FONTANA — It’s been a rough start for Stewart Haas Racing in 2014 as the four drivers — Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch — have recorded just a pair of top-10 finishes in their combined 16 starts.
But the team is headed for Auto Club Speedway for Sunday’s Auto Club 400, an event all but have Patrick won. Stewart won in 2010 and 2012, Harvick in 2011 and Busch in 2003.
Harvick already has a win this year, taking the second event of the young season at Phoenix. Stewart, returning to the series after breaking a leg last summer, finished fourth in Bristol last week. Patrick has recorded a season-high 18th at Bristol while Busch has struggled and not posted a better finish than 21st.
Harvick is seeking to rebound after 41st and 39th finishes at Bristol and Las Vegas, respectively, due to mechanic issues.
“I’ve figured some things out there (Fontana), like where I want to be on the race track and things like that, to what I need in the car to be successful there,” said Harvick, who started his racing career in Bakersfield. “To be able to go to a race track where you expect to race for the win is always fun.”
In 19 starts at ACS, Harvick has seven top-10 finishes in addition to his win. He was second to Stewart in 2010 and led 27 laps, almost half of the 59 total laps he’s led. In his win, Harvick led just the final time around the 2-mile superspeedway.
“It seems like year after year you go to different styles of race tracks and the evolution of the car or the setups or tires change. Sometimes you’re on and sometimes you’re off, but is seems like Auto Club Speedway has been a very consistent race track for me over the years,” said Harvick. “We were really strong at Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago before the hub failure, so I’ve got a lot of confidence in the Jimmy John’s Chevrolet that we’ll be bringing to the track.
“Rodney Childers and all the guys on this No. 4 team have built some really fast race cars, and I think we’ll have another opportunity to show that this weekend.”
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