NASCAR: 3 drivers who are probably pretty safe
By Asher Fair
Drivers who should be pretty safe: No. 2 – Kevin Harvick
Kevin Harvick is an obvious one here, even if he doesn’t even come remotely close to his career-high win total of nine from 2020. In fact, it almost goes without saying that he won’t get anywhere close to that this year, given the overall lack of pace from the #4 team and from Stewart-Haas Racing as an organization.
Nevertheless, Harvick continues to get the most out of his car and keep himself out of trouble. It seems like whenever Harvick is having a “terrible” race, he somehow manages to end up inside the top 10 or even the top five by the time the laps start to wind down. Believe it or not, his seven top 10 finishes this season rank second in the series.
He never truly has a chance to win those kinds of races, but he sits back and collects points and does everything you can possibly do when you know you have no chance to compete for the lead.
And at some point, he is going to be able to compete for the lead, so the fact that he has managed to keep himself above water thus far is a great sign, even if his playoff picture rank of 11th place could be considered alarming.
We saw something very similar in 2019. It took him until the season’s 19th race for him to finish a race inside the top three, yet he was already in the top three in the point standings by that point. He went on to win four races and qualify for the Championship 4.
Harvick will be just fine.