NASCAR Cup Series

Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas benefit from Hendrick Motorsports alliance

Published Mar. 18, 2015 9:39 a.m. ET

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Darrell Waltrip

After our fourth race in the 2015 season, I have to say I have heard the word "alliance" used probably more than ever before.

Obviously the amazing string of finishes that Martin Truex Jr. has put together so far this season is a perfect example of that. There are others like AJ Allmendinger and Casey Mears who are also single-car teams, yet they are reaping the benefit of an alliance with a bigger organization.

I think maybe an alliance that is under the radar and doesn't get a lot of attention actually is the alliance that Stewart-Haas Racing has with Hendrick Motorsports. Let's face it, who is the hottest driver on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit right now and has been since the Chase last year? Well, we all know the answer is Stewart-Haas driver Kevin Harvick.

Kevin and his No.4 team get their chassis, engines, technical support, etc., from Hendrick Motorsports. When you put that kind of combination in place, well, it's pretty darn powerful as we are seeing. I think the key thing to remember is that while they have all those resources at their fingertips, Kevin and crew chief Rodney Childers are utilizing it to the max.

When I look at the No. 4 car, it really reminds me of 1991 and 1992. I had left Hendrick Motorsports to start my own team at the end of 1990. I and crew chief Jeff Hammond literally started with nothing but a desire, a dream and an empty race shop. What made us successful those first two years was our alliance with Hendrick Motorsports. They helped me with information and especially my engines.

We won two races that very first year and then three the following year. So it was a very rewarding feeling to be able to accomplish that on our own. The other thing I think that can't be overlooked in both our situation and with the No. 4 car is that everything was brand new. In both cases you had a driver and a crew chief and a building.

When Rodney Childers went over to Stewart-Haas and was paired with Kevin Harvick, they literally got to build their team from ground zero. They were able to build everything from scratch and build it their way. Trust me, that also goes a long way in building the chemistry between a driver and crew chief that had never even previously raced together.

They got everything in place the way they wanted it and if you remember, at that very first test at Charlotte Motor Speedway in December of 2013, they were bad fast. They haven't slowed down since. Kevin had never finished better than third in the final standings, but here he and Rodney were in their very first year together, with new owners and a new team, winning the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

They obviously still haven't slowed down this season. In four races in 2015, Kevin is again leading the points after two wins and four top-five finishes.  Last Sunday was his seventh win at Phoenix but even more amazing than that Kevin is the first driver since Richard Petty did it in 1975 to finish in the top 2 seven consecutive times. If all that wasn't enough, he now has won five of the last 10 races going back to 2014.

So I don't think you can say enough about the strength of the alliance in today's NASCAR world. I mentioned him earlier but look at the extraordinary turnaround of the No. 78 car. Last season was tough for the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team as they got off the mark a little bit. They admittedly weren't maximizing the resources they had at their fingertips from their alliance with Richard Childress Racing.

It wasn't until late last season that they got a chassis from RCR, ran it in one of the Chase races and realized their own chassis were somewhat off. I think crew chief Cole Pearn has done an excellent job this year of utilizing all their assets offered to them through their alliance and applying it. They have the results to show for it with a complete turnaround in here in 2015.

Last Sunday at Phoenix, Truex started 15th, but by the end of the race finished seventh. That marks four straight top-10 finishes by Martin and his team. That's also a Furniture Row Racing team record. When Kurt Busch drove for them in 2012 and 2013 he set the previous record with three straight top 10s. So I think it would be foolish for anyone to underestimate the power of an alliance.

We now are at Fontana for our third and final race of the western swing. This will mark our fourth different style race track in five races this season. You had the 2.5-mile Daytona 500. Then we had 1.5-mile tracks with Atlanta and Las Vegas. Last week was the 1-mile track at Phoenix and now Sunday we have the big, wide 2-mile track at Fontana.

Will the No. 4 car dominance continue this weekend? I don't see any reason to doubt that it will.

Heck, for that matter I don't see it stopping next weekend at Martinsville, either, because Kevin is so dominant at that joint too. This team is on fire. Even after winning the championship last year, in talking to both Kevin and Rodney, they both tell me they still feel they have a lot to prove. Right now I honestly don't see anything stopping them. 

VIDEO: Putting Kevin Harvick's streak into proper perspective

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