Kevin Harvick cuts tire, rebounds to 13th

Kevin Harvick experienced a cut tire on lap 26 of the Auto Club 400, lost a lap getting it changed, and spent most of the afternoon a lap down to the leaders. He regained his lap with 10 circuits remaining and finished 13th.

Harvick's Fantasy Power Rankings number will take a hit this week, but he showed a lot of poise and strength at the end of the race to secure that top-15, advancing from 22nd. He should be watched closely in the coming weeks.

Cut tire sends Harvick home early from Vegas

Kevin Harvick cut a right front tire on lap 70 of the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and made heavy contact with the wall.

Harvick was running sixth at the time and on his way to placing in the top 10 at the end of segment one, which was only 10 laps away. He would have been the only driver in the field to have earned points in the first five segments with NASCAR’s new rule. Instead, he retired with only one point and a 38th-place finish. Harvick dropped to eighth in the standings, but he can credit his previous strong segment runs and 39 points for staying inside the top 16.

Kevin Harvick lets QuikTrip 500 slip away

Kevin Harvick easily had the most dominant car all afternoon at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but a speeding penalty on the final pit stop cost him the victory. He finished ninth.

Harvick led the most laps, won both segments, and earned the third-most championship points for the race, but he was forced to start at the tail-end of the longest line with his penalty. Harvick passed five cars at the end to record his top-10 finish. He now has three playoff points that he will carry throughout the nine races heading into Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Kevin Harvick caught up in 'Big One' crash

Kevin Harvick won the second segment of the Daytona 500, but he was unable to capitalize on his stage win and earn maximum points because he was caught up in a lap-129, 'Big One' crash.

Because of the 10 points he earned in that segment and nine earned in segment one, he logged 34 points for the afternoon despite finishing 22nd. Along with points that he earned in his Can-Am Duel at Daytona, he sits fourth in the standings. In another year, he be somewhere around 20th.

Kevin Harvick Profile

By Dan Beaver/RotoWorld

In the two seasons prior to 2016, Kevin Harvick dug deep holes for himself during the playoffs but always seemed to climb out of them with victories. These often came in pivotal events in the final races of their respective rounds, so no one was particularly concerned when he entered Phoenix International Raceway last November needing to win to become part of the Championship Four.

Harvick missed the final round of the Chase for the first time since this current format was employed, but fantasy owners with the No. 4 on their lineup probably won their leagues when he finished fourth and completed a top-five sweep of the season on that flat one-mile track. Harvick has been so dominant on that course that no one was caught unaware of his record—but Phoenix was one of five tracks on which he swept the top five and one of eight with perfect top-10s.

Harvick was solid everywhere in 2016. His top-five sweeps came at Phoenix, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, and Michigan International Speedway. Top-10s were earned in both Texas Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway, and Bristol Motor Speedway events.

There are some consistencies in the list above. Phoenix and New Hampshire are both short, flat tracks along with Richmond. Pocono is longer version of the flat tracks and Harvick also posted a top-10 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Virginia .750-mile tri-oval can be linked to the bullring of Bristol.

Kansas, Michigan, and Texas belong to the list of similarly-configured, 1.5- and two-mile tracks. Add Kentucky Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway with top-10s in their single races of the season and players could easily place-and-hold Harvick on two of the most dominant track types on which NASCAR competes.

But while it is easy to become hyperbolic about the 2014 NASCAR champion, there were a few moments of concern last year. Harvick was never able to string more than five top-10s together and his longest streak came at the start of the season from the Daytona 500 through his runner-up finish in the Auto Club 400.

After that, he posted four consecutive strong runs on several occasions, but lost some momentum at the end of the year. In the final 10 races of the season, Harvick finished 20th or worse four times. That had happened to him only twice during the regular season.

Stewart-Haas Racing will experience a few challenges this year. Clint Bowyer is a new addition to the organization; Danica Patrick unexpectedly lost a sponsor in January, and those factors could provide a distraction for Harvick and Kurt Busch.

Moreover, Harvick will have a key role in preparing the developmental drivers for a new team in the Xfinity Series, but those same challenges could galvanize him and make the No. 4 an even bigger contender this year.

