"We rolled triple sevens": Harvick keeps Ford's MIS win streak alive

CAMBRIDGE TWP. – Sixty-three miles from Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, there’s a sign perched over the gate to the garages at Michigan International Speedway. In white block letters with a blue backdrop, it practically screams over the infield:

“Manufacturer bragging right starts here!”

Or, at least in Sunday’s case, they continue. Kevin Harvick’s Firekeepers Casino 400 victory on Sunday by the numbers: 59th career NASCAR Cup Series win, good for tenth all-time. Sixth time winning a Cup Series event at MIS, with four coming in the last five years.

Most compelling? Harvick breaking his 65-race winless streak to keep an eight-race win streak right in Ford’s backyard alive. Contrasts working hand in hand like that aren’t common in any aspect of racing.

But sometimes, things just come together.

“We didn’t have anything work against us,” Harvick said. “That’s the biggest thing that happened today.”

Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s director of motorsports performance, wasn’t exactly bragging on the dais on Sunday night, but a slight smile betrayed how it felt to stay up top with a heightened sense of attention.

“We’ve spent a lot of time with the teams this week leading up to this weekend to let them know how important it is,” he said, “and to ask our four teams to work together, whether it’s the drivers (or) the crew chiefs.”

To be clear, it hasn’t quite been a dream season for Ford, with only four total wins compared to Chevrolet's 13 and Toyota's five. Nor did it look like it was going to get much better Saturday.

With pole-winner Bubba Wallace leading the pack, Toyota placed all six of its' drivers in the top 11 of the qualifying round as Ford landed only two in (Joey Logano and Austin Cindric) in the top ten.

Nobody was panicking on pit road – but this was Ford at MIS. The Heritage Trophy only adds to the regular desire to win.

“There was a lot of pressure on this weekend to come here, to have a strong performance, to get a win,” Rushbrook said.

After Logano trailed Wallace in the top five early, a slew of different Toyota drivers took the lead and put together strong laps with Fords lagging behind. Christopher Bell won Stage 1 and Denny Hamlin won Stage 2, all points for Toyota drivers through 80 laps.

But slowly, even inexplicably, Toyota began to collapse. Kyle Busch was no longer a factor after wrecking in Stage 1. Ty Gibbs, racing in place of Kurt Busch, got a speeding penalty on pit road and fell back for good.

Martin Truex Jr. got caught arguing with his crew chief and struggled to make up ground. Hamlin picked up a penalty of his own for too many men over the wall at his pit station.

And out of the final restart, there was the No. 4 Ford and Harvick in front with 38 laps to go. Crew chief Rodney Childress said it was a welcome affirmation to everything they had seen leading into the final stage.

“Every time we would kind of get a clear lap, we were just as fast as the leader,” he said. “We knew that maybe if we could ever get there, we would be OK.”

Wallace wasn’t going to be denied, however. Harvick held a car length on him in the restart and said he knew he had a shot to stay in front if they made it out Turn 2 with the lead.

Which he did, eventually pitting Wallace behind Logano in second. Wallace managed to maneuver around Logano with 17 laps to go, but Harvick held a four-plus second lead with little chance of anybody cutting into it.

“The more they raced, the further we got away,” he said.

And when it was all said and done, Harvick cruised through clean air to finish first of three Fords in the top five, flipping the script on Toyota's hopes following the qualifying round.

Wallace, in second, knelt at the side of his car and stewed in disappointment after. Hamlin, the third place finisher, mulled over his frustration as Harvick celebrated on victory lane.

“Things didn’t break our way,” Hamlin said. 

Harvick is 46. For his part, he spoke about his win with the measured temperament of middle age, spending much of his time on the dais whispering to his four-year-old, Piper, as she tugged at his fire suit in between questions.

He also acknowledged the reality that the biggest moment of his career happened 21 years ago. Sunday doesn’t change that.

“There’s really no match for jumping in the racecar and taking over for Dale Earnhardt (after his death in 2001),” he said. “There’s nothing like (how) that was for the six or eight weeks. You just can’t match it. Never will, never come close.”

As he said, it’s all been easy since. Nobody who goes through that loses sleep over losing or puts the pressure on themselves to continue winning streaks.

“It’s really not that hard,” Harvick said. “You just compartmentalize it and you set it aside. We try to act like grown-ups and show up to work every morning.”

Everything needed to go right for Ford to keep its' run alive. Everything needed to go right for Harvick to get back in the win column.

It did. Harvick didn’t shy away from that -- bragging rights aside.

“We rolled triple sevens today,” he said.