Kevin Harvick admits that he didn’t fully earn the 2014 Cup title
Kevin Harvick isn’t a fan of the one-race championship decider.
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Kevin Harvick (Via IMAGO)
Kevin Harvick, the last driver with Winston-Cup experience, has retired from NASCAR. The current field now has no drivers who debuted before the playoff era. Harvick and 23Xi Racing’s Kurt Busch were the last two active drivers from that era, and both had to retire under different circumstances in 2023.
After his farewell race at Phoenix, Harvick sat down with NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Dale Jr. Download podcast and opened up about his view of the sport and his future plans. One of the main discussion points during their conversation was the championship format that is being used at the moment.
Harvick admitted that he isn’t a fan of the current system and said he prefers the system that yielded championships for Dale Earnhardt and other greats of the sport. He candidly admitted that one race determining the champion sometimes overlooks the best drivers of the season and said he feels he didn’t fully deserve to win his one-only title in 2014. He added that 2015 was the year he should’ve won it, which went to Kyle Busch.
You know like, even when we won the championship in 2014, we shouldn't we won the championship, but we didn't have the best year. 2015, we had a way better year. It felt like that was the year that we earned and should have won the championship…Kevin Harvick said via Dale Jr. Download.
Denny Hamlin’s solution might be a playoff fix NASCAR needs
The Stewart Haas Racing legend admitted that having a playoff system that can reward the excellence of a driver throughout the year without compromising the entertainment factor is hard. He believes finding that balance is important to making the sport better.
When you look at the whole season, so it's a it's a complicated puzzle. When you put the pieces in there from the pureness of the sport and racing and also the entertainment piece of it that goes with Keeping it exciting, so it's a that part is a fine balance.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin has a solution. He has been advocating for that for a long time. His fix is to increase the sample size of the final races. He wants to have three events instead of one, and he also likes to see less number of wildcard races in the playoffs. Making it more of a skill and consistency game over luck.
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Justin P Joy
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