bigbadbrother
11-17-2014, 03:00 AM
It's easy to pinpoint exactly when and where Kevin Harvick started winning the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship: His title run began Dec. 11, 2013, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
That was the date Harvick first turned a wheel in anger in a Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SS during a NASCAR test of the 2014 rules package. At the very first day of that very first test, Harvick was, as his sponsor Jimmy John's likes to say, freaky fast.
And from that day on, Harvick was a threat to win most any time he sat behind the wheel of the No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.
Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick capped a career year by winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 and in the process, defeating Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano to win his first Sprint Cup championship and the second for Stewart-Haas, who also won here with Tony Stewart three years ago.
Winning a NASCAR championship under any circumstances is an impressive accomplishment; doing it the way Harvick did was just short of remarkable.
For 13 years at Richard Childress Racing, Harvick labored in the shadow of the man he replaced, the late Dale Earnhardt, and had several very good seasons, but no titles. Harvick's years at RCR were often turbulent, culminating in October 2013, when he verbally bashed Childress's grandsons after an incident with Ty Dillon at Martinsville Speedway. Harvick later apologized for losing his temper.
After the end of the 2013 season, Harvick bolted RCR to join SHR and Stewart, his close friend and kindred spirit. Years ago, when they were trying to get under Jimmie Johnson's skin, the two had t-shirts printed up that said "Law Offices of Harvick & Stewart 1-800-BITEME 48."
When Harvick and wife DeLana had their own NASCAR Nationwide Series cars, Stewart frequently drove for them, with great success. Stewart and Harvick are pals, true, but first and foremost they are bare-knuckled, hard racers. Each man knows how the other does business and they have a high degree of mutual respect.
"Tony Stewart was obviously a huge part of the decision that I made, personally, to change jobs, just for the fact that he had won three championships," said Harvick. "They had won a championship already at SHR."
Gene Haas, the team's co-owner, gave Stewart the go-ahead to sign Harvick before they even had sponsors signed.
"The commitment Gene had made -- without having one dollar on that race car, we were going to race, regardless, at a very high level," said Harvick.
SHR put together a brand-new team for Harvick, led by crew chief Rodney Childers, who had had excellent results managing multiple drivers in a previous stint at Michael Waltrip Racing.
From the onset, Harvick was impressed that he was given the tools to win -- all new race cars, a new transporter and the best of everything, luxuries he didn't always enjoy at RCR. But it was hard work.
"The guys on this race team and what we went through at the beginning of the year to get it going, there's not too many people that would have went through that," said Childers. "And I really expected people to work a couple months and realize how bad it was and turn around and walk out the door."
According to Childers, the team really was constructed from scratch.
"The hard times was building all those race cars and getting that truck and trailer here and outfitting that entire thing and building that pit box and building the toolboxes," he said. "We didn't have a single jack stand. We didn't have a bench for the shop. We didn't have anything. And every bit of that had to be made."
But once they got to the track, they were fast, which was more important than any minor problems. This year, Harvick won four races and a career-high eight poles. He has led more than 2,000 laps — more laps than Joey Logano had led in his entire career and more laps than Ryan Newman led in the last 10 seasons. Freaky fast.
The new-for-2014 NASCAR rules package has suited Harvick well. He is one of the few drivers on the circuit who prefers a tight race car, while Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and others who like looser handling can't drive Harvick's setups – that's one reason Harvick has been much more successful than his SHR counterparts and most of the Hendrick Motorsports team, SHR's technical partner.
Still, it took time.
After winning the second race of the season at Phoenix, Harvick finished 41st at Las Vegas, 39th at Bristol, 36th at Auto Club Speedway, seventh at Martinsville and 42nd at Texas. Repeated mistakes on pit road led Harvick to swap his crew for Stewart's.
On top of that, SHR faced a potentially paralyzing companywide crisis, when Stewart struck and killed 19-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. during a sprint car race in Upstate New York on Aug. 9. Stewart was eventually exonerated, but it could have derailed a lesser team.
"It's been a hard year," Stewart said. "But at the same time, I think those guys have been, week in and week out, very consistent, and it's been that way from the first December test that they ran together all the way through this weekend. I think for us it's just gratifying that that speed and that consistency has paid off to get them to the show this year."
