Former NASCAR Star Explains Where Kevin Harvick Needs to Improve Despite Nine Wins in 2020

Published 11/16/2020, 7:30 AM EST

Recently, former racer Jeff Burton spoke about the onset of road course races. With more of them incoming, the drivers had to ensure that they were good at them. He cited the example of Kevin Harvick, who struggled at road events, especially at the Charlotte Roval.

Burton said, “To me, he’s a really good road racer, I was teammates with him, but it hadn’t shown up recently”. He insisted that if Harvick has to be a perennial contender, he has to get better on road courses. However, the #4 driver is just one example out of several.

The former racer even mentioned Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe, who are exceptional road course racers. That explains why they are being considered by Cup teams as future viable options. Since road courses will be the future of NASCAR, the drivers have no choice but to adapt and be good at them.

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Can Kevin Harvick do well on these road courses?

Burton insisted that no driver can afford to be subpar on these road events. This would ultimately hurt them in their road to the playoffs, especially since five road courses will be sprinkled throughout the regular season.

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In the 2020 season, Harvick was in sublime form, winning nine races in the season. Owing to this, many believed that he would be one of the favorites for the championship. So it came as a massively rude shock when he got eliminated in the Round of 8.

At the Martinsville Speedway, Kevin Harvick needed just one place to reach the Championship 4. The only man standing in his way was Kyle Busch, and he threw everything at him. However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver held firm and forced Harvick to resort to desperate tactics.

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In the end, those tactics failed and he missed out on that spot. To be precise, he tried to take out Busch, but it backfired spectacularly. Now, he has to try again and hope that he can recreate his 9-race-winning season in 2021.

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.