Harvick, 47, has yet to win a race in his final season, and found himself eliminated from the Cup Series playoffs after a disappointing P29 result in last Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“We’ve been like that all year, we’ve been hit or miss, and tonight we just missed by a mile,” Harvick said after the race. “I’ve had some good days and bad days, but that’s definitely the worst one I’ve had with fenders on it. I didn’t really have many expectations with just up and down as the year has been so it is what it is, that’s probably about what we deserve.”
Kevin Harvick wants to finish final season strong
Though his chances of winning a second Cup Series championship are over, Harvick isn’t throwing in the towel on the season with just seven races remaining.
“That’s just something from when I wrestled in high school and raced our Late Models, it was always pounded into my head that it’s OK to not be good, but it’s not OK to quit. It’s never OK to not give it 100 percent,” Harvick said, via Sportskeeda. “It’s never OK to quit grinding away for every single second of whatever it is you’re doing because you’re letting yourself down.”
He added: “And in this deal, you’re not only letting yourself down, you’re letting your whole team down, and I think that’s contagious because nobody ever lets down… Sometimes it’s just about grinding away and doing the little things right. You don’t have to be the fastest, but if you just do more right than everybody else, you’re probably going to be pretty successful.”
Harvick enters this Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 as arguably one of the favorites. Of his 60 career wins, three have come at Texas — all within his last 15 starts at the racetrack.
“Texas has been a good racetrack for us – old configuration, new configuration,” Harvick said. “And it’s one of those places that has just fit what we do. Hopefully, it’s the same way this year, but Texas has been a lot of fun to race at for us.”