Kevin Harvick poses with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series trophy after winning the series championship Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images
HOMESTEAD, FL – Kevin Harvick celebrated his first career Sprint Cup title on Sunday night after winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and emerging as the highest finishing driver among the four surviving Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders, ending an incredible run that saw him come from behind to win pivotal races in the second and third elimination rounds to keep in season alive.
On Sunday, with the title nearly slipping away, he showed the poise and determination of a champion as fought his way back to the front of the field to finally hoist the championship trophy that had eluded him for 13 years.
Finding himself in sixth place with 10 laps to go, Harvick roared up the middle and back to the lead in just two laps and held off Ryan Newman for the victory – and the championship, beating out Newman, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano.
“I’m just really excited. It’s really special for everybody. I’m really happy. I’ve been trying to win this for 13 years. This new format has been stressful, but the racing has been phenomenal,” Harvick said.
Sunday night’s season-ending drams was the culmination of NASCAR’s latest twist in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s version of the playoffs on route to crowning a championship – a new elimination-style format involving 16 drivers, with four drivers cut from the championship field after each three-race “round”.
NASCAR had hoped the new format would add a new element into the Chase, emphasizing winning and competition, and hopefully add a little drama.
And drama they got.
Besides the furious battles on the track and the equally furious post-race brawls in the races leading up to the finale, Sunday’s race delivered exactly what NASCAR wanted – all four championship contenders in the hunt right up until the final lap.
“I think this Chase is about the best thing that has happened to this sport over the last decade,” said Harvick. “In the end, it turned out you had to go for broke just to be competitive, and I think that’s really what this format has turned every week into over the last 10 weeks is if you want to win, you’ve got to if you want to win the championship, you’re going to have to figure out how to win races, and in the end, that’s what it came down to was winning the race.”
For Harvick, his first Sprint Cup title caps a remarkable career that began under the most tragic of circumstances – taking over the drivers seat for the late seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt following Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 season-opening Daytona 500.
Harvick proved his mettle right away, winning his first Cup Series race in just his third start.
Since 2010 his Richard Childress Racing team always seemed on the cusp of winning a championship, but always fell short.
Harvick’s hair-trigger temper on and off the track and sometimes sour disposition in post-race interviews earned him the dubious nickname of “Happy” Harvick.
Finally, Harvick decided the only way he could get the championship he coveted so much was to take a chance, and after the 2013 he left the only Sprint Cup team he had ever driven for to join Stewart-Haas Racing.
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It was a bold move that finally paid off Sunday night.
“You know, I think as you go back in time and you just really think about everything that’s led up to this point, this is what we race for.” said Harvick. “I can drive the car, but these guys have made some bold decisions, whether it be on the pit box tonight, changing the pit crew, whatever it may be.
“You get to be a part of something from the beginning, and for me that was what I was looking for, to be a part of something that you could build from day one, and you felt like you knew everything that was going on for the most part.”
Harvick’s championship is the second for Stewart-Haas Racing after team co-owner Tony Stewart won the title in 2011.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Stewart. “It is so hard to win a championship at this level, and NASCAR in general, and especially with this Chase format. Every week it showed how intense it was, how much pressure there was on the drivers, the crew chiefs, the crew members, pit crews.
“Just unbelievable how much everything had to go right and how special it was when big moments happened.”
The championship is one of the few bright spots this season for Stewart, who missed the last half of the 2013 season after breaking his leg in a sprint car accident.
Halfway through the 2014 season, Stewart was involved in an on-track incident where he struck and killed another driver during a sprint car race in New York. He sat out the next three Sprint Cup races and ultimately missed the Chase.
Sunday night, he retired his No. 14 Chevrolet early after 182 laps, ending his streak of 15 seasons with a least one victory.
“You know, there’s a lot of things I would love to change about the last 18 months of my life, but tonight is not one of them,” said Stewart. “I’m going to enjoy this moment, and I’m going to enjoy it with this group and this young man. We’re going to go celebrate and enjoy this because this group of people here have deserved it, and this is a great family and this is a great group of people to lean on.”
With the Sprint Cup trophy finally in hand, Harvick might truly be “Happy” Harvick after all.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my whole life than I have been this year just for the fact from a personal standpoint, from a professional standpoint, and you see all the things that you have around you, and you’re lucky,” said Harvick. “And it’s been a long, long time since I can sit up here and honestly tell you that I love the experience of everything that’s been around me, and it just makes it fun.”
“I needed to be excited about going to work, and this just gave me an opportunity to race with one of my good friends. In evaluation of (Harvick’s wife) Delana and I looking at things and saying, what’s going to make us happy? Because in the end if you’re not happy, nothing is going to work like it should.”
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