HARVICK, TAKE 2
Kevin Harvick wins for a second week in a row on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series circuit, this time in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – Kevin Harvick has never won more than five Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in a season.
If current trends continue, that statistical column will need a major update.
The season is only three races and
1,400 miles old, but Harvick is storming through the schedule like a man afire. His solid victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was his second in a row and, like at Atlanta Motor Speedway the previous week, it wasn’t close.
In a season in which the sport’s young guns were supposed to hog much of the publicity, Harvick, an “old” guy at
42, has been first at the trough. And there has been precious little food for anyone else.
A crash in the season-opening Daytona 500 left Harvick with a 31st-place finish, but the two races since have been colored with a Harvick hue. He led 181 of
325 laps in crushing the competition at Atlanta, and Sunday’s race, contested in bright sunshine but cool temperatures in the Nevada desert, was owned by Harvick virtually wire to wire. He led 214 laps.
The only drama over the closing laps was created by second-place Kyle Busch, who gained a few inches per lap on Harvick but couldn’t get close enough to scare him.
Harvick praised his Stewart-Haas Racing team for raising its game in its second season with Ford cars after some issues early last year and its response to new aerodynamic rules this year. “I’m fortunate to be riding the wave,” he said.
Crew chief Rodney Childers, one of the smartest guys in the garage, put a rocketship on the track Sunday. “We’ve worried about our own stuff and forgot about the trick of the week and all the other stuff that goes around,” he said.
What’s happening with Harvick?
Most important, he has been there and done that. In a Cup career that began suddenly when he took over Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s seat after the veteran driver’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Harvick has had highs and lows, scoring major wins and claiming a championship while swimming through more than a few controversies, often ignited by him.
Along the way, Harvick has encountered virtually every situation imaginable and has an encyclopedic knowledge of tracks, turns and troubles.
Give him a better-than-average car, and he’s likely to turn in a much-betterthan-average finish. Give him a really good car, which is exactly what he had Sunday, and he’ll probably be at least in the top three.
Like some great drivers before him, most notably Cale Yarborough and David Pearson, Harvick has carried a strong reputation as a closer, a driver who can save the best for last and burn the competition with surges in the closing miles. But he has traded that concept and now doesn’t seem satisfied to simply win. He’s enjoying pounding the competition into the turf with quality speeds lap after lap.
The race mercifully ended for the pretenders with Harvick holding a 2.9second lead.
Don’t look now, but the series stays out West next weekend at ISM Raceway, a track near Phoenix that Harvick owns a record eight wins at, including five of the past nine races. They might need a roadblock to stop him.
As Harvick drove on Sunday, seventime champion Jimmie Johnson continued to fight the wind. Johnson was lapped early and spent most of the afternoon scrambling, a verb the No. 48 team has had little association with over the years. Johnson’s 2018 season has been mostly forgettable to date.
He eventually returned to the lead lap but had nothing for Harvick and the rest of the lead pack and finished 12th.
At Phoenix, Johnson will look to climb the mountain Harvick is building.