Kevin Harvick heads into the weekend NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader at Dover International Speedway as the Cup Series points leader. He has a sizable enough leader over second-place driver Denny Hamlin that he could clinch the regular-season title early. The reason the regular-season championship is so important — one of the spoils of the prize is 15 extra playoff points.
Harvick, who also leads the Cup Series in wins with six, heads into Saturday’s Drydene 311 with a 118-point cushion on Hamlin. If he has a 121-point lead over Hamlin after Saturday’s race, the regular-season title officially is Harvick’s.
If Harvick doesn’t clinch Saturday, he’ll have a second chance Sunday at Dover, in a second race with the moniker of Drydene 311. If Harvick leads Hamlin by at least 61 points, Harvick will be the regular-series champ with one race still remaining at Daytona International Speedway in the regular season.
Harvick is a two-time winner at Dover, his latest win there coming in 2018.
“For a number of years, it was my worst track,” Harvick said. “And the biggest key to solving the Monster Mile is having the right stuff. Rodney Childers [crew chief] and everyone on my team has done a great job of bringing fast race cars, and it’s really become one of our best race tracks. It’s going to be a tough weekend running two races in one weekend. That’s one of our more physical race tracks. To go there and run both of those events back-to-back will be something you’ll have to be prepared for. It’s one of my favorite race tracks, just because you have to drive the car really hard every lap in order to make good lap times. Going back with the low-downforce package this year is something I’m looking forward to. It’ll be a lot of fun, and the expectations will be high.”
Hamlin, who also trails only Harvick in wins in the first 23 races of 2020 with five victories, is winless at Dover.
“Dover is a track that I like and one that I’ve been close to winning at but just haven’t been able to put all the pieces together to get the win,” Hamlin said. “The last time we were at Dover, we won the pole and led laps, but once we lost the lead and got out of the clean air, we kind of lost the handling of our FedEx Camry and couldn’t get back to the front and get the win. I have no doubt I have everything I need to get the win. With Chris [Gabehart, crew chief] and this team bringing cars every week that can contend right off the truck, I think we’ll be in good shape this weekend to get two wins and continue the strong run we have going this season.”
Harvick already has accumulated 35 playoff points — five points for each of his six wins and a point for each of his five stage wins. Hamlin also has five stage wins, so far, in 2020, so, including his total of 25 playoff points for his five wins, he has 30 playoff points heading into the Dover doubleheader weekend.