Victories: Phoenix (spring), Bristol (fall), New Hampshire (fall), and Kansas (fall)
Top-fives: 17 (.472)
Top-10s: 27 (.750)
Top-15s: 29 (.806)

Track	3-Yr Avg. Fin	Career Avg. Fin	Best Fin	Career Attempts	Career Top-10s	Race 1	Race 2
Phoenix International Raceway +	1.57	10.04	1	28	17	1	4
Darlington Raceway	2.67	15.65	1	20	9	2
Homestead - Miami Speedway	4.00	6.00	1	14	13	3
Indianapolis Motor Speedway	5.67	9.94	1	16	10	6
Kansas Speedway +	5.83	10.45	1	22	11	2	1
Richmond International Raceway +	7.00	10.47	1	32	20	5	5
Michigan International Speedway +	7.50	12.66	1	32	15	5	5
Kentucky Speedway	8.00	10.17	7	6	4	9
Charlotte Motor Speedway	9.00	15.41	1	32	14	2	38
Atlanta Motor Speedway	9.00	17.62	1	26	11	6
Sonoma Raceway	10.00	14.56	2	16	7	6
Talladega Superspeedway	10.17	15.06	1	32	14	15	7
New Hampshire Motor Speedway +	10.33	13.06	1	32	17	4	1
Texas Motor Speedway *	10.83	12.00	2	28	16	10	6
Pocono Raceway *	12.17	13.66	2	32	13	9	4
Auto Club Speedway	13.33	15.13	1	23	11	2
Watkins Glen International	14.00	13.25	1	16	8	32
Dover Downs International	14.17	15.00	1	32	14	15	37
Martinsville Speedway	15.50	16.03	1	31	14	17	20
Las Vegas Motor Speedway	16.33	13.38	1	16	7	7
Bristol Motor Speedway *	16.33	13.94	1	32	15	7	1
Daytona International Speedway	16.83	16.13	1	31	14	4	39
Chicagoland Speedway	22.33	12.25	1	16	9	20
Inactive Tracks
Homestead - Miami Speedway - old		13.50		2	1
North Carolina Speedway		19.86		7

+ Top-five sweeps
* Top-10 sweeps

Short Flat Tracks - Statistically Speaking

via RotoWorld/Dan Beaver.

Last fall, no one was particularly concerned that Kevin Harvick had dug a deep hole for himself in the third round of the Chase. That was because everyone expected him to win the Can-Am 500 like he had won six of the previous nine races at Phoenix International Raceway. On two other occasions, he finished second in those five years, leaving only one time when he truly stumbled—if one could call a 13th-place result stumbling. Drivers and fantasy players do not have the same priorities, however, and even though Harvick failed to win and advance to the finale in Chase contention, his fourth-place finish in that race was the ninth time since 2012 that he scored a top-five. Guess who will be anchoring one’s roster at Phoenix in 2017?

Even with his dominance at Phoenix, Harvick is not the driver with the best record on minimally-banked courses one mile or less in length. Harvick struggled in both Martinsville Speedway events, but Kyle Busch swept the top 10 in all races on this course type. Busch’s wort two efforts came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in their first race and Richmond International Raceway’s fall event when he crossed under the checkers eighth and ninth respectively, but those were easily offset by a victory at Martinsville in the spring, a runner-up finish in Richmond’s first race, and another second at Phoenix in the fall. Altogether, Busch had an average finish of 4.25 in eight races that easily eclipsed the competition.

Joey Logano had the third best average finish on short, flat tracks with a 8.88. As one might expect with that average, he was much less predictable than the competition and the No. 22 finished outside the top 10 three times in eight races on minimally-banked courses. Two of these were barely outside that mark with 11ths is Martinsville’s spring and Richmond’s fall events. He offset that with only two top-fives, but one of these was a victory in the Can-Am 500 that made him a favorite to win the championship.

Kyle Larson had his share of success on this course type as well with three top-fives, a worst result of 17th, and the fourth-best average finish in the Cup series. All of the top-ranked drivers finished in the top five at Phoenix to close out the season; Larson was third in that event and had top-three results at Martinsville and Richmond. He is currently best known for his ability on multi-groove tracks that allow him to move to the top, so these events are a good place to differentiate one’s lineup from the competition.

