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KEVIN HARVICK – 2020 Dover II Race Report

Event: Dover 311 (Round 25 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Dover (Del.) International Speedway (1-mile, concrete oval)
Format: 311 laps, broken into three stages (70 laps/115 laps/126 laps)
Start/Finish: 17th/1st (Running, completed 311 of 311 laps)
Point Standing: (1st with 1041 points, 134 points ahead of Denny Hamlin)

Race Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kevin Harvick of Stewart-Haas Racing (Ford)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-70):

Harvick started 17th and finished first, earning 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, said his car was tight early on. He was 14th.
● By lap 28, Harvick had moved into the top 10.
● Harvick pitted on lap 34 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Said car is little loose in and needs rear grip but is good in clean air. He was 10th.
● On lap 58, Harvick entered the top-five.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 71-185):

Harvick started first and finished first, earning 10 bonus points and a playoff point.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, pitted on lap 73 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Says car is still too tight, but he came into the pits first and left in first.
● On lap 102, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Says the rear end did not react to the last round of changes. Was in first place.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-311):

Harvick started first and finished first.
● Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang pitted on lap 187 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Says car is a bit loose, but running up front.
● On lap 218, Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. Says car is handling well and he came in first and exited first.
● Harvick pitted on lap 290 for four tires, fuel and a tire pressure adjustment. He said the car was a little tight but good. Came in first and left in second as Jimmie Johnson only took two tires.
● With 17 laps to go on the restart, Harvick managed to get by Johnson and took the lead.

Notes:

●  Harvick’s margin of victory over second-place Martin Truex Jr., was 3.525 seconds.
●  There were seven caution periods for a total of 40 laps.
●  Twenty-one of the 40 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
●  Harvick earned his series-leading seventh victory of the season and his third victory in 40 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Dover.
●  Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only three finishes outside the top-15 at Dover. It’s a run that includes three victories (October 2015, May 2018 and today), seven top-fives, nine top-10s and 1,521 laps led.
●  Harvick has finished in the top-10 seven times in the last eight races at Dover.
●  This was Harvick’s fourth straight top-five and sixth straight top-10 at Dover. He hasn’t finished outside the top-10 at the track since a 17th-place finish in October 2017.
●  Harvick has finished among the top-10 in 21 of the 25 races held this year. He has only two finishes outside the top-15.
●  Harvick won Stage 1 to earn 10 bonus points and one playoff point, and he won Stage 2 to earn 10 more bonus points and another playoff point.
●  Harvick led six times for a race-high 223 laps to increase his laps-led total at Dover to 1,666.
●  Harvick’s 1,666 laps led are the second most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Jimmie Johnson has the most with 3,113 laps led.
●  Harvick has now led 10,719 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,145 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
●  Harvick’s victory in the Dover 311 marked the 85th overall win for SHR. It was the organization’s 63rd points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory, its eighth of the season and its fourth at Dover.
●  SHR won its first race at Dover in June 2013 with Tony Stewart. It scored two more wins care of Harvick in October 2015 and May 2018.
●  This was SHR’s 27th NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford. The team won its first race with Ford when former driver Kurt Busch captured the 2017 Daytona 500.
●  Harvick has now won 21 NASCAR Cup Series races with Ford, which makes him one of only 13 drivers to win 20 or more races with the manufacturer. He ranks 13th all-time after tying and then passing NASCAR Hall of Famer Davey Allison and Greg Biffle with his sweep of the Cup Series doubleheader Aug. 8-9 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
●  This was Ford’s series-leading 14th NASCAR Cup Series win of the season. This is the best start for Ford since 1997 when it won 14 times in 22 races. Ford went on to win 19 races that season, a mark that was equaled in 2018 when Joey Logano won the series championship and Ford captured the manufacturers’ title. The most wins Ford has ever amassed in a season during the modern era (1972-present) is 20, which happened in 1994. NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace led Ford with eight victories that season while Ernie Irvan and Geoffrey Bodine were next best with three wins apiece.
●  This was Ford’s milestone 700th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory. Ford’s first victory came on June 25, 1950 when Shirtless Jimmy Florian upset the field at Dayton (Ohio) Speedway, beating the likes of NASCAR Hall of Famers Lee Petty and Curtis Turner. Overall, there have been 85 drivers who have won at least one Cup Series race in a Ford. NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, who won Ford’s first series championship in 1965, is the manufacturer’s all-time leader with 43 victories.
●  This was Ford’s 27th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Dover. Ford’s last win at Dover came with Harvick in May 2018. Its first win came in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover when NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty won on July 6, 1969 in a Ford Torino.
●  This was Harvick’s 56th career NASCAR Cup Series win. He is now tied for ninth on the all-time NASCAR Cup Series win list with Kyle Busch. Harvick is 20 wins behind eighth-place and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Sr.
●  This was Harvick’s 33rd NASCAR Cup Series victory since joining SHR in 2014.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

All the accolades coming in, including the 700th win for Ford and you just went to ninth on the all-time Cup Series win list.

“I have to thank everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. Congratulations to Ford on their 700th Cup win. I want to thank everyone on this team. Rodney (Childers) and everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing for overcoming what happened yesterday with the track bar and nailing the balance today. I want to thank all the partners. Jimmy Johns, Hunt Brothers Pizza, Busch Beer. I want to say Happy Birthday to Delana’s (wife) mom and Dax (Gerringer), our engineer, same birthday. What a year. What a seven years. I am just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing for being able to drive this car. Week after week they just put so much effort into making this thing go fast and it has been a great year.”

You are setting up to be the obvious favorite going into the playoffs again. How do you feel going in?

“I love the grit of our race team. I think that is what Gene Haas and Tony Stewart have built at Stewart-Haas Racing. A team with a lot of grit. Sometimes we don’t have the fastest car but we have guys willing to suck it up and when we have a weak link that day someone else will carry the team. I am really proud of that and that is what it is all about. You are only as good as the people around you and we have great people.”

You are the regular season champion as well.

“With Denny (Hamlin) winning yesterday we needed to win today and we need all the points we can get. I think as you look at these playoffs you never know what to expect but I know that as we go week to week we will give it all we have and I am just really proud. Thank you to Mobil 1. They put a lot into the oils and lubricants in these cars and grinding to find more horsepower and less drag. It is an honor to drive for these guys.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday, Aug. 29 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. It is the final race of the regular season and it starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The 10-race, 16-driver NASCAR Playoffs begins the following week with the Sept. 6 Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.