Kevin Harvick stakes claim to superiority on 1.5 mile-tracks

Kevin Harvick knows Martin Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing carry the reputation for being the best on mile-and-a-half tracks, the sized track Truex scored seven victories on in 2017 and factored prominently in him winning the 2017 Cup Series championship.

But Harvick has seen the recent stats and the numbers favor him and his Stewart-Haas Racing team. Harvick has won three of the past four races on 1.5-mile tracks dating back to last fall, including going 2-for-2 this season.

“I think as you look at the 1.5 mile program in general it has been really good for us,” Harvick said during a press conference Friday at Texas, site of Sunday’s O’Reilly 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1).

“We are better than Truex.”

Last November, Harvick ran down and passed Truex with 10 laps remaining to win the playoff semifinal round race at Texas, one of eight 1.5-mile tracks on the schedule. The win not only locked Harvick into the championship final, but also foreshadowed what was to come. In Harvick’s two wins on 1.5-mile tracks this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he led 67 percent of the combined laps.

The Texas win was the changing of the guard, Harvick said. With SHR having switched manufacturers from Chevrolet to Ford prior to the 2017 season, the organization found itself behind FRR’s Toyota-powered cars. But after playing catch up for much of the season, Texas demonstrated SHR was finally able to beat its counterparts.

“I think once the playoffs started last year you really saw where the cars were and the increase in performance, especially on the 1.5 mile race tracks,” Harvick said. “It just took us some time. When you see what Stewart-Haas Racing has done with Ford, we still haven’t reached the potential of where we can be, in my opinion. I think that is the biggest reason we made the switch, the potential of the resources and things that come with the partnership with Ford.”

SHR’s early season superiority goes beyond just mile-and-a-half tracks. Harvick also has a win on the one-mile oval at ISM Raceway this season, while teammate Clint Bowyer won at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway. SHR’s other drivers, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola, sit 10th and 11th in the point standings, respectively.

That speed was evident in qualifying Friday when Busch, Harvick and Bowyer posted the top-three times.

“We have, in my opinion, the most stable team in the garage,” Harvick said. “When you have the most stable team in the garage from a financial standpoint and manufacturer standpoint, that attracts good people.

“In the end, it is all about good people. We have a very committed manufacturer and owner group and we are the drivers lucky enough to be in a position of where Stewart-Haas racing is right now. We have a very solid foundation which is something to hang your hat on.”