NASCAR Cup Series

Superman? Kevin Harvick's start to the season is out of this world

Published Mar. 13, 2015 4:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick and his team have no doubt had a strong start to the 2015 season.

The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet finished second in the first two races of the season and scored his first victory last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Harvick has led a total of 258 of a possible 795 laps run this season, and has an average finish of 1.7.

Despite the stellar start to the season, Harvick said it is business as usual for the entire crew and that no one on the team is "walking around beating their chest" heading into this Sunday's CampingWorld.com 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

A big part of that mentality comes from the stoic and determined crew chief leading the team, Rodney Childers, according to Harvick.

In their time together, Harvick and Childers have been able to mesh well both on and off the track, with the defending champion describing their relationship like "long-lost brothers."

"His demeanor is a little bit different than mine," Harvick said Friday at PIR. "Obviously, we are different ends of the spectrum as far as he is about as laid-back as you could possibly be and still be awake. I can get pretty wound up. I think that balance is good for both of us, to push each other and kind of find that middle road."

That balance and ease in communication has filtered through the entire No. 4 team. Instead of resting on their laurels -- be it the 2014 Sprint Cup championship or the win last weekend at Las Vegas -- the No. 4 team shows up each weekend focused on the task at hand.

"Everybody wants to be here for the exact same reason that we are experiencing right now," said Harvick. "We are just fortunate to have the resources and the money and the assets, as well as the people, to be in this position. We don't like to talk about it much, just for the fact that you don't want to jinx yourself and you just want to continue doing the things that you are doing. Because we are having a lot of fun at it, but I can tell you that the guys will come into the garage this week and they will most likely have forgotten about winning last week and worry about where we are with practice for this week and what is going on."

With a victory already in the bank, Harvick and the No. 4 team are essentially already in the Chase. But he insisted that will not cause the team to stray from the plan too much by trying different things.

And why would they? Harvick has won four of the last five Sprint Cup races at PIR.

"I think you're willing to step out of the box and try some things during practice. But as far as the race goes, you still want to win as many races as you can to try to keep other people from winning and to gain bonus points in case something happens in the first round," said Harvick. "And it's just good for the morale of your team to continue that momentum and try to keep winning."

VIDEO: Four things as common as a Phoenix win for Kevin Harvick