NASCAR Cup Series

Is Kevin Harvick unstoppable heading into Phoenix weekend?

Published Mar. 13, 2015 1:00 p.m. ET

Larry McReynolds

Kevin Harvick, crew chief Rodney Childers and the entire No. 4 team are riding one heck of a wave of momentum and success right now, aren't they?

In the past six races -- the last three of 2014 and the first three of 2015 -- Kevin has won three of them. Even more unbelievable than that is Kevin has had a first- or second-place finish in all six. That's pretty potent.

It doesn't get any easier for the competition this week, either. Kevin is the winningest driver at Phoenix and has won four of the past five races there. They are going to be tough to beat. I do see Hendrick Motorsports as the major players to be the ones with the ability to bring an end to Kevin's string of success.

If Jeff Gordon hadn't had to go to a backup car for the Las Vegas race last weekend, I think he would have been a major player standing in Kevin's way. His three teammates -- Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne -- were all inside the top five most of the day until issues arose to take Jimmie and Kasey out of contention.

So I see them and probably the Penske Ford boys of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano being able to cool Kevin's run down. It's not going to be easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but I think they are definitely capable. In all honesty, this is really just a continuation of "more of the same," in my book, from 2014.

Who were your multiple race winners last year? They were this same group of Kevin, Jimmie, Brad, Joey Logano, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff.

Who has won the first three races of this year? It has been Joey, Jimmie and now Kevin. I see nothing that says we should expect this to change.

The reality is all those others have a pretty vertical mountain to climb if they want to beat Kevin Harvick this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.