Despite myriad problems, Kevin Harvick remains in title contention

Kevin Harvick’s championship defense has largely been filled with adversity throughout the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs, a trend that continued Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Twice Harvick had to make an unscheduled pit stop due to a flat tire and, for a portion of the AAA Texas 500, had to drive with one hand on the wheel and the other on the gear shifter to prevent the No. 4 car from popping out of gear.

And yet, Harvick still managed to finish third and is in good shape to advance to the championship bracket with one Round 3 race remaining, 10 points ahead of Carl Edwards, the first driver below the cutline.

‘We’ve had really good racecars and that allows us to overcome things like today with two flat tires,” Harvick said. “Even with the shifter problem we were able to maintain what we had. But all in all, we just kept gouging away and everything worked out in the end.”

Harvick’s troubles began Sunday when he ran through debris off Joey Logano’s damaged car that punctured Harvick’s left rear tire. The defending champion avoided damaging his own car by slowly nursing it back to pit road and because of a timely caution, he never lost a lap and was able to mount a charge back towards the front.

The second cut tire also came by way of debris, but this time there was no caution and Harvick dropped a lap behind. He got that lap back when the leaders made their own pit stops, though, and was able to maintain a spot within the top 10.

Harvick was among a group that included Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson and others who battled tire problems Sunday.

“There was debris everywhere,” Harvick said. “The first caution, they just blew all of the debris down to the inside wall. It seemed like a lot of people were hitting the wall and there was a lot of stuff out there today. It was definitely interesting with all the tire problems.”

The eventful afternoon continued when an issue developed with the gear shifter, which kept popping out of fourth gear. To prevent slowing, Harvick drove an extended stretch with his left hand on the wheel and his right firmly on the shifter.

During a late caution, the No.4 team handed Harvick a bungee cord so he secure the shifter in place. Crew chief Rodney Childers attempted to guide Harvick on how to jerry-rig the line in place, but he elected otherwise.

“I never found anything to hook it to,” Harvick said. “I don’t trust those bungees anyway. I would rather just sit there and hold it and take my chances.”

Texas was a continuation of what has been rash of problems that have nearly derailed Harvick winning a second consecutive championship. He’s now been hamstrung by some sort of hiccup -- either self-induced or of the mechanical failure variety -- in six of eight Chase races.

But signifying he has the speed necessary to contend, Harvick in the only two unblemished events produced a dominating Round 1 victory at Dover International Speedway and a runner-up in the second round opener at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“The cars have been performing well, we’ve just had to overcome things week after week after week,” Harvick said. “I guess those are character-building moments as you go through those weekends, but we’ve managed to survive and advance and that’s what we’ve got to do next week.”