KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer have established themselves as championship contenders this season in the Monster Energy Series, both with multiple wins and their postseason berths long since sealed. Teammates Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch have shown strong indications that they’re on the verge of clinching their own playoff spots.
So with six regular-season races remaining, is it reasonable to envision all four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers entering the 10-race playoffs with wins in hand?
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“I definitely believe that,” team co-owner Tony Stewart said Wednesday. “I think for sure Kurt, obviously, his track record speaks for itself. He’s the guy that can win races under the right circumstances. If everything’s right, he’s the guy that can definitely get the job done.
“Aric, it’s kind of fun. I feel like I’ve gotta be the guy that pulls the reins on him back a little bit because he is so hungry to win and he wants it so bad that you’ve just kinda got to remind him, ‘Hey, look where you were a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, and look what you’re doing already this year.’
“I think the closer you get to getting that first win with a new team, the harder it is to get it, so to speak. The more that you try almost too hard to make it happen. I just keep reminding him, ‘Listen, just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re running up front, you’re leading laps, you’re consistent. It’s going to happen.’ You just have to let it happen. Don’t try to make it happen because that’s when you start forcing mistakes.”
Regardless of the current win count, Stewart-Haas enters the closing stretch of the regular season as heavy favorites to punch playoff tickets for all four entries. Harvick leads the series with six wins, firmly placing him among the “Big 3” of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch (five wins) and Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. (four wins).
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Harvick’s impressive show of strength — leading the series in most laps led (1,052) and top-five finishes (15) — has been captivating, matching Busch and Truex swing-for-swing in their bids to pen their own chapters in NASCAR history. Is it possible to appreciate such dominance as it’s happening or would the benefit of reflection help to measure the greatness of Harvick and his No. 4 Ford team? For Stewart, his perspective as a hands-on team owner is unique.
“I get to see it closer than anybody, I guess,” Stewart said. “So for me, I’m seeing it right now, where everybody else might look back a couple of years from now that he is — not only as a driver, but what he is as a person inside and outside the car — how he’s really, I feel like, the total package. He just knows how to lead, and when he gets on the race track, he knows exactly when to push, when not to push, how to put himself in the right positions at the right time.
“There’s not a lot of guys on the race track that have that composure to do that. I mean, there’s some out there, but you can count them on one hand. He’s one of those guys for sure that you can put in that group.”
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Almirola and Busch have their minds set on making their own contributions to SHR’s win tote board. The two took turns leading a chunk of laps last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, contending until late-race issues knocked them down a peg on the leaderboard.
Their performances, however, combined with Harvick’s clutch victory to add to the general cheeriness of Stewart-Haas’ milestone season. Stewart says it has turned Monday mornings into a cause for celebration on the shop floor, with the organization’s traveling crew receiving a warm welcome from the staff based on SHR’s campus.
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“They’re high-fiving each other and smiling and upbeat right off the bat, so that starts the next work week off on a high note and that’s how you keep the momentum going and the morale in the shop,” Stewart said. “Having good results and winning races and running up front, even for somebody like Aric that was in position to win the race and then a caution kind of got it out of his grasp, even for those guys when they come back in here, everybody’s patting those guys on the back.
“It’s not just win-related. It’s the performance of all the teams, so that’s what’s fun about coming to the shop after a great weekend is just seeing how the whole demeanor of the shop is on a high. Everybody’s heads are up high, their shoulders are back and they’re digging away.”