It got Harvick the championship that he so coveted.
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Pos Driver Car # Make Started
1 Kevin Harvick 4 Chevrolet 5
2 Ryan Newman 31 Chevrolet 21
3 Brad Keselowski 2 Ford 4
4 Paul Menard 27 Chevrolet 16
5 Jamie McMurray 1 Chevrolet 19
6 Matt Kenseth 20 Toyota 3
7 Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota 8
8 Clint Bowyer 15 Toyota 6
9 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 12
10 Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet 1
11 Kurt Busch 41 Chevrolet 2
12 Kasey Kahne 5 Chevrolet 23
13 Kyle Larson 42 Chevrolet 27
14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 11
15 Justin Allgaier 51 Chevrolet 14
16 Joey Logano 22 Ford 9
17 Martin Truex Jr. 78 Chevrolet 10
18 Danica Patrick 10 Chevrolet 32
19 Aric Almirola 43 Ford 18
20 Casey Mears 13 Chevrolet 29
21 Michael McDowell 95 Ford 38
22 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 17 Ford 22
23 Brian Vickers 55 Toyota 13
24 Reed Sorenson 36 Chevrolet 36
25 Austin Dillon 3 Chevrolet 24
26 Cole Whitt 26 Toyota 42
27 Marcos Ambrose 9 Ford 17
28 Brian Scott 33 Chevrolet 30
29 Landon Cassill 40 Chevrolet 33
30 David Ragan 34 Ford 31
31 David Gilliland 38 Ford 35
32 Josh Wise 98 Chevrolet 37
33 Alex Bowman 23 Toyota 41
34 Carl Edwards 99 Ford 15
35 Michael Annett 7 Chevrolet 39
36 Brett Moffitt 66 Toyota 43
37 J.J. Yeley 83 Toyota 34
38 Blake Koch 32 Ford 40
39 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 7
40 AJ Allmendinger 47 Chevrolet 25
41 Greg Biffle 16 Ford 20
42 Trevor Bayne 21 Ford 26
43 Tony Stewart 14 Chevrolet 28
Rank Driver
1 Kevin Harvick 5043 - 36 5 14 20 2 10032 2137
2 Ryan Newman 5042 1 36 0 5 16 1 10479 41
3 Denny Hamlin 5037 6 35 1 7 18 2 9710 363
4 Joey Logano 5028 15 36 5 16 22 4 10394 993
5 Brad Keselowski 2361 2682 36 6 17 20 1 10362 1540
6 Jeff Gordon 2348 2695 36 4 14 23 0 10503 1083
7 Matt Kenseth 2334 2709 36 0 13 22 2 10343 529
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2301 2742 36 4 12 20 2 9818 383
9 Carl Edwards 2288 2755 36 2 7 14 2 10457 135
10 Kyle Busch 2285 2758 36 1 9 15 4 9882 453
11 Jimmie Johnson 2274 2769 36 4 11 20 4 9893 1310
12 Kurt Busch 2263 2780 36 1 6 11 6 10025 220
13 AJ Allmendinger 2260 2783 36 1 2 5 4 10280 68
14 Greg Biffle 2247 2796 36 0 3 11 1 10350 110
15 Kasey Kahne 2234 2809 36 1 3 11 5 10275 218
16 Aric Almirola 2195 2848 36 1 2 7 6 9759 23
17 Kyle Larson 1080 3963 36 0 8 17 4 10142 53
18 Jamie McMurray 1014 4029 36 0 7 13 3 10225 368
19 Clint Bowyer 979 4064 36 0 5 15 5 9834 109
20 Austin Dillon 958 4085 36 0 1 4 0 10488 10
21 Paul Menard 944 4099 36 0 5 13 2 10185 45
22 Brian Vickers 921 4122 36 0 3 9 3 10047 53
23 Marcos Ambrose 870 4173 36 0 3 7 1 10282 50
24 Martin Truex Jr. 857 4186 36 0 1 5 3 10217 1
25 Tony Stewart 799 4244 33 0 3 7 4 9306 125
26 Casey Mears 782 4261 36 0 1 3 1 10405 4
27 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 757 4286 35 0 1 5 2 9836 0
28 Danica Patrick 735 4308 36 0 0 3 4 10220 15
29 Justin Allgaier 636 4407 35 0 0 0 6 9880 16
30 David Gilliland 554 4489 36 0 0 0 4 10049 14
31 Cole Whitt 532 4511 36 0 0 0 4 9977 1
32 David Ragan 531 4512 36 0 0 1 3 10128 14
33 Michael Annett 531 4512 36 0 0 0 6 9750 5
34 Reed Sorenson 516 4527 36 0 0 0 5 9856 7
35 Alex Bowman 412 4631 36 0 0 0 6 9878 0
36 Josh Wise 405 4638 35 0 0 0 4 9254 0
