NASCAR Cup Series

Harvick's tough business call beneficial

Published Sep. 11, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Frankly, most of Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR competitors are impressed he so successfully juggled roles as a team owner, multiseries driver and Sprint Cup championship-caliber racer this long.

So many were caught off guard Friday when Harvick announced his decision to hang up his owner’s cap and close down his championship-winning Camping World Truck Series team and successful Nationwide Series team to concentrate on finally claiming his first Cup crown.

Now maybe they should be on guard.

Harvick has been a championship contender four of the past five years while running between three garages on a NASCAR race weekend, fielding teams and drop-in driving in NASCAR’s development divisions.

As a Nationwide owner since 2004, his cars have won 10 races — five with Harvick behind the wheel. As a Truck owner since 2002, his trucks have won 39 races (12 by Harvick) and championships in 2007 and 2009 (both with Ron Hornaday Jr. behind the wheel).

Now he’s ready to put everything on the line and singularly focus on NASCAR’s top prize.

“Really, the only thing that I want to do that we have not been able to accomplish in my career is win a Sprint Cup championship. . . . The Cup championship is what we’re after,’’ Harvick said Friday afternoon in Richmond.

The reaction throughout the garage to Harvick’s change in plans was a mixture of shock and understanding.

“Yeah (it’s a surprise)," said Tony Stewart, Harvick’s friend and sometime-Nationwide Series driver. “Because they’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of money and effort and heart into that organization. So that’s a major, major decision to make a change like that.’’

Harvick said he plans to sell off his Truck series assets and is essentially merging his Nationwide operation with his Cup owner, Richard Childress Racing. Harvick and his wife, DeLana, will still have input on the Nationwide operation. And, he said, he does still plan to compete in some Nationwide Series races in 2012 — perhaps even more than this year.

Harvick's decision was more out of priority than necessity.

His teams were successful from a business and racing perspective. But he wants to win a Cup crown.

“Still being involved with everything at RCR will allow me to spend more time with my Cup team. It takes an extreme amount of pressure off of me as a driver and an owner,’’ Harvick said. “There’s way more positives to the whole thing than there are negatives.’’

It’s a concept his fellow drivers get.

“The guys that are the racers, they go and race three times a weekend, I applaud them,’’ Jeff Gordon said. “I think that’s very cool that they take the time and put that kind of effort in and I love to watch it. It’s just not me.

“It’s something that I never really had an interest in . . . because it didn’t make any sense to me to run back and forth from the garage area, and it was very much of a distraction.

“So the guys that do it, and do it successfully, I really give them a lot of credit.”

Said Ryan Newman, “This is what we love to do, and there’s a way you can get burned out on it if things aren’t going well.

“There’s also that extra enjoyment you get out of it when they are (going well). So it’s a little bit of a risk-reward situation, but sometimes it’s just time for a change or time to mix things up or cut back.’’

Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. — perhaps more so than anyone — know the challenges
Harvick has faced. Busch owns a Truck team and, like Harvick, competes in all three NASCAR national series. Earnhardt owns a championship Nationwide team that will field a car full time for IndyCar transplant Danica Patrick next year.

Both have enjoyed success as owners. But Busch missed the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2009 and even with three wins last year, finished eighth in the championship.

Earnhardt hasn’t finished in the top 20 in the points standings in the past two seasons.

“I definitely can understand where Kevin’s head is at and having sort of parallel with them a little bit on the Nationwide Series,’’ Earnhardt said. “He has been a really, really smart owner in that series, done a lot of great things for that series.

“I think that being an owner is a whole lot harder than being a driver in the series, and I tip my hat to anyone who tries to build a car in that series, or any series, for that matter."

If history is any indicator, focus is important to winning NASCAR’s most famous trophy. No Sprint Cup champion in the past 30 years won his Cup title in a year he also fielded a team in another national series.

“There are times I sit on my bus watching a Nationwide race and I know what took place in practice before and I see Kevin or Carl (Edwards) or Kyle really fast in a Cup car and dominating in a Nationwide or a Truck race,’’ five-time defending Cup champ Jimmie Johnson said. “I sit there and think maybe I should be doing what they’re doing.

“The one difference that Kevin and Kyle have is owning. That is a whole other lump of whatever to deal with. Driving is one thing, but owning, man that’s just tough.’’