NASCAR: Kevin Harvick wins for sixth time at Michigan International Speedway
BROOKLYN — For Kevin Harvick, a trip to Michigan was just what the doctor ordered.
Harvick won the 2022 FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, his sixth career victory at Michigan International Speedway (2010, 2018, 2019 and a sweep of two wins in 2020).
The win, his first since September 2020, snapped his 65-start winless streak and punched his ticket into the 2022 NASCAR Cup playoffs.
He'd led just 13 laps the entire season (11 in Atlanta, one in California and one in Darlington), but took the lead on the race's final restart in Lap 163 on Sunday and did not relinquish it.
"Good timing for sure," Harvick said of his win to USA Network in victory lane. "Everybody who doubted us doesn't know us. They know we thrive in these types of situations.
"A lot of things went our way today, which we haven't had happen a lot this year ... once I got clear track today that baby was hunting."
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Bubba Wallace, who won the pole for the first time in his career, took second, finishing in the top 10 for his career-best fourth straight race. Denny Hamlin, who won Stage 2, took third followed by Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Despite continuing a solid stretch, Wallace was emotional after the race.
He lamented what he saw as a missed opportunity on the final restart that let Harvick get out to a big lead and saw him battle Logano for the better part of the next 20 laps.
During that time, Harvick stretched his lead out to nearly five seconds and by the time Wallace passed Logano with 17 laps left. It was too late to catch the leader.
"I'm replaying everything I could've done differently," Wallace said in a television interview, fighting back tears. "All in all an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wish we could've got Toyota in victory lane, wish we could've got McDonalds in victory lane.
"She was fast all week man, I'll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody."
As for Harvick, Sunday was a lesson in patience. He and his crew chief Rodney Childers said they did not know it had been 65 races since their last victory. The two have been to the heights of the sport since Harvick's first year in the No. 4 car for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, winning the series championship that season.
The duo has won 36 races together and said during the drought there was no fire coming out of anybody's ears or shouting matches — it was about working together to continue to find the right adjustments.
"We went through the first part of the season and didn’t have everything where we wanted it to be but we kept our heads down," Harvick said. "The next thing you know, it comes together.
"It's fun to go through it with this group of guys when you finally pop out of it and you're like 'man, all that work' it feels pretty good now."
Sunday was the eighth consecutive victory for Ford at MIS (43rd all time), with Ford taking three of the top five spots as the company walked away with another Heritage Trophy.
Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford Performance, spoke after Sunday's race on how it's always tough to win on NASCAR's top circuit, but added it makes it all the sweeter when they're able to on their own turf.
"To have some of our drivers locked in (to the playoffs) and some fighting to get in, whether it was Blaney or Harvick, there was a lot of pressure on this weekend," he said. "It definitely means a lot to get it done today."
Toyota (Wallace, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.) took the other three spots in the top six when Chevrolet (Kyle Larson, Erik Jones and Alex Bowman) finishing seventh through ninth.
Byron's Erik Jones (eighth) and Rochester Hills' Brad Keselowski finished 15th, extending the streak of no Michigan-born driver having won a top-circuit NASCAR race at MIS.
The action started early with the race's first shakeup. Just moments after the the first restart, on Lap 22, the cars came around Turn 2 and what appeared to be an attempted pass led to a crash.
"I don't know what started it, but the No. 10 (Aric Almirola) got spun in front of me and I got wedged between him and the wall," Kyle Busch, whose day was done after Lap 24 and his career-worst stretch of missing the top 10 extended to eight consecutive races, said on USA. "(My frustration) on a scale of 1-10? Infinity."
The Almirola, Austin Cindric, J.J. Yeley, Harrison Burton and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also did not finish due to crashes.
Christopher Bell won the first stage and led at three separate points for a total of 31 laps before a late crash that caused him to finish 26th.
There were multiple cautions in Stage 2.
Cole Custer's front left tire caught fire on Lap 99 and Noah Gragson had an incident on Turn 2 on Lap 109 — before Hamlin took the stage and the ever-important playoff point.
The race was delayed more than 1½ hours after a quick but substantial rainstorm moved through the area around 2:30 p.m. Harvick was the 15th different winner in the season's first 23 races — tying a NASCAR record — with three races remaining before the postseason.
Harvick's son, Keelan, got a chance to ride around with his father on the track after one of his previous wins at MIS. On Sunday, his daughter Piper got her chance to do the same.
"She did go for a ride, but we had to talk her into it," he laughed. "Just a really cool moment to be able to experience a lot of these things.
"Great day from a lot of different perspectives whether it's family or team — just a lot of things that feel good."
Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on twitter at @realtonygarcia.
MIS' fastest
The top-five finishers in Sunday's NASCAR race (with start position in parentheses):
1. Kevin Harvick, Ford (16)
2. Bubba Wallace, Toyota (1)
3. Denny Hamlin, Toyota (9)
4. Joey Logano, Ford (4)
5. Ryan Blaney, Ford (24)
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NASCAR: Kevin Harvick wins at MIS, snaps 65-race winless streak