The driver with the best record in 2016, but who struggled the most on short, flat tracks was Carl Edwards. He got his season off to a bang with a near-win at Phoenix, a sixth at Martinsville, and victory at Richmond. His Good Sam 500 effort was probably the most dramatic as he banged fenders with the winner Harvick, but chose not to wreck him before the checkers. As soon as the summer came along, he faded on many courses and earned just one more top-15 in the final five races on this track type. 

Rank	Driver	Avg. Fin	Phx 2	M’ville 2	NH 2	Rich 2	NH 1	Rich 1	M’ville 1	Phx 1
1.	Kyle Busch	4.25	2	5	3	9	8	2	1	4
2.	Kevin Harvick	7.13	4	20	1	5	4	5	17	1
3.	Joey Logano	8.88	1	9	11	10	3	8	11	18
4.	Kyle Larson	9.50	3	14	10	2	17	15	3	12
5.	Denny Hamlin	10.38	7	3	15	1	9	6	39	3
6.	Brad Keselowski	10.50	14	2	4	4	15	11	5	29
7.	Kurt Busch	11.38	5	22	5	8	22	10	13	6
8.	Jimmie Johnson	11.63	38	1	8	11	12	3	9	11
9.	Matt Kenseth	11.88	21	4	2	38	1	7	15	7
10.	Jamie McMurray	13.25	11	8	19	7	6	16	23	16
11.	Kasey Kahne	14.00	13	11	9	6	25	4	22	22
12.	Martin Truex Jr.	14.25	40	7	7	3	16	9	18	14
13.	Ty Dillon	15.00								15
14.	Carl Edwards	15.25	19	36	6	32	20	1	6	2
15.	Alex Bowman	15.33	6		14		26
16.	Chase Elliott	15.88	9	12	13	19	34	12	20	8
17.	Austin Dillon	16.38	39	17	16	13	13	20	4	9
18.	AJ Allmendinger	16.63	17	10	21	20	21	25	2	17
19.	Greg Biffle	17.13	16	13	33	23	5	14	12	21
20.	Ryan Blaney	18.25	8	19	12	39	11	28	19	10
21.	Ryan Newman	18.75	12	16	20	28	7	18	10	39
22.	Tony Stewart	19.67	15	26	23	33	2	19
23.	Danica Patrick	19.88	29	24	18	15	14	24	16	19
24.	Aric Almirola	20.50	22	15	17	17	19	21	40	13
25.	Paul Menard	23.25	10	25	25	40	18	22	8	38
26.	Trevor Bayne	24.13	28	23	38	14	23	17	27	23
27.	Clint Bowyer	26.13	24	28	22	22	24	33	25	31
27.	Casey Mears	26.13	18	21	27	21	27	29	31	35
29.	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	26.25	23	40	24	18	10	26	32	37
29.	Michael McDowell	26.25	34	18	26	12	39	31	24	26
31.	Landon Cassill	27.75	20	29	29	36	28	27	28	25
32.	Dylan Lupton	28.00		31		25
33.	David Ragan	29.00	31	37	32	34	30	23	21	24
33.	Matt DiBenedetto	29.00	25	32	28	37	31	30	29	20
35.	Chris Buescher	29.88	32	27	30	24	29	34	33	30
36.	Regan Smith	30.75	27	30	34	29	32	32	34	28
37.	Brian Scott	32.00	30	34	31	35	38	35	26	27
38.	Jeffrey Earnhardt	33.60	33	33	37	27		38
39.	Michael Annett	33.63	26	35	40	31	33	36	35	33
40.	Joey Gase	34.00							36	32
41.	DJ Kennington	35.00	35
42.	Reed Sorenson	35.43	36	38	36	26	35	40	37
43.	Cole Whitt	35.50			35	41			30	36
44.	Eddie MacDonald	36.00					36
45.	Josh Wise	36.67			39	30	40	39	38	34
46.	Gray Gaulding	38.00	37	39