Kevin Harvick

Despite his victory at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, Kevin Harvick isn't officially locked in to the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

With his victory in Sunday’s 200-lap FireKeepers Casino 400 around the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.219-kilometer) Brooklyn, Michigan oval, Harvick is the 15th different driver to win at some point throughout the 2022 season’s first 23 races. For the first time in nearly two years, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick found himself in victory lane following Sunday afternoon’s rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. Despite his victory at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, Kevin Harvick isn’t officially locked in to the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

With three races remaining in NASCAR's regular season, Kevin Harvick has become the 15th different winner of 2022. Bubba Wallace may make it 16 soon.

He supplemented his racing income as a Hollywood stunt driver — he did Elvis’ dirty work in the 1968 film, “Speedway.” “I want to win so bad, and this was the best opportunity.” “I’m not smart enough to run the department to fix it. No, seriously, it’s not just a figure of speech . . . what are you gonna do? “I’m not really sure how you fix it,” he said. Yet Bubba Wallace was taking that “first loser” deal to heart. If you’re placing bets on who might become the 16th different winner during the regular season — which has just three races remaining, by the way — Bubba might be your guy. Bubba’s other runner-up finish came at the season-opening Daytona 500. He has a reputation for closing out victories, you know, and he built on it by holding onto that lead tighter than bark on a pine. “Once I got clear track, that baby was huntin’.” Second place, out of 37 starters, sounds rather decent, logical folks would agree. It was math.

Kevin Harvick got his groove back, fittingly at one of his favorite tracks. Harvick ended a 65-race winless drought that lasted nearly nearly two years with ...

... Buescher’s paint job featured the LeBron James Family Foundation. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is a minority owner with Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of Roush Fenway Keselowski, which hosted James Bromsey III, a sixth-grade student at his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. Three days before racing at Michigan, he and his wife and their two young children escaped the Mall of America in Minnesota after shots were fired. Hamlin won at Richmond in April. Harvick's No. 4 Ford pulled away from Bubba Wallace and the rest the field following a restart with 35 laps to go at the FireKeepers Casino 400. Ty Gibbs, the 19-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, filled in and was a Cup career-high 10th in the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing. ... Cole Custer’s No. 41 Ford had its front left tire engulfed in flames, ending his day midway through the race a week after Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford caught fire. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are top-10 drivers in points, but they have not finished first to put their postseason positioning in peril. Austin Hill made his Cup debut for Richard Childress Racing and finished 18th. NASCAR has had 15 different Cup winners this season. “Seconds not good enough for the playoffs," said Wallace, who needs to win one of the final three regular-season races to earn a spot in the postseason. Austin Cindric, who won the Daytona 500 for his first career victory, started the day No. 15 in points and finished last in the 37-car race after his No. 2 Ford hit the wall head-on in a nine-car crash that knocked Kyle Busch out of the competition. Busch has failed to finish in the top 10 in eight straight races, the longest streak of the two-time champion’s career, and he does not have a contract for next year. Harvick’s win shakes up the playoff race with just three races remaining in the regular season, leaving little time for drivers to earn a spot in the 16-car postseason, and gives a boost for a veteran that entered the weekend No. 17 in points.

Kevin Harvick's rough winless streak in the NASCAR Cup Series finally ended after the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driver won Sunday's rain-delayed ...

He was winless in all 36 races in 2021 and winless through the first 22 events this season. And when NBC Sports asked him if this was his most clutch win, Harvick nonchalantly said: Blaney is in, for now, but he desperately needs a victory to secure his spot. Harvick finished first ahead of pole-winner Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, who rounded out the top-5 finishers. Until Sunday, when he grabbed the checkered flag after leading 38 of the race’s 200 laps on the two-mile Michigan track. First, there are now only three regular-season races remaining before the playoffs begin, and with Harvick’s victory, the pressure has only intensified on those looking to make the top-16 driver postseason cut.

Grabbing the lead and pulling away after a restart on Lap 166 of 200 at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick won the FireKeepers Casino 400 by 2.903 ...

Talking about Chase Elliott, who finished at the 11th position, one wrote: "As an Elliott fan I'm happy for Harvick and a special moment with his daughter. Even more special to see him share his victory with daughter, Piper …. Just a great race day" That’s the thing I struggled with the most today was traffic and the restarts and just having to make up ground. He is also the only driver to have got a postseason spot every year since the format was introduced in 2014. BROOKLYN, MICHIGAN: Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway on August 7, putting an end to two years of 65-race winless drought. According to NASCAR wire service, Harvick took the lead and pulled away after a restart on lap 166 of 200 at Michigan International Speedway. He won the FireKeepeers Casino 400 by 2.903 seconds over pole winner Bubba Wallace and overtook Martin Truex Jr in the playoff NASCAR Cup Series finishes.

Harvick's win shakes up the playoff race with just three races remaining in the regular season, leaving little time for drivers to earn a spot in the 16-car ...

... Buescher’s paint job featured the LeBron James Family Foundation. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is a minority owner with Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of Roush Fenway Keselowski, which hosted James Bromsey III, a sixth-grade student at his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. Three days before racing at Michigan, he and his wife and their two young children escaped the Mall of America in Minnesota after shots were fired. Hamlin won at Richmond in April. Harvick's No. 4 Ford pulled away from Bubba Wallace and the rest the field following a restart with 35 laps to go at the FireKeepers Casino 400. Ty Gibbs, the 19-year-old grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, filled in and was a Cup career-high 10th in the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing. ... Cole Custer’s No. 41 Ford had its front left tire engulfed in flames, ending his day midway through the race a week after Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford caught fire. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are top-10 drivers in points, but they have not finished first to put their postseason positioning in peril. Austin Hill made his Cup debut for Richard Childress Racing and finished 18th. Austin Cindric, who won the Daytona 500 for his first career victory, started the day No. 15 in points and finished last in the 37-car race after his No. 2 Ford hit the wall head-on in a nine-car crash that knocked Kyle Busch out of the competition. NASCAR has had 15 different Cup winners this season. “Seconds not good enough for the playoffs," said Wallace, who needs to win one of the final three regular-season races to earn a spot in the postseason. Busch has failed to finish in the top 10 in eight straight races, the longest streak of the two-time champion’s career, and he does not have a contract for next year. Harvick’s win shakes up the playoff race with just three races remaining in the regular season, leaving little time for drivers to earn a spot in the 16-car postseason, and gives a boost for a veteran that entered the weekend No. 17 in points.

On a blustery Sunday in the Irish Hills of Michigan, Kevin Harvick saved his season. Grabbing the lead and pulling away after a restart on Lap 166 of...

Thought I could hang with the 4 (Harvick), and just got to racing the 5 (Kyle Larson) and the 22 (Logano). And 22 did a good job of getting another Ford contract, helping a Ford win. In the ensuing melee, Cindric’s No. 2 Ford crashed nose-first into the outside wall and Buch’s No. 18 Toyota also sustained terminal damage. On his final pit stop under caution on Lap 160, Hamlin incurred a penalty for too many men over the wall when his crew corralled a runaway tire from an adjacent pit stall. That didn’t deter the fans in the grandstands, the largest crowd at Michigan International Speedway since 2016. With Wallace bottled up behind Joey Logano’s Ford after the Lap 166 restart, Harvick opened a gap of more than four seconds in clean air and cruised to his first win since Sept. 19, 2020 at Bristol. “When you get back there, things happen on restarts, especially when you have guys that stayed out and don’t have tires versus those that have four tires. A lap later, NASCAR called the seventh caution of the afternoon when Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet and Christopher Bell’s Toyota collided in Turn 4. “Just all in all an incredible weekend. “Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us,” said Harvick, who led 38 laps on Sunday, 25 more than he had led in the previous 22 races combined. The race was delayed just over an hour due to inclement weather. Harvick now has 59 victories in the series, 10th-most all-time. Wished we could have got Toyota in the Victory Lane. Wish we got (sponsor) McDonald's back in victory lane.

While Harvick's win locked him into the playoffs for now, it also notably knocked Martin Truex Jr., who's winless so far this season, below the cut line, while ...

Projected playoff points: 2007 If the playoffs began today, he’d be in based off his win at Kansas Speedway back in May. Without a win, Blaney is 19 points above the playoff cut line. Projected playoff points: 2007 So here’s a look at how Harvick’s win Sunday impacted the playoff picture and who’s sitting on the bubble with three regular-season races left. Twenty-three down, three to go for the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.

Imagining fake texts to Michigan International Speedway winner Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

It was halfway through the winner's press conference at Michigan International Speedway when Kevin Harvick let down his guard.

The second he jumped over pit wall, NASCAR threw a penalty that took Hamlin from the lead back to 23rd. "I'm not smart enough to run the department to fix it. Just the Pocono DQ alone is a 10-point swing between he and point leader Chase Elliott that could make the difference in who advances into the Championship 4. That left Harvick in position to capitalize, up front and able to take control of the race over Bubba Wallace on the final restart. Chastain was on fresh tires, trying to work his way past Bell after his final green-flag pit stop. We talk about the same things of what we need to do better and when we need to do it. It's his eighth finish outside the top 10 (including that Pocono DQ) at a time he's playing a high-stakes free agency game with Toyota. Green: Bubba Wallace -- Wallace may be disappointed with a runner-up result, but four straight top-10 finishes in Cup is now the longest such streak of his career. Just one spot remains for a winless driver, leaving these two to battle it out for the postseason unless someone else reaches victory lane and TKO's them both. So, when Harvick came to Michigan, a track he'd won four of the last six races on, his team believed -- despite leading just 13 laps all season. "I mean, there's never going to be a media session that big again. There's never going to be a conversation that big again.

When Jackson's Ronnie Johncox was an IndyCar racer, he did what he could to avoid crashing. Now, Johncox is invested in the science of racing collisions.

You have the tire, you have the shock, you have the spring, you have all your suspension geometry, you have the chassis,” Johncox said. But all of the tubes and machined pieces are made in Jackson. “Hitting anything in these cars is brutal inside, for the driver.” If a driver crashes and only damages the front, for example, the center and rear can be spared. The chassis breaks down into three pieces: the front, the center and the rear. “The perspective I bring, I have to be very careful how I phrase that in the garage area. “Sometimes the ones that look the worst, they’ve absorbed all of that energy so it’s really not so bad on the driver.” “It’s interesting because the crashes that you see on TV that look less impactful are some of the worst. “You look at the cars, and they’re like ‘Oh man, they look great!’ That’s the problem,” said Kevin Harvick, who won Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. “All of that energy is absorbed through you. But with 2022′s Next Gen car, there are companies contracted to build pieces for all teams, in hopes of bringing more parity to the sport. Johncox has been at more NASCAR races than ever this year to see how the cars are holding up. Johncox’s Technique Inc. is contracted by NASCAR to build the chassis for every single Cup Series team, starting this year with the sport’s new Next Gen car.

Martin Truex Jr. is No. 4 in points, but he does not have a win and desperately needs one to earn a spot in the round of 16 at Darlington Raceway in South ...

“We just have to keep pushing and try to run with those (top) guys and we have," Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers said. No one could catch Harvick in his No. 4 Ford following a restart with 35 laps to go at the FireKeepers Casino 400. The 46-year-old insisted he didn't need the latest result to boost his confidence. It was his sixth win overall at the two-mile oval. There’s a lot of things that can still happen." Martin Truex Jr. is No. 4 in points, but he does not have a win and desperately needs one to earn a spot in the round of 16 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Ryan Blaney is second in points, but he, too, is without a victory.

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Kevin Harvick got his groove back, fittingly at one of his favorite tracks.

"I'll wear this one on my heart for a while," he said, choking back tears. "Michigan has been a great place for us." Harvick's No. 4 Ford pulled away from Bubba Wallace and the rest the field following a restart with 35 laps to go at the FireKeepers Casino 400. "Second is not good enough for the playoffs," said Wallace, who needs to win one of the final three regular-season races to earn a spot in the postseason. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. are top-10 drivers in points, but they have not finished first to put their postseason positioning in peril. NASCAR has had 15 different Cup winners this season.

Martin Truex Jr. is No. 4 in points, but he does not have a win and desperately needs one to earn a spot in the round of 16 at Darlington Raceway in South ...

“We just have to keep pushing and try to run with those (top) guys and we have," Harvick crew chief Rodney Childers said. No one could catch Harvick in his No. 4 Ford following a restart with 35 laps to go at the FireKeepers Casino 400. The 46-year-old insisted he didn't need the latest result to boost his confidence. It was his sixth win overall at the two-mile oval. There’s a lot of things that can still happen." Martin Truex Jr. is No. 4 in points, but he does not have a win and desperately needs one to earn a spot in the round of 16 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Ryan Blaney is second in points, but he, too, is without a victory.

(Brooklyn, MI) — Kevin Harvick found himself back in victory lane in Michigan after winning the FireKeepers Casino 400. Harvick held off Bubba Wallace for the ...

Kevin Harvick scored his 59th career win at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. Heres a look at the top 10 drivers after NASCARs latest race.

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Kevin Harvick's turnaround began in a June practice session that the team fared poorly. Martin Truex Jr. seeks answers after falling out of playoff spot.

We need to figure this thing out a little bit better, and I need to do a better job on the wheel.” “I think the biggest thing, and if you go look at all the research behind it from the best athletes in the world, is sleep,” Gibbs said after his Michigan win. I feel like you’ve got to be very rested for that because the screens affect your eyes a little bit and make you more tired. Here is what Truex had to say after the race. Truex won the second stage, led 80 laps and finished fourth. If we can do that in the playoffs and be consistent and get through a round or two, we can make some noise.” I wonder if it’s going to hit the limit or be tight or loose?’” Harvick said. We’ll look at the data and see where I messed up.” It is his fourth top 10 in the last seven races. “At least going back, the thought processes will be way different for us as far as setups and things like that. He told NBC Sports in late June how the new car is a “learning curve every weekend for me. He admits he’s looking forward to returning to tracks a second time this season.