of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

● Harvick remains the championship leader after Texas with a 91-point advantage over second-place Ryan Blaney.

● Texas marked Harvick’s 700th career NASCAR Cup Series start. His first Cup Series start came on Feb. 26, 2001 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. He finished 14th.

● Upon completing lap 222 of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, Harvick earned another milestone – 200,000 laps completed in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Harvick is the leader among active drivers in this category and is closing in on Dale Earnhardt for 15th on the all-time list. Earnhardt completed 202,888 laps in his career (1975-2001).

● Harvick earned his series-leading 11th top-five and 15th top-10 of the season and his 12th top-five and 23rd top-10 in 35 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Texas.

● Harvick’s 23 top-10s at Texas are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.

● This was Harvick’s second straight top-five at Texas and his 12th straight top-10 at the 1.5-mile oval. He won in the series’ previous visit to the track last November.

● This was Harvick’s fifth straight top-five and his sixth consecutive top-10. He finished 10th June 22 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, won June 27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, finished second June 28 in the series’ return to Pocono, won the Brickyard 400 July 5 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and finished fourth last Sunday at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.

● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only finished outside the top-10 once at Texas. In fact, Harvick has now finished in the top-10 at Texas 12 straight times, a streak punctuated by three victories (November 2017, November 2018 and November 2019).

● Harvick has finished among the top-10 in 15 of the 18 races held this year. He has only one finish outside the top-15.

● Harvick finished third in Stage 1 to earn eight bonus points and fifth in Stage 2 to earn six more bonus points.

● Harvick led three times for 40 laps to increase his laps-led total at Texas to 654.

● Harvick has now led 10,299 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 14,725 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.

 

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“The cars were just so bad in traffic, ours was anyway — our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. The guys did a good job of putting us in a position and doing all the things we needed to try because we got in a wreck there and had to fix the car and put tires on it and the tires just didn’t mean anything. There were a couple of slower cars out there and no one could pass them. Just really proud of our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang guys for the day and all the fight that had in them. We got a top-five out of it. You always want to win here, but it is what it is.”

 

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Super Start Batteries 400 on Thursday, July 23 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

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