In February 2020, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Harvick had agreed to a two-year contract extension that would keep Harvick behind the wheel of the No. 4 Ford through the 2023 season.
Likely largely because of his current 50-race winless streak and his age – 46 – rumors constantly pop up about Harvick’s possible retirement.
“I like where I race. I like Stewart-Haas Racing. I like the atmosphere. I like the people here. That’s really the biggest reason that I like to do it, especially this year,” he said. “You’re with a group of people where you’re constantly problem-solving.
“You’re trying to fix it faster than everybody else and come to something that is better than everybody else so you can win races. I like the core group of guys that I started here with. That’s why they all came here, and I guess I would feel like I’m abandoning them if I didn’t go a couple more years.
“For me, I still enjoy that challenge. I enjoy where this series is, and learning about the new car is not a bad thing to do as you go forward into the future and do something different.”
Harvick came close to breaking his winless streak on Sunday, finishing second to race winner Denny Hamlin at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. It was Harvick’s best finish since he was also runner-up in the Bristol Night Race in September 2021.
SHR as an organization struggled through much of the 2021 season but has shown vast improvement in this year’s first seven races, including second-year driver Chase Briscoe earning his first career win at Phoenix.
The debut of the Next Gen car in the Cup Series has presented many new challenges for teams but also for drivers like Harvick, who have spent virtually their entire career driving an iteration of stock car with vastly different technology.
“We’ve put in a lot of time this year – the simulator, we’ve been to two tests so far. We knew coming into this year that we had some habits we were going to have to break, thought processes that you were going to have to break to really understand this car,” Harvick said.
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that with all the adversity we’ve gone through so far this year. That’s going to be our aggressive process until we get to Victory Lane.”
Harvick isn’t sure what to expect in this weekend’s race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
While he has won at the track in all three national series – Cup, Xfinity and Trucks – Harvick said the half-mile flat oval remains “frustrating.”
“Look, I’ve done this a long time, and there’s really not going to be a race track that I go to that I don’t leave thinking that I could’ve done better. Martinsville is the one I leave thinking that probably more often than some of the others,” he said.
“But it’s going to be the exact same as any other race track when I get to Monday – it’s just going to be in the past and I’m not going to think about it. It’s been a race track where you just never know what’s going to happen.
“I have no idea how we’ve won there, but we have. It’s just one of those places that’s frustrating. Even on a day when you do well, you just leave there with your wires crossed.”
