Author: Jim Utter
Date: Nov. 19, 2016
Sunday will be the first time since the advent of the new NASCAR Chase format in 2014 that Kevin Harvick won’t be one of final four drivers competing for the series championship.
And he seems to be OK with that.
Harvick won the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the championship in 2014 and finished second in the series standings last season after coming in as runner-up in the race to eventual champion Kyle Busch.
This season, Harvick was eliminated from title contention after failing to win his way into the Championship 4 last weekend at Phoenix.
"Nothing to hang our heads about"
Still, he and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team show no signs of slowing down. He won the pole for Sunday’s race and was 11th-fastest in Saturday’s final practice session.
“You watch last week and how much changed in the last little bit of that race, we have nothing to hang our heads about,” Harvick said. “This is competition, and that’s what we show up for, and sometimes the defeats are not as fun to experience, but just as much needed in order to push your team and your people and understand how hard it is.
“I think sometimes losing definitely makes you better, and that’s what I love about competition. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and the group of guys that you race against, those are the guys that keep it interesting and keep it fun showing back up to the race track because you can’t beat them every week.
“It’s just impossible.”
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