What a difference a year makes.
Kevin Harvick‘s 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season was one for the ages. Nine victories and arguably his best statistical season in his 20-plus-year career.
Fast forward one year and he failed to visit victory lane once. Heck, he didn’t even earn a single playoff point on track over the course of the 36-race season.
He became the first driver since Carl Edwards in 2008 to win nine times in a single season and zero the following year. Hall of Famer Bill Elliott also had a nine-win drop-off in the mid 1980s (11 in 1985 to two in 1986).
The crazy part about Harvick’s two-year stretch is his points finish. Fifth in 2020, fifth in 2021. That’s right: nine wins and a fifth-place finish, zero wins and the same points finish.
As Harvick told NASCAR.com during Champion’s Week in Nashville, those funky statistics may be an indictment on the playoff format more than the difference in performance from the No. 4 team.
“Obviously we’d love to have won, but we did a great job in managing the season,” he said. “I don’t know what it says with how we currently exist with our current system. We won nine times last year and finished fifth, and we won nothing this year and finished fifth. I don’t really know how to take that, personally.”
Harvick became the second ever driver in this playoff format (since 2014) to start 15th or 16th, accumulate zero playoff points over the entire season and finish top five in the standings. The other driver was Ryan Newman in 2014, who ironically finished second to Harvick that year.
The consistency was still there for Harvick, though. His 24 top-10 finishes marked the ninth straight season with 20 or more top-10 results. The Bakersfield, Calif., native also collected 10 top-five finishes, his eighth straight season with double digits in that category.
But the goose egg in the win column is the obvious glaring stat. Harvick has gone winless in four full-time Cup seasons (2004, 2008, 2009 and now 2021), with last year ending an 11-year streak of at least one win.
It further exemplifies not only the depth of the Cup field, but the need for annual organizational growth being paramount. Harvick has been the bell cow for Stewart-Haas Racing since his arrival eight years ago, winning at least two races every season, which makes a winless season for him show that there must have really been something off.
No disrespect to Aric Almirola and his victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (where Harvick led the most laps, 66), but a one-win season with the lone checkered flag coming from the No. 10 car is … not great. Chase Briscoe won Sunoco Rookie of the Year and Cole Custer had a middling season, but half of SHR’s fleet in the postseason isn’t the measuring stick for Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.
With the Next Gen car bringing a significant unknown variable to the equation for 2022, it remains to be seen how SHR and Harvick will stack up with the competition. But with two more years on Harvick’s contract (and every intention of finishing it out, as he said on the Dale Jr. Download), Harvick shouldn’t be having any more winless seasons.
The future first-ballot Hall of Famer came oh-so-close this year multiple times, notably at Bristol Motor Speedway, and that fire still burns.
Kevin Harvick SLAMMED his helmet against his roof.
He advanced to the next round of the #NASCARPlayoffs, but he wanted to add his name to the win column in a bad way. pic.twitter.com/F54bVUzZt9
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 19, 2021
It may be the twilight of Harvick’s NASCAR career, but only a fool would think he’s incapable of winning another championship in his final years. He may not be the number one driver you think of when it comes to title contention (welcome back, Kyle Larson), but you best not let him slip your mind.
However many years Harvick has left, he’ll do so winning. Because 2021 was an oddity in an career spanning 50-plus victories and a championship.