Kevin Harvick not bothered by finishing runner-up to Kyle Busch at Pocono, despite late contact

With Kyle Busch having the faster car and being on fresher tires, Kevin Harvick understood it would be a challenge to keep Busch from passing him during the closing laps of the Overton’s 400 Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Harvick was running directly behind race-leader Denny Hamlin and when he went around Hamlin with 17 laps remaining, he hoped he could build some distance between himself and Busch, who had 11 fewer laps on his tires. But as Harvick passed Hamlin, Busch quickly followed.

Harvick then tried to keep his car on the bottom groove of the 2.5-mile track, except with older tires and a car that wasn’t handling perfectly, he got loose going through Turn 3. That allowed Busch to charge, and with momentum on his side, he nudged Harvick aside and never looked back. Busch motored away to win his first race of the season by a six-second margin.

“He was way faster than we were,” Harvick said. “In the lap he happened to catch me, in my head I was thinking, ‘All right, we just need to stay on the bottom.’ I got sideways going into [Turn] 3, tried to park it. He was going to the throttle about the same time. Got in the back of me a little bit. That was just me trying to keep it on the bottom.

“There was no battle. He was in a league of his own there at the end. Just got through traffic good; got to us, got around us, gone.”

It was a dominating afternoon for Busch, who started on the pole and led a race-high 74 of a possible 160 laps. That superiority didn’t go unnoticed by Harvick, who held on to finish second.

On a day where the Toyotas of Busch, Hamlin, and Martin Truex Jr. combined to lead 77 percent of all laps, Harvick considered it an accomplishment to just be in contention.

“Kyle had the class of the field all weekend,” Harvick said. “His car was really, really fast. He got the pole, got the win. Pretty much just charged through the field.”

After an uneven start to the season following Stewart-Haas Racing undergoing an offseason manufacturer switch from Chevrolet to Ford, Harvick has finished ninth or better in five of his last six races. He ranks third in the regular-season standings with five races left before the playoffs.

“I wish I could explain to everybody how big the workload has been switching to Ford and doing all the things we’ve done and trying to race and progress at the same time,” Harvick said. “We keep getting better. I know we’ll get better as we go into the playoffs. Just keep battling; that’s all you can do.”