NASCAR Cup Series: Have the floodgates opened for Kevin Harvick?

Following his first victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, have the floodgates opened for Kevin Harvick?

For the first time since last November, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick found himself in victory lane at the end of a NASCAR Cup Series race, and for the first time since last August, he found himself in victory lane at the end of a Cup Series race with a victory that would not end up being encumbered.

Harvick won Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, giving him two consecutive victories at the track. Last year, however, when he won this race, it was his sixth victory and his 10th top three finish of the season through the season’s first 20 races.

Meanwhile, he entered this year’s running of the 301-lap race around the four-turn, 1.058-mile (1.703-kilometer) New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval in Loudon, New Hampshire without a single top three finish in the season’s first 19 races.

Up until this past Sunday, week after week after week he had been dealt blow after blow after blow. He has simply been unable to catch the breaks he has needed to catch to break through and secure his first victory of the season.

Now, following an intense late battle with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, he has finally done that.

With the monkey off his back, have the floodgates opened up for the 43-year-old Bakersfield, California native?

Harvick has gone this far in a season without winning before on a number of occasions. It took him until the 21st race of the 2003 season to win a race that year, and he didn’t win any races in the 2004, 2008 and 2009 seasons. He also didn’t win a race in the 2012 season until the season’s penultimate race.

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Additionally, he advanced to the Championship 4 two years ago after winning just one of the season’s first 33 races. He then won the second round of 8 race at Texas Motor Speedway to secure his spot in the championship round.

However, Harvick had never previously entered the 10th race of any season without having recorded at least one top three finish, and his top finishes of the 2019 season entering the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 were his fourth place finishes in the races at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Dover International Speedway.

By that logic alone, this victory may be deemed a fluke. But that could not be more inaccurate.

This is by no means a case of a veteran driver slowing down and just happening to win a race after struggling for an extended period of time. Harvick’s victory was also Stewart-Haas Racing’s first victory of a season following a season during which they led all teams with 12 victories. It’s not like the struggles within the team have been limited to Harvick.

Additionally, despite his lack of a true top result, much less a victory, heading into Sunday’s race, the championship standings don’t lie. Harvick has sat in third place in the standings for a lot of the season — in fact, after every race in over the last several weeks — and he has scored more than 100 points more than the next highest Stewart-Haas Racing driver, Aric Almirola in ninth.

He has consistently been one of the fastest drivers in the field despite the fact that he had not actually piece together a great result until this past Sunday. He sits in second place in stage points and tied for second in stage wins, and he is the only driver who sits in the top two in both categories.

Now that he has finally won a race to officially lock himself into the playoffs, he is looking for more, and after finishing last season tied for the season-high win total of eight, he proved that he clearly still has what it takes to get the job done.

Even if he doesn’t start winning races left and right like he did last season, he should still get back to victory lane on at least a few more occasions this season, and he should be considered one of the favorites to compete in the Championship 4 for what would be the third consecutive season and the fifth season in the last six years.

Have the floodgates opened up for Kevin Harvick following his first victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season? With what he has shown so far this season even before he finally broke through with this win, there is no reason to doubt it.