Author: Bob Pockrass
Date: May 23, 2014
CONCORD, N.C. — If Kevin Harvick had back-to-back wins slip away last year as he has in the last few weeks, he likely would have carried an attitude into the following event.
But the only attitude Harvick seems to portray is one of confidence and reflection on what has only been an 11-race stint with a new Stewart-Haas Racing team.
“Everything has gone so well that I think, me included, we have kind of lost sight that we are in our 11th race,” Harvick said Thursday prior to Sprint Cup practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Which is kind of scary that from race one we have been in contention and have had the speed to win every race we have been in.”
In other words, some hiccups should be expected, like Harvick running out of gas coming to pit road two weeks ago as he squandered the win at Kansas. Or like the team having a slow pit stop that kept him from the front row for the final restart last week in the Sprint All-Star Race. Or even Friday night during Coca-Cola 600 qualifying, when he apparently didn’t get the signal to go onto the track in time to get a qualifying run in the final session as time ran out before he could start his qualifying lap.
Harvick's Rodney Childers-led crew is primarily new. Some had been at SHR in various capacities but most came specifically to work with Harvick, who came from Richard Childress Racing, and Childers, who came from Michael Waltrip Racing.
“As we sat down and analyzed things this week of everything that happened on pit road last week, that was their 11th race,” Harvick said. “Sometimes I think our problems are sticking out a little bit more than they would in a normal situation just for the fact you are racing for a win, you are not racing for 10th.
“It’s probably not a bad thing and hopefully we can have all our issues gone through by the time we get to Homestead (for the season finale).”
Harvick has good reason to believe he’ll be in contention for the Sprint Cup title. He has two wins this year but because of a series of problems, primarily mechanical failures, he is 15th in the standings. He leads the series in laps led (672, 19 percent of all laps, with Jimmie Johnson next at 527) and miles led (836, 19 percent, with Joey Logano next at 576).
“The bottom line is the organization from a whole has given us every resource that we have asked for,” Harvick said. “You never talk about money, it’s just what do you need and how do we get it for you, how do we get better. … (Childers) went out and recruited every single person on this team.
“They all came here for the same reasons. They all want to win races. They all want to win and race for championships and when you put that kind of people together with that determination everybody pushes everybody else. So you just have to ride the wave and try to keep getting better.”
He will start 11th in the Coca-Cola 600 at the track where the wave started. It was at the NASCAR test in December that Harvick got his first taste of what 2014 had in store as he seemed to be fast the first lap on the track.
“The first minute that I was in that car I haven’t quit smiling since,” Harvick said. “It’s been so refreshing and so much fun to be a part of it that every day you just kind of leave the racetrack shaking your head going, ‘Well we won that one or we could have won that one.’
“We raced and led and did all the things that you want to do as a racecar driver (and) as a team. I don’t know how you could ask for it to go much better.”
To see this article as it appears on SportingNews.com, click here.