Kevin Harvick finishes fifth in 700th Cup Series race

Kevin Harvick has become only the 18th driver to start in 700 races in the top series.

Harvick started fifth in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 Sunday (July 19th) at Texas Motor Speedway, ultimately finishing fifth.

“We got in a wreck there and had to fix the car and put tires on it and tires just didn’t mean anything,” Harvick said. “You parked a couple of slower cars out there and nobody could pass them.

“I’m just really proud of our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang guys for the day and all the fight that they had in them and got a top-5 out of it. I always want to win here, but it is what it is.”

Through 700 starts, Harvick has amassed 31 poles, 53 wins, 217 Top-5 finishes, 377 Top-10 finishes, 14,725 laps led and the 2014 series championship.

HISTORY
The first driver to hit 700 starts was seven-time champion Richard Petty in the 1976 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Prior to Harvick, Kurt Busch was the most recent driver to make 700 starts, coming two weeks before at Indianapolis on July 5th.

Jeff Gordon’s third-place finish at Darlington Raceway in 2013 in his 700th race is the highest finish for a driver attempting their 700th start.

No other driver will hit the 700-start mark this season. Matt Kenseth is the closest active driver to hitting the mark, racing in 679 Cup Series races.

SOURCES
Ford Performance
Racing-Reference.info