Kevin Harvick dominated Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Darlington Raceway. Coming into the first race back since the COVID-19 pandemic, a stretch that lasted 70 days, Harvick had scored a top 10 finish in all four races run this season including leading 159 circuits out front. 

In the Real Heroes 400, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver doubled his laps led total (159) and cruised to his 50th career victory in NASCAR’s premiere series. In saying that, Harvick plans to race Wednesday night’s Toyota 500 (7:30 p.m. ET/FS1/MRN) on the same race track, with the exact same race car, a bit differently.

More: Harvick Wins NASCAR’s 1st Race Back To Action Sunday In Darlington

“It takes a little bit of pressure off from that standpoint,” Harvick said after scoring his first victory of the season on Sunday. “I think at this point we took a drastically different approach coming to Darlington this time than we did last time.”

Harvick says that track position is going to be equally, if not more, important on Wednesday night than it was on Sunday. This past Sunday, he started sixth by virtue of a blind draw that took place on Thursday night. Since he won Sunday’s race and the top 20 being inverted, his No. 4 Ford will roll off mid pack in 20th now on Wednesday night.

“Going into the week, next week, we know how important track position is,” Harvick continued. “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.”

The Bakersfield, Calif native notes that stage points aren’t as critical to him now since he’s won a race and that they can capitalize off having that first pit stall to gain spots as the race goes on.

“Having that first pit stall again is definitely going to be beneficial for us in making that ground up.  Obviously a hundred miles shorter.  Nighttime will be a little bit different.  In the end it’s still the same old Darlington.”

While it will surely be rough on these drivers’ bodies to go from no racing for 10 weeks to running in temperatures near 90 degrees on a physical yet demanding race track on Sunday and to race again three days later, Harvick said that his preparation throughout the hiatus should have him feeling just fine again on Wednesday.

“We have been off for nine or 10 weeks.  We should be pretty fresh from the physical standpoint.  For me, I’ve been working hard to make sure I was in as good a shape as I’ve been in in a long time coming back, not even knowing what the schedule was, but just wanted to be better.

“I think as you look at that, really the biggest thing is 300 miles for us is a short race.  I think as you look at the weather, being at night, it’s going to be fairly cool.  The 600 miles the next week will be the one that you really have to pay attention to as far as what you do.

“Hydration is the key for me. Tomorrow (Monday) I’ll go exercise with Keelan and do some recovery stuff.  For the most part it’s really about making sure that you put enough fluids back in your body.”