Kevin Harvick couldn’t turn a fast car into his sixth victory of the year Sunday in the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway, which is one of two active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tracks that he’s competed at where he’s yet to win.
Harvick started from outside the front row and had a dominating performance on his way to winning the day’s second stage. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver stayed in the mix for another win until late in Sunday’s race and a trip down pit road.
Harvick lost the lead to Kyle Busch and fell behind eventual race winner Martin Truex Jr. on what turned out to be his final stop of the day and he could not run down either in the closing laps.
“We just lost our track position of being in the lead and lost control of the race,” Harvick explained. “That is what did us in there. We restarted second and then third and lost a spot on each restart as you start on the inside.
“Our Busch Ford was really fast and the guys did a really great job. When you are racing the 18 (Busch) and 78 (Truex Jr.) you are splitting hairs and they were just better than us on pit road today.”
Harvick didn’t think the decision to stay out rather than pit for fresh tires was what cost him the shot at winning.
“Really not pitting or pitting didn’t really seem to matter,” he said. “We lost control to the 18 and wound up losing a couple more spots on the restart starting on the inside, and that was the end of the day. Car was fast and everybody did a great job, it just didn’t work out.”
