LOUDON, N.H. — Kevin Harvick has one final chance to set the record for most career wins by a Cup driver at New Hampshire. Take the checkered flag, and Harvick would take home the roughly 20-pound lobster awarded to the winner — his young son once kissed the crustacean in victory lane and also playfully chased a family friend with the claw.
But Harvick might have to surrender his musket.
Harvick was the recipient of the curly ash wood, custom-designed handmade musket at the track as a final thank-you from the track for all his success before he retires from NASCAR at the end of the season.
The inscription on the silver plaque reads in part: “Kevin Harvick. 4X NHMS Winner.”
He’d like to make it five and edit the engraving. Harvick has plenty at stake in Monday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway — heavy rain wiped out Sunday’s scheduled start — where he can not only snap a tie with Jeff Burton for the most wins at the Magic Mile, he can, of most importance, end a 31-race winless streak and earn an automatic spot in NASCAR’s playoffs.
“For the most part, we’ve been competitive,” Harvick said. “We’ve had a couple of chances to win races, and it just hadn’t all come together to be able to get to victory lane.”
The 47-year-old Harvick had long been one of NASCAR’s most consistent, big winners. There was the 2007 Daytona 500 championship driving for Richard Childress Racing and the 2014 NASCAR Cup championship driving for Stewart-Haas Racing. He won eight times in 2018 and nine times in 2020 before the good times suddenly dried up. Harvick went winless in 2021 and is 0 for 19 so far in his final season of a 23-year career.
Kevin Harvick (4) gets into his car before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 9, 2023, in Hampton, Ga. Credit: AP/Brynn Anderson
Harvick built a reputation as NASCAR’s version of a Major League Baseball Game 7 closer. He won in 2014 at Phoenix when he needed a victory to advance…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply