Fan's Eye View ~"Closer?" Or Poser? Is This Harvick's Championship?11/14/2014 |
As the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season comes ever so close to its
end, you might take a look at those who have presented a challenge and thrown
their hats into the ring to try to win this latest version of the NASCAR
Championship. We began with 16, and the first elimination after Dover toook out A. J. Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle,
and Kurt Busch. Then after Talladega a
few weeks back, we lost Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie
Johnson. When Phoenix was in the rear view
mirror , left behind was Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth,
Carl Edwards, and Brad Keseloski. So, who is left? Ask Kevin
Harvick. Well, they did, actually, in
the post-race presser after he won at Phoenix.
When asked if he felt better about racing for the Championship at
Homestead without Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski, Harvick had no idea who was
in and who was out. “Somebody tell me who we're racing next week,” he said. When told it was Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin,
and Ryan Newman, he had a much better feel about a strategy. “You just never
know. We've been fortunate to have
speed. Obviously the 22 has had speed
and won races. Denny has a good history,
I guess you could say, at Homestead, so you just go down there and approach the
week just like we approached this week:
Have fun with it, prepare your cars just like you've done all year, and
feel like you've already been in that position as far as knowing how to prepare
and how to mentally prepare yourself going into the week because we just came
here and did it this week. We won the
race with our backs against the wall, had great pit stops, we had great
practices. They prepared the car great
in the shop. Just do it one more week.” Just do it one more week, indeed.
Harvick certainly has the momentum on his side after the win at Phoenix,
but the location of the Championship race may not be his best. While Harvick has won there in both the
Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series, in thirteen attempts he
only has 5 top-five finishes. Some might
consider that to be a major roadblock to overcome, especially because with this
new format, a top-five finish just might not be enough to overcome. This is magnified by the fact that one of his
Championship eligible opponents, Denny Hamlin, has two wins at this track, and
is the defending Champion as well. You
won’t catch Harvick dwelling on that, however, and it won’t make the team
change their strategy. “I think right now you just go out and race your
cars,” he said. “I think for us, we're
in a fortunate position to know that we've had an okay test down there. We've had a great year, and our cars have
been fast. So we just need to keep doing
the same things that we've been doing and see where it all falls in the end.” The End. Sometimes, that very place is where Harvick
has been unable to earn his “Closer” moniker this season. After dominating several races this year, and
leading over 2,000 laps, and four wins, including two in the last five races,
he can still look back at the season and see a few that got away. Harvick’s response to those stats? “Who cares?
We're going to Homestead to race for a championship. I don't even care how we got here. I'm just so honored to have the opportunity
to race with these guys. I think as you
went through the beginning of the year and those problems and different things,
nobody ever got wound up at each other that I know of. Maybe these guys yell at each other at the
shop, maybe. But as far as the
perception that was sent to me and the people that I was around, nobody ever
got frustrated. Everybody just kept their
nose down. They knew how fast our cars
were and the capability of everything going on.
Everybody supported each other and fixed the problems and just kept
grinding away. I think we've won a
couple of the last nine races in the Chase in high-pressure situations and cars
are doing what they need to do, and that's what it's all about. So hopefully we had all of that crazy stuff
happen at the beginning of the year, and we can keep it away for one more
week.” “Just really proud. It was a fun week. I know everybody is going to laugh and say,
why was it a fun week? But these moments
are what you live for when you're racing or a professional athlete. You want these moments. You want to capitalize on these moments and
get that feeling of gratification, of being able to do things that other people
can't do.” “I think for us as a company and as a team, we
were able to accomplish things that other people weren't able to do, and when
you can do that, it gives you great confidence to move forward, and great
practice for next week, and we're going to have fun with the week and we're
going to do everything just like we've done all year. We're going to go and we're going to eat
lunch at the Mexican restaurant and we're all going to be miserable for the
rest of the day, and then you're going to go home and talk about it and talk
about our test and draw from the information, and we're going to have fun. That's what it's all about.” What it’s all about happens this coming Sunday, when four drivers tied in points will go head to head
to head to head, with the season’s Championship hanging in the balance, and
going to the driver and team who can bring their car home to the checkered flag
before the rest of the competitors. It’s
a tall order to ask a driver and a team, but one that Kevin Harvick feels is
attainable based on the support of his team.
“You can pretty much sum this whole year up
as, holy cow. It's been since we went to
the first Charlotte test and unloaded that race car, it's had speed, and it's
just different because no matter what the day is and no matter how well we've
done or how bad we've done or how dumb the mistake that I made or whatever it
may be on the track, nobody ever says, man, that was a dumb move or why did you
do that. It's always just been, well,
that's part of the deal, and we've all supported each other. You know, that's just different than anything
I've ever been involved in. There's just
not one guy on this team or in the company that hasn't said, hey, what can we
do for you, how can we make this better, how can we support it, whether it's a
crew chief or a driver or an owner, whatever the case may be, and that's just
not what I've been accustomed to. You try to support everybody as much as you
can from your standpoint, but the support and things that we have are just
endless. That's something that you don't
get to be involved with very often. “ Or for some, not at all.
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