As the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway for the final stop of the annual West Coast tour, one driver stands alone as that track’s top wheelman: Kevin Harvick.
Harvick has a total of nine wins at Phoenix, more than double the total of Jimmie Johnson, the next driver on the track’s all-time wins list. He has triple that of the next drivers in line after that.
Harvick’s nine wins add up to a 22.9% winning percentage at the one-mile oval. He has finished in the top 10 at Phoenix 72.5% of the time. He has not finished outside the top 10 in a decade; his last finish outside the top 10 was a 13th-place in the spring 2013 event. He won the race before that and the next four after.
It gets even more impressive from there. Harvick has never failed to finish a Phoenix race, and he’s completed all but 21 laps out of a possible 12,487 since his debut in 2001 (and 15 of his lost laps came in a single race in 2003). He’s led over 1,600 laps.
In a nutshell:
Phoenix Raceway: Kevin Harvick
Starts: 40
Wins: 9 (22.9%)
Top five: 19 (47.5%)
Top 10: 29 (72.5%)
Average finish: 8.7
Laps completed: 12,466/12,487 (99.8%)
Laps led: 1,663
Poles: 2
DNF: 0
And now, Harvick has a chance to make history.
Harvick, who has announced that the 2023 season will be his last in Cup competition, has two races left at Phoenix to join an extremely elite group of drivers with 10 or more wins at a single track.
Just how elite is this club? To date, it has just five members across nine racetracks. Every driver on the list has no fewer than three Cup titles. It’s a list of some of the best drivers of all time and one a lot of the sport’s greats never made.
Here’s the short list of double-digit winners.
Bristol Motor Speedway: Darrell Waltrip
Starts: 52
Wins: 12 (23.1%)
Top five: 26 (50%)
Top 10: 32 (61.5%)
Average finish: 11.3
Laps completed: 22,964/25,461 (90.2%)
Laps led: 3,436
Poles: 4
DNF: 5
Darlington Raceway: David Pearson
Starts: 47
Wins: 10 (21.3%)
Top five: 24 (51.1%)
Top 10: 30 (63.8%)
Average finish: 12.0
Laps completed: 12,536/15,902 (78.8%)
Laps led: 2,116
Poles: 12
DNF: 17
Daytona International Speedway: Richard Petty
Starts: 74
Wins: 10 (13.5%)
Top five: 28 (37.8%)
Top 10: 37 (50%)
Average finish: 15.0
Laps completed: 9,417/11,767 (80%)
Laps led: 1,278
Poles: 4
DNF: 27
Dover Motor Speedway: Jimmie Johnson
Starts: 38
Wins: 11 (28.9%)
Top five: 18 (47.4%)
Top 10: 27 (71.1%)
Average finish: 9.7
Laps completed: 14,787/15,041 (98.3%)
Laps led: 3113
Poles: 5
DNF:…
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