37 Michael McDowell 255 4788 19 0 0 1 5 5122 1
38 Travis Kvapil 214 4829 21 0 0 1 2 5857 2
39 Ryan Truex 193 4850 23 0 0 0 8 5585 0
40 Terry Labonte 88 4955 4 0 0 0 0 693 0
41 Jeff Burton 87 4956 4 0 0 0 0 1247 0
42 Michael Waltrip 76 4967 4 0 0 0 1 637 4
43 David Stremme 75 4968 10 0 0 0 2 3410 0
44 Timmy Hill 62 4981 11 0 0 0 5 2044 0
45 Brett Moffitt 60 4983 7 0 0 0 2 1863 0
46 Bobby Labonte 54 4989 3 0 0 0 1 455 0
47 Parker Kligerman 54 4989 8 0 0 0 4 2321 0
48 Juan Pablo Montoya 47 4996 2 0 0 0 0 360 0
49 Alex Kennedy 47 4996 5 0 0 0 2 699 0
50 Dave Blaney 46 4997 7 0 0 0 3 1252 0
51 David Reutimann 37 5006 3 0 0 0 0 934 1
52 Boris Said 28 5015 2 0 0 0 0 199 0
53 Nelson Piquet Jr. 18 5025 1 0 0 0 0 90 0
54 Eddie MacDonald 9 5034 1 0 0 0 0 300 0
55 Tomy Drissi 6 5037 1 0 0 0 0 108 0
56 Clay Rogers 2 5041 2 0 0 0 2 70 0
That was the date Harvick first turned a wheel in anger in a Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet SS during a NASCAR test of the 2014 rules package. At the very first day of that very first test, Harvick was, as his sponsor Jimmy John's likes to say, freaky fast.
And from that day on, Harvick was a threat to win most any time he sat behind the wheel of the No. 4 SHR Chevrolet.
Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Harvick capped a career year by winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 and in the process, defeating Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano to win his first Sprint Cup championship and the second for Stewart-Haas, who also won here with Tony Stewart three years ago.
Winning a NASCAR championship under any circumstances is an impressive accomplishment; doing it the way Harvick did was just short of remarkable.
For 13 years at Richard Childress Racing, Harvick labored in the shadow of the man he replaced, the late Dale Earnhardt, and had several very good seasons, but no titles. Harvick's years at RCR were often turbulent, culminating in October 2013, when he verbally bashed Childress's grandsons after an incident with Ty Dillon at Martinsville Speedway. Harvick later apologized for losing his temper.
After the end of the 2013 season, Harvick bolted RCR to join SHR and Stewart, his close friend and kindred spirit. Years ago, when they were trying to get under Jimmie Johnson's skin, the two had t-shirts printed up that said "Law Offices of Harvick & Stewart 1-800-BITEME 48."
When Harvick and wife DeLana had their own NASCAR Nationwide Series cars, Stewart frequently drove for them, with great success. Stewart and Harvick are pals, true, but first and foremost they are bare-knuckled, hard racers. Each man knows how the other does business and they have a high degree of mutual respect.
"Tony Stewart was obviously a huge part of the decision that I made, personally, to change jobs, just for the fact that he had won three championships," said Harvick. "They had won a championship already at SHR."
Gene Haas, the team's co-owner, gave Stewart the go-ahead to sign Harvick before they even had sponsors signed.
"The commitment Gene had made -- without having one dollar on that race car, we were going to race, regardless, at a very high level," said Harvick.
SHR put together a brand-new team for Harvick, led by crew chief Rodney Childers, who had had excellent results managing multiple drivers in a previous stint at Michael Waltrip Racing.
