Photo Credit: Mike Holloway
As the defending series champion and having a stronger season than last year when he was crowned champion with 12 runner-up finishes, 22 top-fives and 27 top-10s thus far this season, it’s no secret that Kevin Harvick enters the season finale as the favourite to win the championship.
“I think you kind of have to make him the favorite based on the fact that he’s defending champion, based on the fact he’s led over 2,000 laps again this year,” Martin Truex Jr. stated on Thursday. “Those guys for the most part, most racetracks have had the speed to be the car to beat on more occasion than the rest of us.”
From a team perspective, building a team that is seen as top-notch starts right from the beginning of the year, per team owner Tony Stewart, in how strongly they have come out of the gate both seasons with immediate speed, and keeping that consistently over the season without struggling, unlike other teams that struggled at one time or another during the year – for example, Hendrick Motorsports during the summer.
“When you carry that momentum through the entire season and can maintain it, it’s not like you peak too soon or anything like that,” Stewart commented. “When you can maintain that kind of momentum the whole season, I mean, I think you have that confidence going into this week, so I think it makes it a lot easier.”
Beyond confidence over the whole season, he will enter this weekend with momentum as he has posted a top-three finish in the last two races.
“I have the confidence in my team and the things that we’ve done this year that I believe that our car will be competitive,” Harvick commented. “But as we’ve proven throughout the Chase, even though your car is competitive, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong in our sport, just whether it’s mistakes from me or parts failures or whatever goes on.”
Harvick almost faced elimination in the first round after a parts issue at Chicagoland Speedway, followed by running out of fuel at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A victory at Dover International Speedway allowed him to transfer. He almost fell out during round two as engine problems arose during the event at Talladega Superspeedway, but dodged elimination as a result of how the race finished. The final round, though, Harvick used consistency with finishes of eighth, third and second to transfer to the final round.
Knowing the possible issues that can happen, Harvick says the only thing that they can do now is control what they can control.
“I think our guys have kind of lived in this type of situation where everybody expects the car to go out and perform well, and I think you have to be very careful of how you react to those things and how you balance those things and how you talk about those things,” he continued. “You know, you’re confident in what you have, but you can’t be confident in the results just for the fact that you just never know what can reach out and grab you. We’re going to control the things that we can control, and hopefully it goes well.”
Beyond the boost of Harvick, there is perhaps an advantage in the sea of mind games. Harvick is the only driver who has been through this format. The Chase for the Sprint Cup Elimination Format debuted last year, with Harvick being one of the four with Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman vying for the title – of course, coming out on top. Now this year, he faces a new crop that includes Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch. Being the only one with experience, he feels it allows him to know how to manage the week better with the added pressure of what is on the line, as well as the additional media appearances – which could possibly allow for less distractions compared to his competitors.
“Managing your time and doing the things that you need to do are definitely a positive in keeping the right frame of mind and staying focused on the things that you need to stay focused on,” he added. “For me that’s pretty simple this week, and that’s to drive the car and try to get the most out of it. I think it’s definitely good that we got to go through that last year.”
Harvick’s past experience and the lessons learned is something that has already been noticed by Stewart, who says Harvick’s demeanor this year is totally different than how it was last year at this time.
“I mean, I think when we left Phoenix last year, he was extremely nervous, Delana was extremely nervous, and they both flew home with me from Phoenix last week, and their demeanor was totally different,” Stewart recalled. “I think just going through this experience a year ago, it’s not like racing for a championship 15 years ago where you’re down to one or two guys and it’s a point spread going into it. This is a winner-takes-all scenario. I really believes it gives him an advantage going into this week.
“I mean, Kyle and Martin and even Jeff winning four championships hasn’t been through a week like this week, so I think it’s big.”
Whether or not being the favourite and having the past experience will mean anything when the green flag flies on Sunday, it has already had it’s positive effect as hearing people say that their the favourite brings confidence for Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers.
“It makes you feel good about the way that the team has run and the things that we have done,” he commented. “We’re a confident group amongst ourselves, but you also have to be respectful because you definitely don’t want to get run over by the karma train by spouting too many things off. It’s definitely — it’s flattering, but in the end, it’s still got to run the race, and there’s other teams that have run well, and I think as you look at the situation, obviously there’s a lot of things that we’ve been a part of and done well in the past, but now you’ve got to do them again.”
