NASCAR Cup Series

Past is past: Harvick focused on Chase

Published Oct. 6, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Kevin Harvick has said it for weeks.

There’s no clear favorite in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. So far, he’s exactly right.

The Richard Childress Racing driver has spent no time bemoaning the points lead he lost when the NASCAR field was reset based on wins at the start of the Chase. He’s wasted no time worrying about how the other Chase drivers have fared week to week. He’s focused on his own effort, his own organization — and put himself right back into the heart of this Chase.

While Harvick hasn’t dominated, neither has anyone else. While Harvick adjusted from pursuing merely wins to getting back into championship form, so did several other top drivers.

He’s found a way to make it all come together. He’s as intent on not letting the pressure of the Chase get to him as he is on winning his first Cup title — and that could be the key to his success.

Now he’s focused on turning in more performances like the one Sunday at Kansas Speedway, where he led 16 laps and finished third.

That performance put him right back where he started: third in the standings and 30 points off the leader’s pace. It makes little difference, at least to Harvick, that the leader is now Jimmie Johnson instead of Denny Hamlin.

To him, the goal remains the same.

“It is all about maintaining that gap,” Harvick said. “(Sunday) we were able to beat the No. 11 (of Hamlin) and maintain with the No. 48 (of Johnson), and that is what we feel like we have to do. We feel like California is another good week for us next week.”

Even before he went out and executed so well, Harvick seemed confident and comfortable with his Chase potential — and the lack of a favorite in the field.

“It’s wide open right now,” he said. “I think you just have to go out and get the best finishes that you can, because I think every point is going to matter when you get towards the end of the Chase.”

While he acknowledges it was a little difficult to seamlessly transition from being locked into the field — and therefore chasing just wins and the bonus points they offered — to getting back into standard racing mode, Harvick is making it look easy.

Perhaps that’s because of the mental fortitude he and his Richard Childress Racing team possess.

Some might have gotten caught up in the points lead that slipped away, after Harvick led the series for most of the opening 26 races. Or with the ensuing debate and appeal of a massive penalty against teammate Clint Bowyer — a situation that apparently led Harvick to confront Hamlin after the Joe Gibbs Racing driver made some choice remarks about the state of the RCR car. But this team seems to have left that in the past.

Bowyer says “The biggest thing is to be the best teammate I can be.” Teammate Jeff Burton reiterates that the RCR group is confident in the strength of all of its teams. And Harvick has found a way to put things together at the right time.

He and his team balance one another, use individual strengths to craft a unit that will be tough to disrupt. Harvick sees that in his relationship with crew chief Gil Martin and the way they work together.

“Gil’s very good at leading the team and keeping everyone calm, because I’m pretty high-strung as far as what happens on the racetrack and things like that,” Harvick says. “He’s good at keeping them calm, and he keeps everybody calm, really, including myself. That’s a good balance between the two of us. I can be myself and not have to worry about backtracking on what I said and who I need to apologize to for something I said on the radio.

“He takes care of all that.”

It’s hard to overestimate just how much of an advantage that is during the high-pressure, tense, 10-week Chase — and the role that could play as Harvick continues on his voyage to climb the standings and snare that Sprint Cup.

“As you go through these 10 weeks, the mental grind of the whole process is a lot, because it’s all you think about constantly, and this is what we all race for,” Harvick says.

“We all want to win a championship, we all want to be in position to win a championship, and this is the time to make it happen.”

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