Kevin Harvick’s winless streak hit 16 races Sunday in Sonoma, but oddsmakers at the Westgate SuperBook have not lengthened his 6/1 title odds since February. Harvick says he is close to a win, and the stats show he is still one of those top-4 drivers in the Cup Series entering Sunday’s Camping World 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Harvick salvaged a sixth-place finish at Sonoma after two poor practices and qualifying, events he generally excels in. This year, Harvick leads all drivers with an 8.8 starting place. Despite the winless mark, he’s third in the points, also contains the fourth-best driver evaluation (101.5) thus far.
“We didn’t have a great car this weekend,” Harvick told reporters on Sunday. “We aborted everything that we were doing and place the 14 (Clint Bowyer) things in and we still weren’t very good. We wound grinding up the right front tire off at the end and was just hanging on for dear life. That’s a performance. That’s what we have done annually. We will need to determine the way to become nearer at the start of the weekend. We will. We have been scrapping pretty difficult for 16 weeks.”
Harvick told colleagues that he had been”past all the frustration” earlier this month as he moves through his longest winless streak to begin a year since 2012. Harvick doesn’t need a win to make the 16-driver playoff, but the extra playoff points that include a victory will be useful as the playoff area shrinks later in year.
Harvick has made the Championship 4 race in Homestead in four of those five seasons, winning the title in 2015. Harvick nevertheless has 10 regular season races to figure out the new rules package, and one he does, look out. Harvick’s best tracks reside in the playoffs: Las Vegas, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead’s 1.5-mile championship circuit. Harvick has been at his best at 1.5-mile tracks, leading all drivers with a 118.4 driver evaluation at those places since 2017.
Chicago has also been kind to Harvick since Stewart-Haas’ move to Ford with back-to-back third-place finishes. According to Harvick’s history, it’s merely a matter of time until his first win of this season comes, and once the momentum is on his side he’ll probably join Kyle Busch (5/2) atop the oddsboard like when the preseason odds were released.
Kevin Harvick’s upgraded loop data Average Running Position: 10.5; 4th
Fastest Drivers Historical in Run: 5.4; 2nd
Fastest Drivers Late in Run: 6.5; 2nd
Fastest Laps Run: 10.2 percent; 2nd
Fastest on Restarts: 8.2 avg. Status; 2nd
Green Flag Rate: 5.1 avg. Status; 1st
Laps at 15: 77.5%; 4th
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