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| Kevin Harvick is 6-to-1 co-favorite to win at Martinsville. |
The defending series champion raced his way from the Challenger Round through to the Contender Round with a dominant performance in a “must-win” situation at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. He fought off elimination by dominating the race at Dover, where he led 355 of 400 laps to score his first Chase win of the season. In the Contender Round, Harvick finished second at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, 16th at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City and 15th last Sunday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway to advance to the Eliminator Round.
The next three tracks he’ll visit for the Eliminator Round – Martinsville, Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and Phoenix International Raceway – line up well for Harvick and the No. 4 team.
Harvick has been victorious at two of the next three racetracks, including an April 2011 win at Martinsville, where he led six laps and battled Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the closing laps to score the win by .727 seconds. Harvick has yet to score a Sprint Cup victory at Texas but has back-to-back second place finishes and has led 98 laps is his last two starts at the 1.5-mile oval. He has scored seven Sprint Cup wins at Phoenix, including five of his last six starts at the mile oval.
Thirty-two races into this season, Harvick has been a model of consistency as he has 20 top-five finishes, and he’s also led a series-high 2,056 laps with an average finish of 9.3.
Harvick is the first driver to lead 2,000 laps in consecutive seasons since Jeff Gordon in 1995 and 1996. The last three drivers to lead more than 2,000 laps in a single season have all gone on to win the Sprint Cup championship. Jeff Gordon led 2,320 laps in 2001, Jimmie Johnson led 2,238 laps in 2009, and Harvick led 2,137 laps in 2014.
The reigning Sprint Cup champion leads several other statistical categories: 118.1 driver rating, 44 bonus points, 1,241 fastest laps run, 32.3 percent of fastest laps run, 22.6 percent of laps led, 2,503.12 miles led, 8,224 laps in the top-15 and average running position of 7.549.
Outback Steakhouse has celebrated Harvick’s 24 top-10 finishes thus far in 2015 by giving its customers a free Bloomin’ Onion® on the Monday immediately following the race. And while he’d like to continue those celebrations this weekend by scoring another top-10, he’d prefer to do it in a bigger way – by winning his fourth Sprint Cup race of the 2015 season and automatically advancing to the winner-take-all Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
KEVIN HARVICK, Driver of the No. 4 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:
What are your thoughts on the next three races that make up the Eliminator Round of the Chase?
“These next three races line up really well for us. We’ve been fortunate to have won at Martinsville before and we ran really well there the first race (this season). The 1.5-mile tracks have been our bread and butter and Phoenix has been really good pretty much every single time we’ve been there. First, it was just trying to get to Martinsville and we accomplished that. Now, we have to focus on getting the best finish we can out of each racetrack. I guess, if I’d have to pick one that we’ve been most successful at, it would be Phoenix hands down. But our 1.5-mile stuff has been exceptional this year as we’ve gone through the season, so that should be good. And, Martinsville has been good to us in the past.”
Where do you need to be and when to position yourself best for a win at these next three tracks?
“I think the best position to be in at any racetrack is in the lead. You want to be in control of the race and try to get yourself in a position to where you can have a good clean restart and have as much clear track, especially at Martinsville, just for the fact that there is so much pushing and shoving on the restarts to get to the bottom lane that you want to try to be as far forward as possible.”
Kevin Harvick Martinsville Speedway Profile:
| Year | Event | Start | Finish | Status/Laps | Laps Led | Earnings |
| 2015 | STP 500 | 17 | 8 | Running, 500/500 | 154 | $144,495 |
| 2014 | STP 500 | 18 | 7 | Running, 500/500 | 1 | $127,053 |
| Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 | 33 | 33 | Running, 457/500 | 0 | $118,173 | |
| 2013 | STP Gas Booster 500 | 21 | 13 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $128,711 |
| Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 | 10 | 6 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $133,846 | |
| 2012 | ×Goody’s Fast Relief 500 | 2 | 19 | Running, 513/515 | 21 | $125,971 |
| TUMS Fast Relief 500 | 13 | 32 | Engine, 473/500 | 0 | $120,596 | |
| 2011 | Goody’s Fast Relief 500 | 9 | 1 | Running, 500/500 | 6 | $200,786 |
| †TUMS Fast Relief 500 | 5 | 4 | Running, 500/500 | 35 | $139,386 | |
| 2010 | ×Goody’s Fast Relief 500 | 1 | 35 | Running, 408/508 | 57 | $105,776 |
| TUMS Fast Relief 500 | 36 | 3 | Running, 500/500 | 97 | $147,951 | |
| 2009 | †Goody’s Fast Relief 500 | 12 | 11 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $116,878 |
| ×TUMS Fast Relief 500 | 10 | 10 | Running, 501/501 | 0 | $118,703 | |
| 2008 | Goody’s Cool Orange 500 | 11 | 12 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $119,961 |
| ×TUMS QuikPak 500 | 6 | 7 | Running, 504/504 | 0 | $131,636 | |
| 2007 | Goody’s Cool Orange 500 | 6 | 41 | Running, 445/500 | 0 | $114,911 |
| ×Subway 500 | 3 | 10 | Running, 506/506 | 0 | $131,761 | |
| 2006 | DirecTV 500 | 26 | 7 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $115,011 |
| Subway 500 | 12 | 9 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $112,411 | |
| 2005 | Advance Auto Parts 500 | 5 | 32 | Running, 436/500 | 0 | $111,661 |
| Subway 500 | 29 | 15 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $115,986 | |
| 2004 | Advance Auto Parts 500 | 5 | 19 | Running, 500/500 | 0 | $97,403 |
| Subway 500 | 19 | 8 | Running, 500/500 | 104 | $101,903 | |
| 2003 | Virginia 500 | 29 | 16 | Running, 499/500 | 13 | $87,678 |
| Subway 500 | 5 | 7 | Running, 500/500 | 10 | $92,228 | |
| 2002 | Old Dominion 500 | 13 | 31 | Running, 498/500 | 0 | $81,903 |
| 2001 | Virginia 500 | 15 | 34 | Running, 454/500 | 0 | $76,627 |
| Old Dominion 500 | 35 | 22 | Running, 499/500 | 20 | $77,677 |
× Race length extended due to green-white-checkered finish.
* Race cut short due to weather.
† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points
- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing
