Set to hit century mark, Harvick reflects on milestone number
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When it comes to all-time combined national series wins, NASCAR has but three centenarians in its entire history.
It's about to be four.
Kevin Harvick picked up a pair of wins -- his 98th and 99th -- in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series last weekend at Atlanta. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver now sits on the precipice of NASCAR history alongside Hall of Famers David Pearson and Richard Petty and fellow Monster Energy Series champ Kyle Busch.
MORE: All-time combined wins in NASCAR national series history
"It's a fun stat and I think obviously for me, coming to Stewart-Haas Racing I guess re-energized me a little bit and enthused me about everything that is going on," Harvick said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). "It's definitely not a bad stat. Definitely something that is kind of fun to see."
Harvick has a shot to match David Pearson's career total of 106 -- 105 of which were at the Cup level -- with 38 races left between his Monster Energy Series and Xfinity Series slate in 2018. It's worth noting that he won the Monster Energy Series race at Vegas in 2015.
As competitive as Harvick is, he'll have to race for a real long time -- or pop off an exceptionally unprecedented streak of victories -- to match the other two drivers ahead of him. Busch has spread 183 wins across all three series with a whopping 91 at the Xfinity level, while Petty has that round 200 number of Cup wins.
"I think what Harvick and myself have been able to do with the amount of wins that we have in all three series is cool," Busch said Friday. "I think you reach 100, that's a big number to reach in this sport, in how difficult it is to win races these days, whether it's Cup, Xfinity or Truck.
"I think that should be something to be proud of."