Kevin Harvick adjusts his equipment in the garage area during Friday’s practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
Kevin Harvick has never won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
In 25 starts at the 1.5-mile track, the reigning series champion has scored but five top-five finishes.
But the smart money says Harvick is going to be a player in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, and the performance of the No. 4 Stewart-Hass Racing Chevrolet in Friday’s knockout qualifying session underscores that assertion.
True, Harvick was 15th fastest in the first round of time trials, posting a lap at 196.178 mph, more than two miles an hour slower than the 198.282 mph recorded by session leader Brad Keselowski.
In the second round, Harvick ran 196.542 mph, good enough for third fastest as other drivers slowed down. In the final round, Harvick posted the second fastest speed at 195.993 mph, securing the outside-front-row starting position next to Coors Light Pole Award winner Brad Keselowski.
The bottom line was that Harvick maintained his speed as others fell off the pace, suggesting the defending series champ will be a factor during Sunday’s second of three races in the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“The team did a great job,” Harvick said after qualifying. “Pretty much ran the same speed in all three rounds there. Didn’t quite have the raw speed in the first round, but this is a racetrack where you want the car to keep going as long as you can.
“I felt like we had a good start to our race trim practice (on Friday) and going to have a good spot to start on Sunday.”
That should be cause for concern for the other seven drivers still eligible for the series championship. Next on the schedule after Texas is Phoenix, where Harvick has seven victories, including the last four in a row and five of the last six.
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In Wake Of Kenseth Suspension, JGR Focused On Title
Suspended for two races for wrecking Joey Logano last Sunday at Martinsville, Matt Kenseth won’t be racing at Texas in the second event of the Chase’s Eliminator Round.
But that won’t prevent title-eligible Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch from focusing on the task at hand. Edwards is in his first year with JGR, after moving from his long-time home at Roush Fenway Racing.
“Everybody is just blazing forward to win a championship,” said Edwards, who qualified 13th for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500. “As a group, we feel like we have a shot to win this championship. That’s what my 19 team is working on. I talked to (crew chief) Darian (Grubb) a little bit about it as we were going to lunch. We have a fourth team that we started, we’ve never worked together, and here we are with a shot at this, and we have fast cars and need to keep working on that.
“I really feel that the competition is as tough as it’s ever been. I feel like, to go out and do what we need to do, we need to focus on being as fast as we need to be. Everybody in the shop appears to me to be doing just that – they’re not looking backwards. They’re looking forward.”
Weepers Delay Saturday’s Sprint Cup Practice
Hard rain on Friday night, combined with overcast, cool and humid conditions on Saturday morning, made track drying at Texas Motor Speedway especially challenging, even with the formidable power of the Air Titans.
“Weepers” – water seepage from underneath the asphalt – only compounded the problem. Track workers drilled holes in the racing surface to try to promote drainage, but the delay in drying the track forced cancellation of both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practices and NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying on Saturday. The Sprint Cup garage was closed at 5 pm.
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