Harvick Finishes Solid Second at Kansas Speedway

Race Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)

Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

 

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-80):

Harvick started fourth, finished seventh and earned four bonus points.  

● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang, pitted on lap 26 for four tires, fuel and a round down on the track bar.

● The No. 4 car led 33 laps in stage one, but faded at the end of the 80-lap segment.

 

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 81-160):

Harvick started sixth, finished second and earned nine bonus points. 

● The No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang pitted on lap 83 for four tires, fuel and a right rear adjustment.  

● Harvick pitted on lap 125 for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.

● Under caution on lap 146, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.

 

Final Stage Recap (Laps 161-267):

Harvick started sixth and finished second. 

● The No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang pitted on lap 163 for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.

● On lap 202, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.

● Under caution on lap 222, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment.

● He came out second and battled with Joey Logano for the lead but could not get past him and finished second.

 

Notes:

●  Logano won the Hollywood Casino 400 to score his 26th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his third at Kansas. His margin of victory over second-place Harvick was .312 of a second.

●  This was Ford’s series-leading 18th NASCAR Cup Series win of the season and its 704th all-time Cup Series victory.

●  This was Ford’s ninth NASCAR Cup Series victory at Kansas. Ford won its first race on Oct. 5, 2005 with Mark Martin. Its previous win came in May 2019 with Brad Keselowski.

●  There were six caution periods for a total of 31 laps and twenty-three of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

●  Harvick remains the championship leader after Kansas with a 21-point advantage over second-place Hamlin.

●  Harvick earned his series-leading 20th top-five and 26th top-10 of the season, and his 10th top-five and 17th top-10 in 30 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas.

●  This was Harvick’s 57th career runner-up finish in the NASCAR Cup Series. He is now tied with NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip for eighth all-time in second-place finishes.

●  Harvick is one of only three drivers who have participated in all 30 NASCAR Cup Series races held at Kansas. The others are Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman.

●  This was Harvick’s second straight top-five and his third straight top-10 at Kansas. He finished fourth in the series’ previous visit to the track in July and ninth in October 2019.

●  Harvick has not finished outside the top-15 at Kansas since a lone 16th-place finish in October 2015.

●  Harvick finished seventh in Stage 1 to earn four bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.

●  Harvick led three times for a race-high 85 laps to increase his laps-led total at Kansas to 949.

●  Harvick has now led 11,111 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,537 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.

●  Harvick has led 1,503 laps in the 33 races held this season. He is one of only two drivers to lead more than 1,000 laps. The other driver is Hamlin with 1,041 laps led.

 

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We just needed to get off of pit road first. It came down to controlling that restart and we lost the lead there on the restart and wound up trying to battle and didn’t get the lead on the restart but just really, really fast Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang. All our guys did a great job and we had a fast car, we moved all over the race track and we weren’t the best behind somebody, but I had a lot of options as they made the car better towards the end of the race. It was a good run for us. I wish we could have one, but we were one short.”

 

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before the Championship 4):

1.      Joey Logano (4,064 points) 1 Win

2.      Kevin Harvick (4,115 points) +41 points

3.      Denny Hamlin (4,094 points) +20 points

4.      Brad Keselowski (4,082 points) +8 points

5.      Chase Elliott (4,074 points) -8 points

6.      Alex Bowman (4,055 points) -27 points

7.      Martin Truex Jr. (4,051 points) -31 points

8.      Kurt Busch (4,009 points) -73 points

 

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 on Sunday, Oct. 25 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. It is the eighth race of the 10-race playoffs and the second race in the Round of 8. It starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

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