Carry On My Wayward Son - Will Harvick Advance Or Get Shut Out?

Kevin Harvick faces a predicament going into Kansas this week. He needs to get a win or at least a top 10 finish and stay out of trouble before the elimination race at Talladega next week. They don't call him the closer for nothing.

In the May race, he started 26th and finished 2nd. Harvick has the track record at 27.304 seconds, and qualified 11th for Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 (2:15 p.m. on NBC). He has a better average finishing position of 10th, compared to Matt Kenseth's 13th. Kenseth is sitting on the pole for this weekend's race.

Let's take a look at Harvick's performance so far and see if we can judge how he has fared for the regular season

**During the race at Chicagoland, an unapproved adjustment prior to the start of the race forced the No. 4 team to start at the back of the 40-car field. As his crew was servicing the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, the caution flag waved, causing Harvick to fall a lap down when leader Martin Truex Jr. crossed the start-finish line inches ahead of the No. 4 car as it exited its pit box. Restarting 21st on lap 55, Harvick continued to have one of the fastest cars on the racetrack, but he was unable to regain the lost lap and crossed the finish line in 20th as the third car one lap down.

In New Hampshire, Harvick got his opportunity to win the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson collided on the backstretch on Lap 291 to bring out the sixth and final caution of the race.

Starting on the inside lane and timing the restart perfectly, Harvick stayed side-by-side with Kenseth entering the first corner and cleared Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota through Turn 2. Kenseth was unable to get back to the rear bumper of Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet over the final six laps.

At Dover, he was able to bounce back to 2nd in points, but a mechanical issue took him out of the field last week at Charlotte, relegating him to a 38th finish. The 2014 Sprint Cup champion led the first 12 laps of the race, but a loose handling condition dropped him to third by the competition caution on lap 25. Harvick then brought the Busch Hunting Chevrolet to pit road for adjustments and restarted in third on lap 31. Harvick once again continued his march toward the front and had made his way up to fourth when he told the team over the radio that he was experiencing mechanical issues. He brought the No. 4 Chevrolet to pit road so the team could take a closer look. The race car was taken to its garage stall for further review, and it was determined that repairs could not be completed in time for Harvick to return to the race.

“It just suddenly shut off, and the things that it points to are no oil pressure,” said Harvick, who has three points-paying Sprint Cup wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway to his credit. “It’s definitely not a power issue with the battery or anything like that. They are trying to diagnose it. I hate it for everybody on our Busch team; they made some great adjustments today and got our car back where we needed to be to run up front, and everything was going fine. Lots of things can go wrong, and today they did.”

With 1 win and five top 5 finishes, it seems he has some work to do to make sure he stays in the hunt for the Sprint Cup title. Martin Truex is coming of back to back wins in the last few weeks and Jimmie Johnson has got to have momentum coming off last weeks win at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 

NASCAR

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