The round of 16 at Darlington is knocking on the door. Every Cup driver on the grid is feeling the pressure. Now, it is more about strategy than having the fastest cars. One does not need to win every race throughout the next few weeks. What’s crucial is to survive till week 9, get yourself into Championship 4, and then bring out your best game. Because nothing hurts more than not winning after getting into the Championship 4 race.
However, not everyone goes by that mindset. RCR rockstar Kyle Busch has had three precious wins this year at Auto Club, Talladega, and Gateway. So he might take a relaxed whiff and think about strategies. But Kevin Harvick is still walking through a winless season. Although he is in the playoff rumble, his plans are perhaps not as laid back as Kyle Busch’s.
Kyle Busch let out a sarcastic comment on Kevin Harvick’s farewell journey
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Since his debut as a full-time Cup Series driver for SHR, Kevin Harvick has been one of the most consistent drivers that Tony Stewart has ever had in his team. He was this close to bagging a win at Phoenix Raceway earlier this year when fans had anticipated that he could have earned his 61st Cup victory. However, things did not wrap up that well for the 47-year-old speedster, as a late caution obliterated his chances of winning the race.
Kevin Harvick sits at the 15th spot in the playoff berth just above Bubba Wallace. And he is the only Stewart-Haas driver to have made it into the playoffs. For someone as great a driver as Kevin Harvick, nothing would be better than getting a win before his retirement. But he is still short of achieving that and meanwhile, Kyle Busch lodged a sarcastic comment on his situation.
The KB Motorsports owner said, “I would say that it would be cool to see Kevin at least score a win in his final year.”
“I mean, right now it’s playoff time so that would obviously bump him on in the next round and I don’t want that but give him a sentimental kind of feeling, it’ll be good,” Kyle Busch added while the entire line-up of reporters in front of him laughed.
While Kyle Busch might have been a bit scornful and maybe he frankly wishes the best for Harvick, it is indeed true that the SHR cars have not been able to live up to the expectations in the current season. With almost a third of the money, other Ford teams like Front Row and RFK Racing have fared better than Tony Stewart’s Cup Series team. But the trouble just does not end there for the Smoke.
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Remarkably, a driver of Kevin Harvick’s valor has just one championship title to his name. He is one of the most coveted drivers that Tony Stewart had and the way Stewart talked about Harvick in Dale Earnhardt Jr’s podcast clearly depicts the same.
Stewart said, “…he?s one of the most well-rounded drivers that NASCAR has right now. He understands all of it. He?s passionate about all of it, if somebody is screwing up, he?s going to tell you, you?re screwing up. He?s not telling you that and trying to make you mad, he?s not trying to belittle you, he?s telling you that because he wants you to be better and he wants the scenario to be better.”
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Besides the fact that Kevin Harvick is about to retire and leave the seat of the #4 Ford Mustang empty, there is one more thing that might bother the 52-year-old team owner. Even if he decides to overlook the fact that the driver of his #14 car, Chase Briscoe, received an L3 penalty due to the discovery of a counterfeit next-gen part at Coca-Cola 600, he cannot just ignore his upcoming misery.
Just last week at Daytona, the SHR organization saw something that made them anxious. While the RFK duo Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski finished 1-2, someone came to aid their sweet victory. And it was Aric Almirola, Tony Stewart’s driver for the number 10 Ford. Almirola chose to aid Chris and Brad, rather than help out his teammate Kevin Harvick. Although cutting slack is not common in top-tier stock car racing, teaming up with a rival is definitely not expected.
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Now fans are perhaps wondering if Tony Stewart will have both #4 and #10 empty as they move into 2024. Although Stewart-Haas Racing has announced that Josh Berry would replace Kevin Harvick with Rodney Childers as the crew chief, the latest on-track attitude of Aric Almirola poses a serious question to the owner: Will Aric Almirola drive a Stewart-Haas Ford in the next season?
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