Has Kevin Harvick (at age 43) Lost A Step?

Actually I think Rodney is being pretty open about the wheel wells having a big impact on their performance. What more do you expect him to say? "Yeah well see we took this and rolled it over more and took this and flared it out more"

It's a lot better than Nascar coming out and saying such and such cars are going to the rear of the field for failing pre race tech and nothing more. Well what did they fail for?
 
wi_racefan said:
Actually I think Rodney is being pretty open about the wheel wells having a big impact on their performance. What more do you expect him to say? "Yeah well see we took this and rolled it over more and took this and flared it out more"

It's a lot better than Nascar coming out and saying such and such cars are going to the rear of the field for failing pre race tech and nothing more. Well what did they fail for?
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I don't think he needs to say anything actually. Just fix the car. He is using the rule as a scapegoat. The same set of rules he exploits to gain an advantage. Something tells me that he is smarter than all of this. It feels un-Rodney like to share with the world where they are working.

....and yeah, NASCAR should tell the world what is going on....I'd be particularly interested in what the 9 has been up to two weeks in a row.
 
Revman said:
I don't think he needs to say anything actually. Just fix the car. He is using the rule as a scapegoat. The same set of rules he exploits to gain an advantage. Something tells me that he is smarter than all of this. It feels un-Rodney like to share with the world where they are working.

....and yeah, NASCAR should tell the world what is going on....I'd be particularly interested in what the 9 has been up to two weeks in a row.
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I can't remember which week it was but they said they saw something with the side skirt that they didn't like

They're all exploiting the rules to gain an advantage. They just found the one that SHR was using. This is no different then when they cracked down on the rear end movement and Penske fell off the map
 
wi_racefan said:
I can't remember which week it was but they said they saw something with the side skirt that they didn't like

They're all exploiting the rules to gain an advantage. They just found the one that SHR was using. This is no different then when they cracked down on the rear end movement and Penske fell off the map
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Yeah....and that doesn't say what probably was really going on which was that the 9 screwed with the car between inspection and the grid...We eject car chiefs for failing inspection, but the only consequence here is back of the grid? Larry Mac says that they need to fix the issue prior to going to the back....You have the Hawkeye...pass....car messed with....and the solution is to just bend it back? Shouldn't it go back through the Hawkeye? ....and be assessed another failure? It's stupid.

I don't remember Penske saying anything after the crack down nor do I remember JGR saying anything with the rear suspensions that could move and then be locked back in place. That's what is weird about this. Again, I think Rodney is inviting people down a rabbit hole.
 
I agree that, if a car fails to the point it's sent to the back and/or crew member expelled, NASCAR owes it to us to say why. Bring back the "cheater parts" displays where they'd confiscate parts off a car and put it out for all teams to see.

That said, it is quite the coincidence that SHR has fallen off the map after the rules change affecting the wheel wells and inspection. I'd also like to know what the heck is going on with the 9 team. One week was the team, not NASCAR, finding a side skirt issue they didn't like when unloading the car. The other? Did they bust the 9 trying to get through with whatever they've put on the 5?

Edit: yes, I teed up a "Larson is what they put in the 5 hur hur!" post for someone. I get it. I just can't understand why the 9 has fallen off so compared to teammates and the streak they seemed to find second half of last year.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
I agree that, if a car fails to the point it's sent to the back and/or crew member expelled, NASCAR owes it to us to say why. Bring back the "cheater parts" displays where they'd confiscate parts off a car and put it out for all teams to see.

That said, it is quite the coincidence that SHR has fallen off the map after the rules change affecting the wheel wells and inspection. I'd also like to know what the heck is going on with the 9 team. One week was the team, not NASCAR, finding a side skirt issue they didn't like when unloading the car. The other? Did they bust the 9 trying to get through with whatever they've put on the 5?

Edit: yes, I teed up a "Larson is what they put in the 5 hur hur!" post for someone. I get it. I just can't understand why the 9 has fallen off so compared to teammates and the streak they seemed to find second half of last year.
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I don't know....teams get an advantage by finding an area to work in....SHR must have had some gorgeous wheel wheels.....when that area is gone, the advantage is gone, and I think what Rodney is getting at is that now your balance is shot. Not only have you lost your advantage, but your car is screwed until you recalibrate with the loss. With no practice, qualifying, reduced wind tunnel time, development freeze, etc....it's hard to get performance back. I think a great story this year will be to see if the 4 can regain performance or will he go the way of KFB '20.

As for the 9, 5, whatever.....the new Chev was as crappy as the old, so they have to get creative to make it fast. Epic Chevy failure. You had a new car. You should have dominated. You didn't. Please spare me the Pool Hall Boy....he got his Championship, but that wasn't about Chevy.
 
Revman said:
I don't know....teams get an advantage by finding an area to work in....SHR must have had some gorgeous wheel wheels.....when that area is gone, the advantage is gone, and I think what Rodney is getting at is that now your balance is shot. Not only have you lost your advantage, but your car is screwed until you recalibrate with the loss. With no practice, qualifying, reduced wind tunnel time, development freeze, etc....it's hard to get performance back. I think a great story this year will be to see if the 4 can regain performance or will he go the way of KFB '20.

