NASCAR
Entering this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky one of the most interesting stories is Kevin Harvick closing in on Kyle Busch’s points lead. The question being whether it will continue or not. Both drivers have been hot as of late, however, Busch took a hit in the series points standings at Daytona. While Harvick and Busch both had issues Busch was the clear loser of the weekend. Harvick cut Busch’s points lead down to 57 points last Saturday night. While this is still over a full race worth of points Harvick needs to start somewhere and it can’t all come at once.
Kevin Harvick Closing on First Kentucky Win.
The series points lead is not the only thing Harvick could be closing in on this weekend, however. Come the end of the race Saturday night we could see Kevin Harvick closing out his first win at Kentucky. Kentucky has been a solid but not great track for Harvick since they began racing there in 2011. Harvick has an average finish of 10th position and a best finish of 7th. He has posted 5 straight top-10s at the track. With that being said he has clearly improved at the track with his best showing coming in 2016. Starting on pole he led a race-high 128 laps but ended up finishing 9th. Possibly his most impressive stat is that he has completed every single lap in all seven races at the track.
Now while he has not notched his first Cup Series win at the track he does have 2 Xfinity Series wins coming in 2001 and 2014. So Harvick does know how to navigate the track. He just hasn’t had it all come together in the Cup Series yet. However, three of his five wins this year have come at 1.5-mile tracks so this could be his best shot yet at Kentucky. So while he looks to close Busch’s points lead there is no better way to do so than win this weekend at Kentucky.
