NASCAR: Five things we learned from the TicketGuardian 500 at Phoenix
By Dustin Smith
It’s the Kevin Harvick Show
By and large, the 2018 season has been the Kevin Harvick show so far. The winner of three races after four attempts will look to stretch his win total to four in a row this Sunday at Auto Club Speedway. Sure, one of his race wins was taken away because of post-race inspection failure. However, many know what the issue was and know even without the window brace breaking, Harvick still would have won.
Like many other sports, NASCAR is all about momentum. The teams who have it tend to roll over the competition. Right now, Kevin Harvick and the #4 team have all of the momentum. The question is, did they peak too early, or will they continue to dominate throughout 2018 and win another championship?
It’s not just Harvick who is hot right now
As a former driver and now co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, Tony Stewart has to be on cloud nine. One of his drivers has won three out of four races to start the year. Of course, you also can’t forget about Daytona and Aric Almirola. Almirola was in the lead on the last lap of the race and was spun by eventual Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon. Stewart-Haas Racing are a force to be reckoned with, and they are poised to send all four of their drivers to the playoffs.
There is no doubt that it’s too early to tell who the playoff drivers will be, with the exception, of course, being our two race winners so far this season. However, for Stewart-Haas Racing, the playoff picture is looking pretty sweet after the second weekend in March. Having all four drivers finish in the top 10 is quite an accomplishment and something I predict we will see quite often this year.