Author: Bob Pockrass
Date: Nov. 18, 2014
Kevin Harvick took care of the first order of business for NASCAR on Sunday. He won the title, keeping NASCAR from being ridiculed for possibly having a champion that many people felt wasn’t as deserving.
If Ryan Newman had won (and probably if Denny Hamlin had won), there would have been squawks — justifiably so — that a driver who didn’t have a great season won the title.
There was no such talk Monday. Just talk about what a great race it was as all the contenders ran 1-2-3-4 at one point and all had a chance, at least before Joey Logano’s car fell off the jack with 17 laps to go.
Harvick has that championship he’s worked for in his 14-year Cup career. He has the trophy he so desired, that sparked in some ways his move from Richard Childress Racing to Stewart-Haas Racing.
So what does he do now?
While the championship could be considered a defining moment, Harvick’s career might be more defined in the years that follow.
For the first decade of his career, it appeared that being the driver who replaced Dale Earnhardt and running his own race team might be his legacy.
Harvick has always been considered a very talented, hard-nosed racer. He has 28 career wins and has won the sport’s biggest races, including the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500. But he needed the championship to solidify his resume.
If he retired tomorrow, he would have credentials that probably would get him in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He has two Nationwide championships as a driver and also truck titles as an owner that add to his impressive performance credentials as well as a significant contribution to the sport.
But now he has a chance to prove himself as a true leader, both for his race team and for NASCAR, and contribute even more.
Harvick’s determination at times created friction at RCR. If things didn’t go his way and it didn’t appear to be fixable, he had a quick trigger, whether that was with a crew member or in wanting to fight another competitor.
He still has a little schoolyard in him — the shove of Brad Keselowski won’t be forgotten anytime soon — but he also appears to be truly happier, as he says, driving for friend Tony Stewart.
His friend’s organization did not have a strong season. Beyond Harvick, no driver had a successful year. There has to be a feeling that making those three other cars stronger will be the top priority in the offseason with the hope that Harvick’s team can continue to thrive.
But what if Harvick gets a sense that extra resources are being poured into making Stewart and Kurt Busch and Danica Patrick better? He’ll probably react better than he did at RCR, where there were always subtle whispers that the grandsons of Richard Childress were the first priority.
Harvick is known for being incredibly helpful as a teammate at SHR as far as suggesting how to handle the racetrack. But how he handles any slumps — every driver at every team has them at one point or another — will truly tell everyone how happy he is at SHR. During the turmoil or learning curve or growing pains for his new team this year, he for the most part handled it all well. He did vent some frustration but was not as vocal and not as personal as in the past.
Now that he has one championship, he’ll want and expect more. And that could make a driver who already seems demanding even more demanding.
The other aspect of being the champion is the perceived “voice of the sport” and the fact that his voice will, number one, carry more weight, and, number two, be more in demand.
Will Harvick serve as that ambassador or will he be unwilling to accommodate requests? Harvick, when relaxed, can be gold in an interview. He also can be determined to just focus on his job some weekends without a peep to the press.
One thing heavily in his favor is his use of social media. He decided that his son, Keelan, would have his life documented, figuring that it was better having everyone know about his life rather than try to protect him from the media or the NASCAR-obsessed fans who want to know everything about their favorite driver. So Harvick tweets about Keelan all the time. And his wife, DeLana, tweets about their son. And they tweet and instagram and tweet and instagram.
That's the thing about Harvick. He is pretty blunt and what’s out there is out there and if you don’t like it, that’s your problem. He’s not going to try to play a public relations game if he doesn’t have the stomach for it — it’s just too damn hard. It’s better to say some things, do it his way and live with the consequences.
That makes him more real, and either more likeable or less likeable depending on what he says.
So this will be his challenge: Will he do things that make him more likeable on or off the track? Not that he’s worried about it or should be worried about it. But will NASCAR fans — and now the general public — think of him more as the dual stellar racer and doting father having fun with his boy or the guy who pushed Brad Keselowski into a fracas?
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