As for the 9, 5, whatever.....the new Chev was as crappy as the old, so they have to get creative to make it fast. Epic Chevy failure. You had a new car. You should have dominated. You didn't. Please spare me the Pool Hall Boy....he got his Championship, but that wasn't about Chevy.
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Whew. Good thing I'm an Elliott fan and don't give two damns about Chevy. ;)
 
Anyone remember the last time Kev was outside the top 5 in the points this deep in the season? Sure, the first couple of races always produce some scrambled standings, but here we are at the Easter break and he's 8th.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Anyone remember the last time Kev was outside the top 5 in the points this deep in the season? Sure, the first couple of races always produce some scrambled standings, but here we are at the Easter break and he's 8th.
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2017, in their first year with Ford they were 10th at this point.

2014, first year for the team they were 26th in points but had a win already.
 
FLRacingFan said:
2017, in their first year with Ford they were 10th at this point.

2014, first year for the team they were 26th in points but had a win already.
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Thanks. I'm in a league where the drivers change tiers based on current points. Other than early in the season, I couldn't remember the last time Kevin wasn't in the top tier (or Kyle, for that matter).
 
Was glad to see him steal that 2nd place finish. I don't think that car was better than a 5th place car but when I saw him and Suarez were the first 2 cars with new tires back in 13th and 14th I got a little excited. Then that last caution gave him even more of a chance and I thought he might get lucky and steal one. He was on that wheel for sure if he'd had another lap he might have caught Kyle Busch but if if's and but's were candies and nuts it'd be Christmas every day (I stole that one from Larry McReynolds). Man I dunno if today is all that much of a step in the right direction or not.
 
2 Sweet said:
He ran pretty damn well at the Darlington races last year, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see him in victory lane next weekend
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He ran pretty damn well at a lot of races last year but it doesn't seem to have helped him this year, but we'll see.
 
Nice finish for Harv today, hope the bounce back is coming up soon.

Almirola, Custer, Briscoe... man the struggle is real right now, all 3 top25+ standings on back. Very surprising. Waiting for something good to happen. 🤷‍♂️
 
They showed some decent speed yesterday. Not race winning speed on equal tires, but they were making competitive passes in the top ten and looked like an honest top 5 car at the end of the race. . As a side note, uncontrolled tire or not, the crew is lightning fast.
 
Compared to a similar place like Las Vegas they made a lot of progress this weekend, pretty comfortably a 5th-8th place car until the penalty that helped them in the long run. That they're solidly in the playoffs right now with as many Top 10s as they've gotten is pretty encouraging considering the lack of speed compared to the competition at JGR, HMS, and Penske. They still have time to find more.
 
Got some help from Bell having to peel off late but a nice closing stint from 10th to 6th at the end.
 
Most teams share at least some information with their counterparts. Someone like Denny can get info from Kyle or Martin. Chase can get info from three other good teams. Joey, Brad and Ryan are all solid drivers on the same team. Harvick gets to pick the brains of Cole Custer , Chase Briscoe and Aric Almirola.
Harvick needs another team mate like Kurt Bush, who will constantly run up front with him and be able to help make the cars faster.
A team mate who is consistently running in the 20s is not likely to be able to provide any kind of helpful feedback to his team.
 
Harvick is one to watch late in the year this year. Not going to have a huge run like last year, but is going to finish with a couple wins I think.
 
Season is close to half way over if not already there. Not seeing much of anything out of the 4 team that suggests they are going to win a race anytime soon. He was so close this weekend but he never lead any laps and really could have only lucked into a win. SHR just sucks this year. They have the resources of Gibbs and Hendrick. What is the problem here?
 
They lost the ability to manipulate the wheel wells. Thats where their advantage was last year.
 
The 4 was pretty strong at dover. It was basically HMS and then the 4 all day. I think if they could have gotten him the lead, he'd of been pretty tough to get by. They are moving in the right direction, victory lane is certainly a possibility yet this year. Improvement would come faster if they got at least some help from their team mates.
 
There was only one green flag pass for the lead at Dover, The rest of the passing took place in the pits. That being said, the 4 car showed speed all day and mostly ran in the top 5. Harvick isn't in trouble at this point in the standings. Can't say that about the rest of the bunch. They are all in the high 20's with no chance of making the playoffs at the present time.
 
I miss the old Kevin Harvick who would have kicked Chase Elliott's ass. #NeverThoughtIdSayThat
 
ChexOrWrex said:
I think he means the old Harvick who had to have his whole team with him against Rudd.

or the old Harvick who **** his pants when Montoya got physical.

or the old Harvick who gave Jimmie Johnson a fist shove and frolicked away into his hauler.
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Remember who wears the fire suit in the family.
 
He’s such a load….he didn’t get frisky until people were there to “ hold him back”. What a joke he is….
 
ChexOrWrex said:
I think he means the old Harvick who had to have his whole team with him against Rudd.

or the old Harvick who **** his pants when Montoya got physical.

or the old Harvick who gave Jimmie Johnson a fist shove and frolicked away into his hauler.
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And Jimmie put his finger up like he was scolding a child.

Harv is bark, no bite, and then forgets about it.

Give it 3 weeks and he'll be fine with Chase.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
FLRacingFan said:
Cousin Carl?
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Carl attacked him, basically, after Harvick called him out to the media

I remember that. He had Harvick by the neck, according to a photo, then Harvick shoved him and crew guys tackeled Carl onto the car.

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jaqua19 said:
Carl attacked him, basically, after Harvick called him out to the media

I remember that. He had Harvick by the neck, according to a photo, then Harvick shoved him and crew guys tackeled Carl onto the car.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
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Yeah, always has those teammates or somebody to intervene before he gets ‘mad’….
 
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