NASCAR: Retiring Harvick to make final start at Pocono
Jul. 20—Kevin Harvick first raced at Pocono Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series in June 2001, four months after taking over for Dale Earnhardt following Earnhardt's death in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500.
Since then, the 2.5-mile triangular track in Long Pond has contributed to a successful and sure-to-be Hall of Fame career for the 47-year-old driver from Bakersfield, California.
Now, that career is coming to an end. In January, Harvick announced that 2023 would be his 23rd and final season. That means this weekend's HighPoint.com 400 will mark his final start at Pocono.
Harvick's name is all over the track record book. Sunday will be his 44th start at Pocono, which will tie him for ninth with Ken Schrader, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip. His 15 top-five finishes rank third; Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin are tied for first with 20. He is tied with Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and Ricky Rudd for fourth place with 22 top-10 finishes.
There was a light-hearted incident at Pocono, too. In June 2010, Harvick spun out Joey Logano in the closing laps. After the race, a furious Logano went after Harvick on pit road, only to be held back by members of Harvick's crew. Moments later during a television interview, Logano said, "It's probably not his (Harvick's) fault, you know. His wife (DeLana) wears the firesuit in the family, tells him what to do."
At the next race, DeLana Harvick showed up wearing a T-shirt that read, "I wear the firesuit in this family!" The shirts sold like crazy on Harvick's website with the proceeds benefiting the Kevin Harvick Foundation.
During a recent interview on social media recalling the incident, Kevin Harvick said, "He's (Logano) now learned that his wife wears the firesuit, too. We made thousands of those T-shirts, so it was great for our foundation. Thanks Joey!"
Mostly, though, Harvick's big moments at Pocono occurred on the track.
His first 26 starts at Pocono came for Richard Childress Racing in the No. 29 Chevrolet. He had moderate success with five top-five and nine top-10 finishes, but never placing better than fourth, which he did three times.
In 2014, Harvick moved to Stewart-Haas Racing and it has been with that organization where he has shined at Pocono. In 17 races in the No. 4 car, he has only finished outside the top 10 four times with 10 top-five finishes.
For the longest time, though, Harvick couldn't win at Pocono. He placed second four times and began to draw comparisons to Martin, the ultimate Pocono bridesmaid who had no wins and seven runner-up finishes.
Finally, in June 2020, Harvick broke through. He cycled into the lead with 17 laps to go following a green-flag pit stop sequence and held off Denny Hamlin to take the checkered flag by 0.761 seconds.
"It was not always our best track at RCR," Harvick said. "We got it figured out at the end, but we've always run really well there since I've been at Stewart-Haas Racing. So to have the opportunity to go up there and be in Victory Lane was pretty neat. And that was always one of the main focuses of (crew chief) Rodney (Childers) — all the racetracks where I haven't won at, he wanted to win at."
That race was unique in that it was the opener of a historic doubleheader that saw NASCAR run two Cup Series races at the same track in the same weekend for the first time in its modern era (since 1972). In the second race of the twinbill the next day, Harvick took second behind Hamlin for his fifth career runner-up finish at Pocono.
It also was unique in that it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant there were no fans in attendance to witness Harvick's victory.
When it comes to Pocono, Harvick said the biggest challenge is getting your car to handle in all three corners. He said you need to carry as much speed as possible through turn 3 because of the long front straightaway that follows. He also said turn 2, a.k.a. The Tunnel Turn, is difficult.
"It's not an extremely hard corner, but it's an extremely hard corner to carry speed through there without having the front end push or the back slide out," Harvick said. "It's an easy corner to make a mistake. You can give up a lot of time there, but you can also make a lot of time.
"It's just a different style of racetrack than what we go to on a week-to-week basis."
Overall in his Cup career, Harvick has won 60 races, which ranks 10th in series history. One of his victories came in the 2007 Daytona 500. He won the series championship in 2014, as well as the NASCAR Busch (now Xfinity) Series titles in 2001 and 2006.
He also has 47 wins in Xfinity and 14 in the Truck Series, including one at Pocono in 2011. Those 121 combined wins over NASCAR's three national series rank third behind Kyle Busch (228) and Richard Petty (200).
This season, Harvick has yet to win a race; his best finish was second at Darlington in May, one of five top-five and eight top-10 finishes through 20 races. But he is firmly entrenched in a playoff spot, 137 points above the 16th place cutoff spot.
That has allowed him to enjoy his farewell tour.
"We've been competitive every week and had a chance to win a couple of races and run at the front and lead laps and do the things that I've wanted to do, and that was to be competitive for my team," Harvick said. "I think that's the most important part, going out on your own terms the last year and try to do what we've done the last 22 years on the Cup side and that's be competitive. I think that's the most respectful thing to the fans and the people and the sport, to not just go out there and cash it in, but to go out there and to try to win."
NASCAR AT POCONO SCHEDULE
Friday
11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. — ARCA Series practice
12:30-12:50 p.m. — ARCA Series practice
1:35-2:05 p.m. — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice
2:05-3 p.m. — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series qualifying
3:35-4:05 p.m. — NASCAR Xfinity Series practice
4:05-5 p.m. — NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying
6 p.m. — ARCA Series Sunset Hill Shooting Range 150
Saturday
Noon — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series CRC Brakleen 150
2:35-3:20 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series practice
3:20-4:30 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
5:30 p.m. — NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Mountains 225
Sunday
2:30 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400
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