Ford driver Kevin Harvick has missed out on the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title, losing to Joey Logano in a four-way shootout at Miami-Homestead Sunday night.
Logano, Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. all had a shot at the title heading into Sunday’s EcoBoost400, with Logano widely thought to be the candidate that was least likely to take the title. Truex, Busch and Harvick had dominated all year – the three drivers racking up a combined 20 wins in 36 races this season, but they were unable to match Logano’s short-run speed late in the race and allowed the 28-year old to cruise to a comfortable victory under the lights.
“Man, you just — I’ve worked my whole life to get here, to get to the championship. I’ve been so close,” Logano told NASCAR post-race. “I spent 10 seasons fighting for this. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it, but, man, Todd made a good adjustment at the end, and it was a ‘no-quit’ attitude.”
Harvick, the No. 4 Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing, won the first stage of the race and finished second in stage two, but didn’t appear to have the pace to match his three championship rivals once the sun went down in the third. The team made small adjustments to try and match their rivals, but were unable to find the speed needed to run with either the Ford of Logano or the Toyota of Truex.
“We didn’t make a lot of big changes, we made a lot of small changes, and the car was definitely better,” Harvick said. “But like I say, when it got dark, we just lost the rear grip and couldn’t get off the corner and was having trouble turning in the corner. Just the balance was really good until it was dark outside, and we just never could get the rear grip back to where we needed to, and I couldn’t take off.”
Logano passed Truex on Lap 256 of 276 after a brief battle for the lead and quickly gapped the defending champ. With Truex, Busch and Harvick unable to reel the Ford driver in, Logano was able to cruise to his first-ever Cup Series championship and give Team Penske its second NASCAR Cup Series team championship. Harvick was third overall, with Kyle Busch fourth and Logano’s Penske teammate Brad Keselowski fifth.
There wasn’t a single Chevrolet Camaro driver in the running after Chase Elliot was eliminated from the championship, finishing sixth in the Monster Energy Cup Series overall.
Edit: a previous version of this story incorrectly stated Kevin Harvick was driving a Chevrolet. The article has been updated to reflect that Stewart-Haas is now a Ford team.Â
Comments
You do know Harvick drives a Ford
Was the author drunk?
Isn’t Weed legal up there in Canada now?? Might explain the shades in his avatar pic, lol..
Sam, Sam, Sam…..Your NEVER gonna’ live this one down buddy. Maybe you can go back to writing for Ford Authority? I almost feel sorry for you, lol….
I heard Kyle Busch’s Nissan was super fast, faster than Truex in his Pontiac.
Yeah, how dumb can the staff be, everyone knows Harvick has been driving a FORD for the past five years, GMauthority needs to employ staff that know the difference between a FORD and a CHEVROLET.
And Dave, your right, Kyle Busch was driving a NISSAN, and TRUEX JNR was driving, well it looked to me like a MODEL T.
He’s been driving a Ford for two years, not five
Why do you want a Z/28 for, you cant even count past TWO.
Daryl,
Clearly this was a mistake on our part that has since been fixed and addressed internally.
I should note that we publish nearly a thousand articles a month. One error out of a thousand is a better ratio than most established publications, such as the Wall Street Journal.
But let’s be honest here: these cars are not Fords or Chevys (or Toyotas) beneath the badging and decals. In fact, they are the most removed from each of the brands involved.
That said, it was an error no less and our goal is 100% accuracy, so I thank you for bringing it to our attention.
Give him a break. It is hard to see that big blue Ford oval that has been on the hood for the last couple tears.
I know NASCAR is in trouble because the fans are no longer watch. But now we have the Media not paying attention.
It was a well written article minus the glaring error, but you still have a mistake that needs corrected and that is the sentence that begins:
“Harvick, the sole Camaro ZL1 driver in the Final Four…”
Bob
Who cares, there is no difference in these cars anymore. It used to be a Chevy was a Chevy , a Ford a Ford. Now they’re just decals. I lost interest when Toyota got involved!
The Chevy did not show up to compete this year ! The only one that showed some performance ,was Chase Elliott ,3 wins and the # 42 Larson with speed but 0 wins . Chevy did not have anything for the Fords and the Toyotas !
Louis o Salazar
I agree with your statement 100%. It’s sad that a company would compete in an event, putting their reputation on the line, only not to show up. I remember when the word, “General”, as in GM, meant a leader. I remember when they were the BEST leader in the business. Now the word “General”, as in GM, has come to mean “common place”. I tried to configure a Camaro on the build and price site, soo confusing. The RS package comes with dark tail lamps, that I don’t want, ZL1package comes with suede interior that I dislike. Mustang’s site is user friendly and you can build the car, for the most part, the way you want it.
The article starts with, ‘Ford driver Kevin Harvick ‘….. Where’d the ZL1 come from? Does Ford have a ZL1, too? LOL
Mister “where is the Z/28” Kevin Harvick won the 2014 championship in a S/Haas Ford.
That is FIVE years ago, go back to preschool and learn how to count past TWO.