NASCAR Q&A: Tick, tick, tick . . . Kevin Harvick needs and win, and soon!
After Tyler Reddick’s win, did I hear the clamps tightening on a few teams?
Kevin Harvick might be scouring the by-laws looking for a playoff loophole, but he’s not alone. Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell should also be looking for Plan B.
They’re four guys without a win, and since we have 13 winners now, only three non-winners are currently ranked high enough in the standings to make the playoffs on points. Harvick is the odd man out.
That’s as it stands now, and since it’s not hard to imagine another new 2022 winner (or two) over the next several weeks, the clamps could get tighter.
We don’t know who it will be, but when you look at the current outsiders and do the math, it’s obvious that a few teams are destined to fall short of their baseline goal for this year: Make the playoffs.
What’s that? More Hall of Famers?
There are a few racing halls of fame that get attention here and there — the NASCAR Hall is obviously the most visible — but for its diversity of inductees, you gotta hand it to the Hall overseen by the National Motorsports Press Association.
The NMPA announced its 2023 inductees recently and the foursome includes a Top Fuel legend (Shirley Muldowney), a sports-car champ (Scott Pruett), the “Richard Petty of ARCA” (10-time champ Frank Kimmel), and a journalist/broadcaster (Dick Berggren).
Actually, Dr. Dick was also an accomplished short-track racer himself before handing over the keys in the early 1980s.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR Q&A: Tick, tick, tick . . . playoff pressure builds for Harvick
