Harvick trying to shake up championship race

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Harvick wasted zero time in leveling the first volley in NASCAR’s championship race.

In Harvick’s opinion, he’s playing with house money when he races Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the title. It’s Truex, Harvick believes, who faces all the pressure.

“Martin has won a lot of races this year,” Harvick said. “Those guys have dominated the year, and I feel like if they don’t win at this point, they would probably feel like they’ve had a letdown.

“It’s a lot of fun coming from behind, and playing catch-up and kind of playing that underdog role is much easier than being expected to go down there and win. We expect to win.”

When told that Harvick has picked Truex as the favorite, Truex cut off the question before waiting to hear what Harvick even said.

“That sounds like Harvick,” joked Truex.

But Truex won’t be rattled. He’s won seven races this year, been the most dominant driver all season and has three wins in these playoffs. So if Harvick is trying to lean on Truex, he’s got the wrong guy.

“It doesn’t work on me,” Truex said. “If I’m the favorite, perfect, I like that. I think it’s a better position to be in. I was the underdog before and I finished fourth, so yeah, bring it on.”

The field was finalized Sunday when Keselowski earned the final spot in the championship on points. He finished 16th at Phoenix Raceway and had to sweat it out because he was never in contention for the victory. Had one of four other drivers won the race, Keselowski would have been out.

And had Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin not been feuding, Hamlin might have claimed the final spot over Keselowski on points.

Matt Kenseth passed Elliott with 10 laps remaining to win Phoenix and deny Elliott the final berth in this week’s championship race. Had Elliott hung on for the win, he would have qualified for the championship finale.