Kevin Harvick’s long and illustrious career in NASCAR will come to an end at Phoenix this year. The regular season has been disappointing by the 2014 Cup champion’s standards, finishing winless and qualifying for the playoffs on the basis of points. For all his achievements in the sport, it does seem to be a tall order for the SHR driver to make it to the championship 4 this season.
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Harvick was the only silver lining in an otherwise disappointing Stewart-Haas team this season, but it was still an underwhelming season by all means. Speaking on his playoff chances, NASCAR veteran Kyle Petty and JGR driver Denny Hamlin, while commenting on Harvick’s overall prowess, feel it might be too much of an ask this time around.
Kevin Harvick’s team has not shown any signs to challenge for the title
While speaking on the NASCAR on NBC podcast, the driver-turned-analyst spoke about the regular season finale and his expectations heading into the playoffs. Petty became particularly animated when he brought up Harvick, genuinely wanting to make a case for the SHR driver to make it to the final 4.
“I want Kevin Harvick to make it to the Final 4 so bad, so freaking bad. I can’t even tell you. I have become a huge Kevin Harvick fan, but SHR and Kevin Harvick has not shown me anything that lets me know that they’re going to make it out of the first round, and that’s a sad statement.”
“I hate to say that, but I’m just, that’s my feeling. Now he’ll probably go all the way to Phoenix. Yes, I’ll be cheering for him when he gets there.”
Fair assessment by Petty, considering Harvick is entering the final 16 with just 4 playoff points. And as Denny Hamlin said on his podcast, Harvick and SHR’s team “has been struggling mightily all year long.”
Denny Hamlin is cautiously optimistic about Kevin Harvick
Speaking on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, Hamlin laid out the simple reason why he felt Harvick could indeed make it to the final four, something that looks quite improbable at this point.
“So why he will make it to the Final Four is he’s Kevin Harvick and he has Rodney Childers making the calls and those two together they don’t, they don’t go out easy.”
Looking at the tracks for the first three races, it does seem things could fall into place for the #4 team. Harvick has three wins each at Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol, after which the first round of drivers will be eliminated.
Leaving Harvick out of the equation would be extremely risky. After all, he is The Closer.
