Kevin Harvick has been on quite the cold streak recently. The 46-year-old NASCAR vet hasn't scored a win since the playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway on September 19, 2020. That said, Harvick has gotten five top-five finishes this season (putting him at 10th in the Cup standings), and he'll be looking to rack up even more points as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Michigan International Speedway. If Harvick's history at the two-mile track is any indication, his run at this year's FireKeepers Casino 400 could put him in a much stronger position heading into the playoffs.
Among active drivers, Harvick is the leader in Michigan wins with five. Four of those five wins came in the August race (2010, 2018, 2019, 2020), and if Harvick is able to get it done this year, he'll tie David Pearson's record for most wins of the Michigan August race. Pearson, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 83, won in 1969, 1972, 1974, 1976, and 1978. The June race at Michigan was scrapped in 2021 (Harvick won the last June outing in 2020), so a potential Harvick W this Sunday could put the Stewart-Haas Racing driver in even rarer Cup Series company.
In any case, Harvick himself is probably less concerned with records and more worried about breaking his 63-race winless streak.
What's Kevin Harvick's Game Plan for Michigan?
Photo by Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Kevin Harvick will be heading into the Michigan Cup race with vengeance on his mind.
While he avoided catastrophe during Stage 1 of last week's Verizon 200, Stage 2 of the Indy Motor Speedway road course race was a different story entirely. Coming into Turn 1 on the restart of the second stage, Austin Dillon clipped Harvick's left rear tire, sending him spinning as the rest of the field whizzed passed him. He ended the day with a 33rd-place showing.
Needless to say, Harvick was pissed and expressed his frustration over his team's radio.
"Tell me who bulldozed me," Harvick said. "I just need to know who I need to bulldoze back."
"Basically, it was like five of them," crew chief Rodney Childers responded. "One clobbered the other one, the other one clobbered the other one, the other one clobbered the other one, and the other one clobbered you. It was just power driving each other into the corner until it got to you."
After that, Harvick went straight into kicking ass and taking names mode.
"Tell me all five of them so I can wreck all five of them," Harvick said.
Childers did his best to headhunt for Harvick, saying, "The one behind you was the 48 (Bowman), the one behind him was the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), the one behind him was the 14 (SHR teammate Chase Briscoe), the one behind him I can't remember."
Simply put, Harvick's game plan at Michigan will be aggression, as he'll be looking to get his first victory of the season and dish out some sweet retribution in the process.
