The Remarkable Kevin Harvick

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In 2001, Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR career began unexpectedly. Following the untimely death of racing legend Dale Earnahardt Sr., car owner Richard Childress called upon a young Harvick to get behind the wheel and replace the man that was simply known as “The Intimidator”. In Harvick’s third NASCAR race he would win the the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 by holding off Jeff Gordon in a race that would have made Earnhardt Sr. proud. That year Harvick would go on to be NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year. Harvick has 30 victories on the Sprint Cup Series under his belt including winning the 2007 Daytona 500 and he’s also a two-time winner of the Coca-Cola 600. But since late 2014, Harvick has revved it up to another gear.

After years of competing against the likes of Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, Harvick would win the last two races of the 2014 NASCAR season en route to claiming his first Sprint Cup Series Title and join these two as circuit champs. Harvick’s 2014 success has carried over to this year as he has put the hammer down on the race track.

The 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is only five races old, but Harvick has already been to the winner’s circle twice. This season Harvick has won the Kobalt World 400 in Las Vegas and he followed this up in the very next week by winning the CampingWorld.com 500 in Phoenix. This past Sunday, Harvick was battling with Kurt Busch to win the Auto Club 400 until several late cautions changed things. Keselowski was able to take advantage of the final green-white-checkered as he eased by Harvick and Busch to win. Harvick was denied a third straight victory, but a second place finish in California was nothing for him to hang his head over. Five races have taken place this season and Harvick has finished in the top five on each occasion. Harvick’s first victory of the season automatically qualifies him for the Sprint Chase later this year and he has a 28-point lead in the overall Sprint Cup standings over Joey Logano who is in second place.

Harvick’s shift from racing for Childress to Stewart Haas has paid huge dividends. In each of Harvick’s last three years of running under the banner of Richard Childress, he finished in the top ten of the overall Sprint Cup standings. But when he decided to join the Stewart Haas team in 2014, his production has soared to new heights as he is now one of the premier drivers on the circuit. Harvick is ascending to the heights of Johnson in NASCAR because he is always winning. And even when Harvick doesn’t win a race, he is right in the thick of things. We still have nearly six months before the Sprint Chase begins and it would be extremely easy for Harvick to sit back and relax for this spring and summer being that he has qualified for the NASCAR’s postseason. But something tells me that Harvick is not going to sit back and rest on his laurels which means that the other NASCAR drivers better buckle up for a very long season.

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By | 2015-03-25T12:57:31+00:00 March 25th, 2015|Categories: Auto Racing|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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