Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick took over the points lead following the fourth race (Phoenix) of the 2020 season and in spite of a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a busy condensed schedule following, he hasn’t relinquished the top spot in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings as the series heads to its 13th race of the season at Talladega Superspeedway.
With his first win of the year at Darlington Raceway, the first race back from the break, Harvick locked himself into the Playoffs and over the next few races built his points lead up over second in the standings to 48 points following his second win of the season at Atlanta.
But these last two races have been disastrous for Harvick’s points lead, finishing 15th at Martinsville and 26th at Homestead-Miami. Harvick heads to Talladega this weekend with just an eight-point lead over second-place Chase Elliott and that could be in jeopardy as well. Harvick has made 38 series starts at Talladega posting one win (2010), seven top fives and 15 top 10s. But, in his last three starts at the 2.66-mile raceway he has finished 17th or worst, including a 38th-place finish in this race last season. On a bright note though, he finished fifth in the season opening Daytona 500, the last time the series ran on a superspeedway.
