Kevin Harvick will return to Darlington Raceway on Wednesday driving the same car he won with on Sunday, Stewart-Haas Racing confirmed to NBC Sports.
After the race, crew chief Rodney Childers suggested that the team might run the car again.
Childers confirmed to NBC Sports on Monday morning that was the plan, stating:
“Bringing the same car back. Not even taking springs and shocks off the car. Just taking it like we ended but will fix a few things.”
Many larger teams planned to use two different cars for the two races at Darlington.
Todd Gordon, crew chief for Ryan Blaney, said Monday morning on Sirius XN NASCAR Radio that the team would take a different car to Wednesday’s race than what Blaney drove Sunday. Some smaller teams, with fewer resources, planned to try to run the same car for both Darlington races. John Hunter Nemechek said his Front Row Motorsports team would bring a different car for Wednesday’s race even after finishing ninth.
“Darlington is really rough on equipment as far as with the sand and everything in the race track being so abrasive, so we’re definitely gonna have to tune it up,” Nemechek said of bringing a different car to this week’s race. “Even though the car was clean, it didn’t have any scratches on it, it was very well pitted out from all the sand and what-not.”
Harvick led 159 of 293 laps Sunday to win at Darlington in NASCAR’s first race in 10 weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. The victory was Harvick’s 50th career Cup win.
“This was 27 wins together with this group of guys,” he said after the race. “I think that experience today going into our seventh year here has really paid off, getting our car right, making adjustments on our car, rebounding from the adversity of a bad pit stop, all the things that came with today, turned into a race win.”
Runner-up Alex Bowman said his car couldn’t match Harvick’s on Sunday.
“We just needed a little bit more,” Bowman said. “I don’t really know what it was. At times we were tight, at times we were free. Neither times were we faster than (Harvick) on the long runs.”
With NASCAR inverting the top 20 finishers from Sunday for Wednesday night’s race, Harvick will start that event 20th. Wednesday’s race is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET and air on FS1.
“Being buried in the field to start the race, you’re just going to really have to take care of your car and do the things that you need to do to try to make up that track position,” Harvick said.