From the onset, Harvick was impressed that he was given the tools to win -- all new race cars, a new transporter and the best of everything, luxuries he didn't always enjoy at RCR. But it was hard work.
"The guys on this race team and what we went through at the beginning of the year to get it going, there's not too many people that would have went through that," said Childers. "And I really expected people to work a couple months and realize how bad it was and turn around and walk out the door."
According to Childers, the team really was constructed from scratch.
"The hard times was building all those race cars and getting that truck and trailer here and outfitting that entire thing and building that pit box and building the toolboxes," he said. "We didn't have a single jack stand. We didn't have a bench for the shop. We didn't have anything. And every bit of that had to be made."
But once they got to the track, they were fast, which was more important than any minor problems. This year, Harvick won four races and a career-high eight poles. He has led more than 2,000 laps — more laps than Joey Logano had led in his entire career and more laps than Ryan Newman led in the last 10 seasons. Freaky fast.
The new-for-2014 NASCAR rules package has suited Harvick well. He is one of the few drivers on the circuit who prefers a tight race car, while Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and others who like looser handling can't drive Harvick's setups – that's one reason Harvick has been much more successful than his SHR counterparts and most of the Hendrick Motorsports team, SHR's technical partner.
Still, it took time.
After winning the second race of the season at Phoenix, Harvick finished 41st at Las Vegas, 39th at Bristol, 36th at Auto Club Speedway, seventh at Martinsville and 42nd at Texas. Repeated mistakes on pit road led Harvick to swap his crew for Stewart's.
On top of that, SHR faced a potentially paralyzing companywide crisis, when Stewart struck and killed 19-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. during a sprint car race in Upstate New York on Aug. 9. Stewart was eventually exonerated, but it could have derailed a lesser team.
"It's been a hard year," Stewart said. "But at the same time, I think those guys have been, week in and week out, very consistent, and it's been that way from the first December test that they ran together all the way through this weekend. I think for us it's just gratifying that that speed and that consistency has paid off to get them to the show this year."
It got Harvick the championship that he so coveted.
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Pos Driver Car # Make Started
1 Kevin Harvick 4 Chevrolet 5
2 Ryan Newman 31 Chevrolet 21
3 Brad Keselowski 2 Ford 4
4 Paul Menard 27 Chevrolet 16
5 Jamie McMurray 1 Chevrolet 19
6 Matt Kenseth 20 Toyota 3
7 Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota 8
8 Clint Bowyer 15 Toyota 6
9 Jimmie Johnson 48 Chevrolet 12
10 Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet 1
11 Kurt Busch 41 Chevrolet 2
12 Kasey Kahne 5 Chevrolet 23
13 Kyle Larson 42 Chevrolet 27
14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 88 Chevrolet 11
15 Justin Allgaier 51 Chevrolet 14
16 Joey Logano 22 Ford 9
17 Martin Truex Jr. 78 Chevrolet 10
18 Danica Patrick 10 Chevrolet 32
