Harvick needs stellar performance at Kansas

rir_nscs_harvick_042216It’s happened again.

Kevin Harvick finds himself in poor position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup following his 38th-place finish at Charlotte, caused by a blown engine.

He’s been able to overcome Chase adversity by winning in a dire situation in each of the past three seasons: New Hampshire this year, Dover last season when he finished championship runner-up and Phoenix in 2014 on his way to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

Right now, Harvick sits last in the Chase’s Round of 12 standings – eight points behind Denny Hamlin on the cutoff line, while also trailing three other drivers for the final spot in the Round of 8. He’ll try to produce another stellar performance under pressure in Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (2:15 p.m. ET on NBC) where he has logged one win (fall 2013) and three runner-ups in his last six races.

“The repave is definitely what changed and turned things around for us at Kansas,” Harvick said of the 2012 resurfacing. “Really, I liked the race track the way that it was before with the asphalt really worn out and cars sliding all over. But once the repave happened we were able to really hit on some things and for whatever reason it kind of fits my driving style and we have got some good results out of it. It has been a really good performing race track for us and one that we look forward to going to and hopefully continue to get good results out of because it’s been so good for us in the past.”

Harvick doesn’t believe he has to win at Kansas or the next race in Talladega to advance like he has had to do in the past.

“You at least have another option,” he said. “As crazy as this thing can be, anybody can have trouble so it can even up pretty fast.”

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