NASCAR Cup Series: Will Kevin Harvick return to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2020?

Kevin Harvick has driven for Stewart-Haas Racing since the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season, and he is set to do so again in the 2019 season. Will he return to the team in the 2020 season?

Kevin Harvick replaced Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing ahead of the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series season after spending the first 13 seasons of his career driving for Richard Childress Racing, the team for which Newman began to drive in the 2014 season.

The #39 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that Newman drove was changed to the #4 Chevrolet, and Harvick has driven it ever since, although the #4 Chevrolet is now the #4 Ford and has been the #4 Ford since the start of the 2017 season.

With Daniel Suarez having been confirmed as Kurt Busch’s replacement behind the wheel of the #41 Ford for the 2019 season, Harvick’s three teammates are set to be Suarez, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer this upcoming season.

The addition of Suarez means that in each of the last three seasons, Stewart-Haas Racing have retained three of their drivers from the previous season while signing one new driver.

Here is how their driver lineups have looked since the 2016 season.

NOTE: New drivers for each season are listed in BOLD

2016

#4 Chevrolet – Kevin Harvick
#10 Chevrolet – Danica Patrick
#14 Chevrolet – Tony Stewart
#41 Chevrolet – Kurt Busch

2017

#4 Ford – Kevin Harvick
#10 Ford – Danica Patrick
#14 Ford – Clint Bowyer
#41 Ford – Kurt Busch

2018

#4 Ford – Kevin Harvick
#10 Ford – Aric Almirola
#14 Ford – Clint Bowyer
#41 Ford – Kurt Busch

2019

#4 Ford – Kevin Harvick
#10 Ford – Aric Almirola
#14 Ford – Clint Bowyer
#41 Ford – Daniel Suarez

So far, the only one of the four drivers who drove for Stewart-Haas Racing in the 2016 season who has not lost his ride is Kevin Harvick. Harvick is now 43 years old and has been the team’s oldest driver since Clint Bowyer replaced Tony Stewart ahead of the 2017 season, and the 2019 season is the final season on his contract.

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Will Stewart-Haas Racing’s recent trend of making one driver change ahead of each season continue with Harvick being replaced behind the wheel of the #4 Ford ahead of the 2020 season?

More than likely, the answer to this question is no.

Harvick entered the 2018 season with a career-high single-season win total of five, which he recorded in both the 2006 season and his championship-winning 2014 season. He proceeded to tie that total in the first 12 races of the 36-race 2018 season, and he went on to shatter it by recording eight victories throughout the season. He also tied his career-high single-season top five finish total of 23 (2015 season), and he recorded a new career-high single-season top 10 finish total of 29 (previously 28 in the 2016 season).

The phrase has been said many times before: Age is just a number. This could not be more true in Harvick’s case.

If Harvick continues to perform at a high level, which seems inevitable given the fact that he hasn’t finished lower than eighth place in the championship standings since the 2009 season as well as the fact that he has finished in the top three in the standings in seven of the last nine seasons, Stewart-Haas Racing have no reason not to re-sign him for the 2020 season and perhaps beyond.

Plus, while Stewart-Haas Racing have made one driver change ahead of each of the last three seasons, they haven’t changed to the point where they have gone out of their way to hire younger drivers. Bowyer is 38 years old while Almirola is 34 years old. Suarez is 27 years old, which is fairly young but still several years older than the age at which a lot of other teams have been signing new drivers.

As a result, it isn’t like Stewart-Haas Racing would rush Cole Custer, the 20-year-old Ladera Ranch, California native who competes for the team in the Xfinity Series, to the Cup Series, and it certainly isn’t like they would make room for him by cutting ties with Harvick just for the sake of changing their driver lineup for what would be the fourth consecutive season.

Maybe Stewart-Haas Racing’s driver lineup will change again after the 2019 season depending on how their drivers perform this year. It is possible. But the odds of this change involving Harvick, who is set to be 44 years old by the time the 2020 season begins, are extremely slim.

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Will Kevin Harvick return to Stewart-Haas Racing in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, or will the team’s recent trend of replacing one of their four drivers in the previous season continue with the 43-year-old Bakersfield, California native being replaced before that time? If he is replaced, who will be his replacement?

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