19 Aric Almirola 43 Ford 18
20 Casey Mears 13 Chevrolet 29
21 Michael McDowell 95 Ford 38
22 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 17 Ford 22
23 Brian Vickers 55 Toyota 13
24 Reed Sorenson 36 Chevrolet 36
25 Austin Dillon 3 Chevrolet 24
26 Cole Whitt 26 Toyota 42
27 Marcos Ambrose 9 Ford 17
28 Brian Scott 33 Chevrolet 30
29 Landon Cassill 40 Chevrolet 33
30 David Ragan 34 Ford 31
31 David Gilliland 38 Ford 35
32 Josh Wise 98 Chevrolet 37
33 Alex Bowman 23 Toyota 41
34 Carl Edwards 99 Ford 15
35 Michael Annett 7 Chevrolet 39
36 Brett Moffitt 66 Toyota 43
37 J.J. Yeley 83 Toyota 34
38 Blake Koch 32 Ford 40
39 Kyle Busch 18 Toyota 7
40 AJ Allmendinger 47 Chevrolet 25
41 Greg Biffle 16 Ford 20
42 Trevor Bayne 21 Ford 26
43 Tony Stewart 14 Chevrolet 28
Rank Driver
1 Kevin Harvick 5043 - 36 5 14 20 2 10032 2137
2 Ryan Newman 5042 1 36 0 5 16 1 10479 41
3 Denny Hamlin 5037 6 35 1 7 18 2 9710 363
4 Joey Logano 5028 15 36 5 16 22 4 10394 993
5 Brad Keselowski 2361 2682 36 6 17 20 1 10362 1540
6 Jeff Gordon 2348 2695 36 4 14 23 0 10503 1083
7 Matt Kenseth 2334 2709 36 0 13 22 2 10343 529
8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2301 2742 36 4 12 20 2 9818 383
9 Carl Edwards 2288 2755 36 2 7 14 2 10457 135
10 Kyle Busch 2285 2758 36 1 9 15 4 9882 453
11 Jimmie Johnson 2274 2769 36 4 11 20 4 9893 1310
12 Kurt Busch 2263 2780 36 1 6 11 6 10025 220
13 AJ Allmendinger 2260 2783 36 1 2 5 4 10280 68
14 Greg Biffle 2247 2796 36 0 3 11 1 10350 110
15 Kasey Kahne 2234 2809 36 1 3 11 5 10275 218
16 Aric Almirola 2195 2848 36 1 2 7 6 9759 23
17 Kyle Larson 1080 3963 36 0 8 17 4 10142 53
18 Jamie McMurray 1014 4029 36 0 7 13 3 10225 368
19 Clint Bowyer 979 4064 36 0 5 15 5 9834 109
20 Austin Dillon 958 4085 36 0 1 4 0 10488 10
21 Paul Menard 944 4099 36 0 5 13 2 10185 45
22 Brian Vickers 921 4122 36 0 3 9 3 10047 53
23 Marcos Ambrose 870 4173 36 0 3 7 1 10282 50
24 Martin Truex Jr. 857 4186 36 0 1 5 3 10217 1
25 Tony Stewart 799 4244 33 0 3 7 4 9306 125
26 Casey Mears 782 4261 36 0 1 3 1 10405 4
27 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 757 4286 35 0 1 5 2 9836 0
28 Danica Patrick 735 4308 36 0 0 3 4 10220 15
29 Justin Allgaier 636 4407 35 0 0 0 6 9880 16
30 David Gilliland 554 4489 36 0 0 0 4 10049 14
31 Cole Whitt 532 4511 36 0 0 0 4 9977 1
32 David Ragan 531 4512 36 0 0 1 3 10128 14
33 Michael Annett 531 4512 36 0 0 0 6 9750 5
34 Reed Sorenson 516 4527 36 0 0 0 5 9856 7
35 Alex Bowman 412 4631 36 0 0 0 6 9878 0
36 Josh Wise 405 4638 35 0 0 0 4 9254 0
37 Michael McDowell 255 4788 19 0 0 1 5 5122 1
38 Travis Kvapil 214 4829 21 0 0 1 2 5857 2
39 Ryan Truex 193 4850 23 0 0 0 8 5585 0
40 Terry Labonte 88 4955 4 0 0 0 0 693 0
41 Jeff Burton 87 4956 4 0 0 0 0 1247 0
42 Michael Waltrip 76 4967 4 0 0 0 1 637 4
43 David Stremme 75 4968 10 0 0 0 2 3410 0
44 Timmy Hill 62 4981 11 0 0 0 5 2044 0
45 Brett Moffitt 60 4983 7 0 0 0 2 1863 0
46 Bobby Labonte 54 4989 3 0 0 0 1 455 0
47 Parker Kligerman 54 4989 8 0 0 0 4 2321 0
48 Juan Pablo Montoya 47 4996 2 0 0 0 0 360 0
49 Alex Kennedy 47 4996 5 0 0 0 2 699 0
50 Dave Blaney 46 4997 7 0 0 0 3 1252 0
51 David Reutimann 37 5006 3 0 0 0 0 934 1
52 Boris Said 28 5015 2 0 0 0 0 199 0
53 Nelson Piquet Jr. 18 5025 1 0 0 0 0 90 0
54 Eddie MacDonald 9 5034 1 0 0 0 0 300 0
55 Tomy Drissi 6 5037 1 0 0 0 0 108 0
56 Clay Rogers 2 5041 2 0 0 0 2 70 0