Kevin Harvick strolled into the Las Vegas Motor Speedway deadline room a few minutes early for his media availability. Sporting a hoodie and a jovial attitude, and despite his run a year ago in Nevada, his confidence was sky-high coming off his victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“Yeah, last year didn’t go well here with the blown tire but our performance here has been really good since I came to SHR, getting to victory lane here,” he said. “Obviously last week was really the way we have run in Atlanta the last five years, it is just we finally got to victory lane. I am looking forward to the weekend and hopefull, we continue the momentum.”
But perhaps it’s the folks at Ford Motor Company who are breathing the biggest sigh of relief. The blue oval’s led a combined 278 of 325 laps (181 by Harvick alone), swept the podium and claimed half of the spots in the top-10 finishing order in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
This surprised many who, through the offseason, predicted Ford — outside the restrictor plate races — would struggle to compete, especially at the mile and a half tracks, which have been the bread and butter of Martin Truex Jr. and Toyota Racing. Even drivers in the Ford camp, most notably Brad Keselowski, thought Ford could “take a drubbing” in 2018 (ASIDE: When asked if his thoughts had changed on the matter, Keselowski said during the media tour that he believed NASCAR’s new inspection system for 2018 might level the playing field).
Also, if practice speeds are a quality measure, the Ford’s occupied four of the top-10 fastest speeds in the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session.
So is the strong run by the Ford’s at Atlanta indicative of what’s to come in 2018? It’s unlikely for a myriad of reasons: Atlanta’s racing surface is on the right-hand side of the racing surface bell-curve, while Las Vegas is right in the middle, and there were no major changes from last season to this season, aside from the inspection process and pit stops.
Harvick says at this point, it’s too early to guage.
“I think it is a moving target at this particular point because of all the changes we had last year,” Harvick said. “I think from last year to this year with the inspection process and the difference in the splitter, the rules, just a lot. There are no real rule changes other than the splitter but everything is difference because of the way the car is inspected. I think everyone is trying to get their arms around where they are at. I think this weekend will be a pretty good indicator of where everybody stands and stacks up from one manufacturer to another, team to team, all those things. I know Kyle Larson was really fast when they came out here and tested. As we get done with this weekend, you will see where you need to go to work and the things you need to work on for your typical 1.5-mile program. Atlanta is just way different than anywhere else we go as far as the way you drive the track, the way the car falls off. This track has a fair amount of fall-off but still far different than last week.”
Teammate Kurt Busch gave a similar answer when asked the same question.
“I was really surprised by the Ford dominance. My car felt great. We were really good on the short run and I am hoping that plays out with our Haas Automation Ford this weekend,” Busch said. “The track surface is a little different. I always tell fans and media and sponsors alike that we need to just wait and look at the first five races as a core group. Once we are done with the west coast swing, lets evaluate trends. Atlanta is somewhat similar to Fontana and Auto Club Speedway with the asphalt being worn out. We will see if we can backup what we did at Atlanta at Fontana. This one here, this 1.5-mile is very similar to Texas, Kansas, Charlotte with the asphalt grip level and the tire that we are using. With this being a playoff race later in the year, this weekend is a great way to judge things once the checkered flag falls on Sunday night.”
