Kevin Harvick swept the Michigan International Speedway doubleheader weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series, following up his win Saturday in the FireKeepers 400 with another win Sunday in the Consumers Energy 400. The win Sunday was Harvick’s third-consecutive win at MIS and his fourth there in the last five races. Sunday’s win also was Harvick’s 55th-career Cup Series win, tying him with NASCAR Hall of Fame member Rusty Wallace for 10th on the series’ all-time wins list.
“I think, when you look at my team, we’ve been together for going on seven years, now, and you look at the confidence everybody has in each other,” Harvick said. “The details of the race cars and the thought of everything that goes into everything that we do is untouchable. That’s what it takes are details to make these race cars go fast. I want to say hi to my family at home — Keelan, Piper, Mom. I’ll see you kids in the morning.”
Harvick’s win Sunday somewhat mirrored his win from a day earlier. After leading a race-high 92 laps Saturday, he led 90 laps of the 156 that made up Sunday’s race. In the final laps, he held off a challenge from Denny Hamlin. By holding off Hamlin on Sunday, Harvick surpassed Hamlin on the 2020 season wins list with six to Hamlin’s five.
“It was a big challenge,” Harvick said. ”Our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang got really tight, there, in three and four. I could run really good through one and two, still, but I was just tight on that other end all day. So I’ve just got to thank all my guys. They did a great job all weekend on pit road. Great pit calls. Just got to thank Haas Automation, Mobil 1, Hunt Brothers, Jimmy Johns, Fields. Everybody who helps put this #4 car on the track and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Roush Yates Engines for awesome power underneath the hood this weekend.”
A Joe Gibbs Racing trio of drivers, led by Hamlin, finished in the spots immediately behind Harvick. Martin Truex Jr. was third and Kyle Busch fourth at the checkered flag. Joey Logano finished fifth.
During a lap-104 caution for Christopher Bell, one of Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, Aric Almirola, was the lead after staying out because of a miscommunication. When the race restarted, Harvick, who took two tires during the caution, moved up to second and eventually took the lead from his teammate.
After missing the opportunity to pit during the Bell caution, Almirola remained in the top-five before he was the only frontrunner to pit during the final caution of the race with 19 laps remaining. On newer tires, he was able to get back up to sixth by the end of the race.
By that point, Truex had moved into second to challenge Harvick, but after the final caution, Hamlin took second from his teammate to challenge Harvick for the win.
Another of Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, Clint Bowyer, won the opening 40-lap stage of Sunday’s race. As pole sitter Chris Buescher dropped to the back for the initial start, because he was in a backup car after sustaining damage in Saturday’s race, Bowyer remained up front for the green flag. Bowyer then led the entire first stage, not losing the lead until Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick beat him out of the pits during the caution after the stage.
Bowyer had led 43 laps by the time he fell out of contention because of an unscheduled pit stop just past lap 100 after a tire rub led to a flat tire.
Harvick started Sunday’s race in the 20th position as a result of his win in the first race of the doubleheader on Saturday. He was eighth by lap 40 and, then, second after pit stops following the second stage. When the race restarted, Harvick took the lead from Busch on lap 48.
Harvick remained up front the rest of the 45-lap second stage to take another stage win at lap 85. Harvick’s dominant performance that led to his win of Saturday’s race also included wins of stages one and two.
Harvick lost his lead, though, on the restart for the final 71-lap stage. Taking advantage of NASCAR’s new “choose rule,” Hamlin and Ryan Blaney moved up to start in the first two rows in the inside line. Hamlin took the lead on the restart, but quickly lost that lead to Blaney.
Blaney’s lead was short-lived, too. After his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski moved into the second position, the two teammates wrecked while racing for the lead on lap 95.
“It’s just unfortunate for the whole Penske organization,” Blaney said. ”We had two fast cars battling for the lead, and it just stinks that happened. He had a run, like he said, and he didn’t think he had as big of a run as he had and just got loose and, unfortunately, got us both. It’s a shame to end our day like that with the Knauf/Menards Ford Mustang. We were so fast. We had to battle back from having to pit again and got to 10th for the second stage and then got the lead. I was like, ‘All right, we can finally go back at it,’ and just got together there. That’s unfortunate, but it’s not gonna carry over. Things happen. Mistakes happen. It’s just a shame both of us got taken out.”
Blaney had gotten back to the front after making two pit stops after the first stage, because his crew didn’t get his car full of fuel during the first stop.
Hamlin reassumed the lead as Blaney and Keselowski became the first two drivers to fall out of the race following Keselowski’s second-place finish a day earlier.
“I just lost it; it’s my fault,” Keselowski said. ”I feel really bad for my teammate, Ryan Blaney. He didn’t deserve that. I just came off of turn four and the 4 car [Harvick] was behind me and he gave me a push, and, I swear, I went into the corner, like, 20 miles an hour faster than I had been all day and got past the 11 [Hamlin], and I went to get underneath the 12 [Blaney], and I just slipped. I lost the back a little bit, and when I went to collect it, he was there, and I wiped him out and myself out, so I feel terrible for everyone at Team Penske and, especially, Ryan Blaney. Gosh, he didn’t deserve that. I should have whoa’d way up. I had been running wide-open on the bottom all day and thought I could do it again, but with that big push I overestimated the grip and ruined our day.”
Harvick retook the lead son after the caution for Keselowski and Blaney’s wreck, the first yellow flag of the race for an on-track incident.
Matt DiBenedetto finished seventh, Austin Dillon was eighth, Chase Elliott ninth, and Kurt Busch finished 10th.
