There’s only five races remaining in the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, which also means there’s only five races left in Kevin Harvick’s career.
Of course, Harvick could run some one-offs in the future, but his time as a full-time driver will come to an end in a little more than a month. As the laps wind down, Harvick spoke with FOX’s Bob Pockrass, where he explained his goals for the remainder of the season.
“There’s way more to it than just winning and losing,” Harvick said. “It’s the most interesting thing I’ve ever been a part of because there’s so much more to it. And it would take me hours to sit here and explain it to everybody.
“Everything that comes with the whole picture this year is much more complex than a win or a loss — in how you represent yourself and the things that you say, and the things that you do, and all that goes with it.”
Alas, it’s more than simply getting to Victory Lane for Harvick. As some have put it, he essentially wins each week, as there’s a heightened focus on him throughout the race week-in and week-out.
Fans will certainly want to see Kevin Harvick get a checkered flag before it’s all said and done, but what the former champion has done for the sport in the past will never fade away. NASCAR faithful will be rooting hard for “Happy Harvick” over the next month and change, before he officially retires.
Stewart-Haas Racing won’t appeal Kevin Harvick’s disqualification at Talladega
In other Kevin Harvick related news, Stewart-Haas Racing has made their decision to not appeal his disqualification from the Talladega NASCAR Playoff race. Harvick fought hard and finished P2. It was a heartbreaking loss of 0.012 seconds to Ryan Blaney, but it got worse from there.
Due to what was essentially an unfastened windshield, Kevin Harvick had his result thrown out. The disqualification gave him a last-place finish. Ross Chastain lost a point in the playoff standings as a result since he was bumped from 38th to 37th place, he didn’t get an extra point and instead lost a point on the rest of the field. Everyone else remained equal.
Here is the statement from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chief Competition Director, Greg Zipadelli, about the DQ decision from NASCAR.
“At the completion of the race, not all of our windshield fasteners were secure, as we had bolts that hold the windshield in place back out over the course of the 500 miles. We are in the process of diagnosing why this happened and how to prevent it moving forward.
We are disappointed in NASCAR’s decision to disqualify our racecar and the hard-earned finish by our driver and team, but we will not appeal. Our complete focus is on the remaining races on this year’s schedule.”
Stewart-Haas Racing has had a lot of nasty run-ins lately with NASCAR rules. Cole Custer this season in the Xfinity Series had an illegal part on his car. Chase Briscoe had an illegal part earlier this year in the Cup Series. Kevin Harvick will remain a DQ for Talladega.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
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