Harvick ready to pick up in Daytona where he left off last season

As another NASCAR season gets underway, the No. 4 Ford Mustang driven by Kevin Harvick is again a favorite to win the Cup Series.

After a rough start in 2019, Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing finished strong, third in the standings at the end of the season.

It was that turnaround on the back end of the year that has Harvick excited about the start of 2020 and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16.

"I feel like for us, it was a good year because of the turnaround we had in the season; started slow, finished up winning foru races in the second half of the season, and gave ourselves a chance when you look at the first half and you say you had no chance," Harvick said. "I think everybody at the end of the year was very positive and had a good frame of mind to lead into this season."

Harvick pointed specifically to adjusting to new rules as a learning curve for his team last season. But at the Great American Race, there's really just one strategy: Stay alive.

"It really is just surviving. That's the first goal," Harvick said. "We haven't done that in the last couple years, so I think that's our main goal. I think the speed of the car and where we need to be, we'll figure out how to get that right."

After winning the Daytona 500 in 2007, Harvick's last two tries ended in wrecks.

"The Daytona 500 is such a unique race," he said. "We've seen several of our sport's greats never get to Victory Lane at the Daytona 500. I'm honored to have won it back in 2007, but I think for us, we want to win it again. We want to experience this together. This group of guys is a special group of people that we've raced with for the last six years, and it would be a lot of fun to experience winning the Daytona 500 together."