NASCAR Winner Spotlight: Kevin Harvick surpasses 2014 win total

By Mark Kristl | Jul 24, 2018

LOUDON, NH - JULY 22: Kevin Harvick, NASCAR Cup Series driver of the #4 Stewart-Haas Racing Busch Beer Ford (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images) /

Kevin Harvick now has six NASCAR Cup Series victories in 2018. He has won more races this season than did in 2014 when he won the championship.

Kevin Harvick won the rain-delayed Foxwoods Resort Casino 301. His victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway gives him six wins this 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season. Add in his Xfinity Series win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and he has celebrated in victory lane seven times in the 2018 NASCAR season.

His most recent win lifts him into first place in the playoff standings, and he has earned 32 playoff points. Already a Cup Series champion, Harvick is well-positioned to advance to the Championship 4 at Homestead Speedway once again. In 2014, he advanced to the Championship 4 and won both the race and the championship.

In 2014, Harvick won the NASCAR Cup Series championship after recording only five victories. Only 20 races into the 2018 Cup Series season, he has already won six times. The 2014 Cup Series schedule featured 36 races, and two of his five wins came in the final two races. Needless to say, his 2018 Cup Series season has been his best so far in his NASCAR career.

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In Harvick’s championship season, he swept both Phoenix races. He also won at Darlington Raceway, which, at that time, was the eighth race of the season as opposed to a race late in the regular season on Labor Day weekend.

During the playoffs, Harvick won the second Phoenix race as well as the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. To win the championship, he held off Ryan Newman and won at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In 2018, Harvick also won at Phoenix, but his other five wins so far this year have come at different tracks than his wins in 2014 came at. The Cup Series has yet to race at Darlington and Homestead this year. Harvick did not win at Charlotte, and the fall race at Charlotte is being held at the roval, so no driver has won there yet.

Earlier this season, Harvick won three straight races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix. Seven races later, he won at Dover International Speedway, and then he won at Kansas Speedway the following week. With his win at New Hampshire, he already has more victories this season than he did in the 2014 season.

The 2014 Cup Series season was the first season during which Kevin Harvick drove #4 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. His crew chief was and still is Rodney Childers. Before the 2017 Cup Series season began, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that they would be switching manufacturers from Chevrolet to Ford. Harvick is obviously comfortable with the switch.

At the moment, Harvick and his teammate Clint Bowyer have both won races this season, with Bowyer winning twice. While teammates Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola are above the playoff cut line, neither one has a win yet this season. A win by either driver would lock them into the playoffs. Never in the history of Stewart-Haas Racing have the organization seen all four of their drivers clinch playoff berths.

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Kevin Harvick will look to add his win total in the next NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. He and the rest of the Cup Series drivers will compete in the Gander Outdoors 400. The race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 29, and you can watch it on NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. ET.

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