Kevin Harvick, the 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion, built his legacy on both consistency and raw speed, and that included his qualifying prowess. Over his 22-year full-time Cup career from 2001 to 2023, Harvick earned 31 pole positions in 826 starts, with his best qualifying average shining during his prime years at Stewart-Haas Racing, particularly between 2014 and 2020. He wasn’t always a qualifying wizard early on at Richard Childress Racing, often starting mid-pack but racing his way to the front with grit and determination.
However, after joining Stewart-Haas in 2014, his qualifying game took off. That season alone, he snagged eight poles, led the Cup Series in average starting position at 9.1, and regularly kicked off races in the top five. His pole at Phoenix in 2014, followed by a dominant win, showed how he turned strong starting spots into victory lane celebrations.
While Harvick didn’t lean solely on qualifying to find success, his 60 Cup wins tell that story. He grew to emphasize track position in the later years of his career, especially with stage racing and position-heavy formats shaking things up. Even in his final full-time seasons from 2021 to 2023, as age slightly dulled his one-lap speed, he still kept an average starting position in the top 15, proving the No. 4 team’s lasting competitiveness.
His awareness of how qualifying impacts race strategy and championship contention continues to shape his analysis as a broadcaster today. That advice has always flown down to Chase Elliott, who nearly missed out on Sunday’s win at Dover, leaving Harvick with plenty to say about the young star’s potential.
Kevin Harvick highlights qualifying days as crucial for Chase Elliott
Recently, while talking about Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick laid out his take with some straight talk. “You know the pit crew had a mishap right there, and it cost him the win or a shot at the win. Had control of the race…at that point…Chase Elliott always talks about qualifying, needs to qualify better. This race, qualifying rained out. He had the track position to start it, and it put him in a position to dominate a race. They got to figure out how to qualify better,” Harvick said on the Happy Hour Podcast.
Chase Elliott’s opportunity at victory last Sunday was undercut by a crucial pit stop issue late in the race. On Lap 278 at Pocono Raceway, while leading under caution, Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffered a slow stop due to a left rear tire hang-up, dropping him from first to outside the top five. This opened the door for Denny Hamlin and others to overtake. Harvick’s comments about qualifying reflect Elliott’s 2025 trend. While he often has one of the fastest cars in race trim, his qualifying average entering Pocono ranked 17th among full-time drivers. With qualifying rained out at Pocono, Elliott benefited from the metric formula and started on the front row, highlighting just how dominant he can be with clean air and early track position.
Harvick continued, “They score a lot of points. They’re grinders. They overcome things like this, and this shows you what would happen if they would qualify better. They’ve got the cars in capability from behind the steering wheel to dominate races which is what we’ve been talking about him not being able to do. And a lot of that is the result of qualifying.”
Elliott and the No. 9 team have consistently outperformed their starting positions all season. Despite having fewer wins than other title contenders in 2025, Elliott ranked third in total points scored after Pocono and had top-10 finishes in 15 of the last 18 races, clear proof of his ability to grind out results. His average finish of 9.2 was second-best in the Cup Series. Harvick’s point about “domination” taps into something fans have noticed. Elliott hadn’t led a high number of laps recently due to poor starting spots and being mired in mid-pack traffic early in races. Yet, when given track position, like at Dover earlier this year, he led 175 laps and won handily.
Harvick added, “Saturdays are setting the tone for the nine car to be able to dominate and now Chase. We know Chase Elliott. If he can qualify well we saw it right here. He can dominate a race like he did at Dover with the car and a team that he has.”
This ties back to Elliott’s win at Dover Motor Speedway earlier in 2025. That race was a quintessential example of what happens when Elliott starts near the front. He qualified third, took the lead by Lap 65, and maintained control for most of the event, ultimately winning by nearly five seconds. Saturdays, qualifying day, have repeatedly been a weak spot, with Elliott qualifying in the top 10 just six times through 21 races in 2025. But when he does, the results often follow. Harvick, a former champion himself, knows that setting the tone early in the weekend helps a team dictate strategy rather than react to it, a luxury Elliott had at Dover and Pocono due to weather circumstances.
Harvick wrapped up, “But he’s still got the same great tendencies that he had with the other car…and that’s what you see in the traditional point standings. But, that’s not what wins these championships right? In order to win these championships, they got to do like they did right there, when they have the track position to be able to start the race up front, which means they got to qualify better. So, they inherited it this week and we see the potential of the nine and the things that they can do, if they can get Saturdays right.”
Harvick references Elliott’s past strengths, particularly his 2020 championship run, where he routinely qualified well and converted those positions into stage wins, playoff points, and ultimately the Cup title. In the traditional points standings of 2025, Elliott has hovered around second or third, proving his consistency across the season. However, under the current playoff format, wins and stage points are critical for seeding, and qualifying poorly puts drivers at a disadvantage in both. Elliott’s team essentially “inherited” the front-row start at Pocono due to the qualifying rainout, and he capitalized by leading 96 laps, the most he had led in a single race since 2022.
Bell’s Sunday spin prompts Harvick to give him advice
Christopher Bell’s late-race spin at Dover has sparked championship concerns. After leading 67 laps and dominating much of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400, Bell lost control while battling teammate Denny Hamlin with just six laps remaining, dropping from contention to an 18th-place finish. The mistake has veteran Kevin Harvick questioning whether Bell can learn the delicate balance between aggression and championship discipline.
Bell had been one of the strongest drivers at Dover on July 20. He led 67 laps, won Stage 2, and started the final stage as the race leader. After an hour-long delay late in the race due to rain, Bell restarted on the front row with teammate Denny Hamlin. However, with just six laps to go, he spun out while battling for the lead. Bell dropped to 18th place by the time the race ended.
Speaking on his podcast about how the race ended, Harvick believes Bell needs to learn how to balance aggression with control. “When you’re racing for the win, you’ve got to be able to capitalize on… If you don’t win, finish second,” Harvick remarked. “And being able to do that, not step over the edge, that’s just one of the things that Bell needs to get better at in my opinion.”
The former Cup Series champion didn’t stop there. Harvick sees a troubling pattern that could derail Bell’s championship aspirations if left unchecked. “We’ve seen it happen a number of times, and it puts him in a bad spot and, ultimately, I think that makes it harder to win a championship because you’re going to make those mistakes in those pressure moments of not finishing second. And it becomes extremely important in the last 10 weeks. I love the mentality, but it’s just not NASCAR productive all the time, to win a championship, to finish it off,” Harvick added.
This is not the first time Bell has lost control while running up front at Dover. Sunday marked the fourth time in his Cup career that he spun while inside the top three at the “Monster Mile.” Harvick pointed to that pattern as a concern if Bell wants to win a championship.
The post Chase Elliott’s Dominance Rests on One Crucial Day, Claims Kevin Harvick appeared first on EssentiallySports.