Can we call him “the Closer” again?
Sunday (Aug. 7) at the Michigan International Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series Firekeepers Casino 400, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick punched his ticket to the playoffs, scoring his 58th career win, his first of 2022, and broke a 65-race winless streak dating back to Oct. 2020.
As other front-runners fell by the wayside late, a clutch restart performance from the 46-year-old with just 34 laps remaining let him open up a massive gap on the battle for second, and “Happy” Harvick cruised his way to his sixth Michigan victory.
.@KevinHarvick makes it happen in Michigan, snapping a 65-race winless streak. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/Q2dxG5tOAf
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 7, 2022
“Good timing for sure,” Harvick told NBC’s Marty Snider from the frontstretch, after celebrating with his daughter Piper, just as he did with son Keelan after winning at this track in 2019. “We’ve had several good runs the last few weeks … where the car ran good and just didn’t have everything work out. I’m just really proud of everybody on our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang … our guys have done a good job in trying to take what we have, maximize it and do the things that we need to do”
He followed up, “everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us … we thrive in these types of situations.”
After starting from his first career pole, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace ended the day second, his fourth consecutive top-10 finish and third top five in the last four races. Denny Hamlin recovered from a late pit penalty to third, with Team Penske teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney completing the top five. Despite a sixth-place run, Martin Truex Jr. suddenly finds himself on the outside of the playoffs, while Kyle Larson, Erik Jones and Alex Bowman in seventh, eighth and ninth were the only Chevrolets in the top 10.
In only his third Cup start, Ty Gibbs scored the final top-10 position, the first of his young career.
NASCAR had scheduled the green flag for 3 p.m. ET, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Eventually, the sun came out and fans were treated to a thrilling afternoon of racing in the Great Lakes State.
Aided by a push from Logano on the start, Wallace rocketed out to an early lead. He would open up a one-and-a-half second gap on second-place Tyler Reddick by the lap 21 competition caution.
Split strategies at the first yellow put fast cars at the back of the pack and slower cars up front. That…
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