Quiet Day At Dover Allows Kevin Harvick To Take Points Lead In NASCAR Chase

Coming into Sunday’s NASCAR race at Dover International Speedway, Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team had this race circled as one they simply wanted to survive. Not one of their best tracks, Harvick had only three top-10 finishes in his previous 10 Dover starts.

If he hoped to capture the Chase points lead, Harvick would have to change that trend Sunday.

By staying out of trouble and running solidly among the top 10 throughout much of the race, Harvick was able to do just that as he recorded a 10th-place finish and moved atop the standings.

“(It’s) obviously not a super strong racetrack for us,” he said. “But we felt like we had been solid over the last couple of years – not to win the race, but solid enough to get decent finishes and get out of here.”

Coming off a second-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway and a 12th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Harvick accomplished his goal and heads to Kansas as the points leader.

Harvick is technically tied with Carl Edwards for the points lead, but would get the advantage according to a tie-breaker determined by the NASCAR rule book.

While he has not exactly lit the world on fire in terms of results, his consistent finishes have allowed him to rise above the competition and lead the standings for the second time in three weeks.

With his sights set on his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, Harvick knows it will take consistency and avoiding poor finishes to win the title. At the same time though, Harvick pointed out with the competition as close as it has ever been, a few wins by those that are struggling could make things much tighter as the Chase approached the season-finale at Homestead.

“You just have to take it one week at a time and I would much rather be sitting on top of the points three weeks in than sitting 12th,” he said. “So we’ll just keep at it.”