In January 2023, Kevin Harvick dropped a bombshell that the 2023 Cup Series would be his swan song. Since that moment, NASCAR enthusiasts have been on pins and needles, eager to see him claim victory one last time. Yet Lady Luck hasn’t been on the SHR driver’s side.

At the Daytona regular-season finale, Harvick was left high and dry after leading for 14 consecutive laps. In a twist of fate, with the finish line just a stone’s throw away, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher snatched the win from right under Harvick’s nose, relegating him to a bitter ninth place. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

A NASCAR insider recently spilled the beans on the behind-the-scenes factors that potentially derailed Harvick’s seemingly surefire win.

NASCAR insider knows the reason Kevin Harvick lost the race

The track record of Kevin Harvick in his last ten showdowns is nothing short of a roller coaster ride, bouncing between top-tier finishes and languishing beyond the P20 marker. While he tasted the near pinnacle at Darlington, finishing P2, Daytona stood out as the race where the stars could have aligned in his favor. Alas, a cruel twist of fate handed the victory to Chris Buescher.

However, piecing the puzzle together, the venerable Kenny Wallace, a titan in the racing world, opined that Buescher didn’t just take a pass from Harvick due to his unmatched prowess. Instead, the wind beneath Buescher’s wings and Brad Keselowski played second fiddle to perfection, giving him the momentum to overtake Harvick.

Wallace reflected, “He’s our oldest driver right now. He’s sitting there leading with two to go, and that Chris Buescher just had an incredible, very analyzed drafting partner in Keselowski. Keselowski just rammed it right up his as* and just kept shoving and shoving him. And Harvick’s line just broke apart; it didn’t keep that constant shove.”

Wallace then imparted some age-old wisdom to Harvick: to conquer the superspeedway, one must have a stalwart ally tailing closely on the track. However, the revelation does make one ponder: Was Wallace’s astute observation a counter to Harvick’s earlier interview, where he seemed to distance himself from his teammates on the track?

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Among the quartet of Tony Stewart’s racers, only Harvick has managed to carve a niche in the playoffs—and that too without basking in the glory of a win. It stands to reason that Harvick was hungry to bag the Daytona title, hoping to bolster his stance on the playoff leaderboard.

Ahead of the Daytona race, during the pre-race media session, when quizzed about his inclination to back his teammates in the climactic race, Harvick didn’t beat around the bush. With candid clarity, he remarked, “We have enough trouble serving our own needs (laughing). […] I’ve always found it harder to try to coordinate something and make it all work because it all seems to get mixed up, so you go race and see when those opportunities fall to push and stay in line and do those types of things.”

But, as the old saying goes, what goes around comes around. As Buescher rode the wave of support from his captain, Keselowski, Harvick found himself up the creek without a paddle, a lone wolf in the grand melee. If Kenny Wallace’s insinuations hold water, Harvick might well rue his earlier stance.

Read More: Retiring Icon Kevin Harvick Takes a Subtle Jab at NASCAR’s Controversial Approach: “You Don’t Win Them Like [Dale] Earnhardt Did”