Kevin Harvick Sets The Chase Pace
Kevin Harvick was able to strike the first blow in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship
Isn’t it funny how things can change so vividly in a year’s time?
Last season at this time, Kevin Harvick was on the outside of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Chase For the Championship looking in for the second consecutive season, and his tenure at Richard Childress Racing appeared to drawing to a bitter conclusion. Now, one year later he has emerged as the championship favorite.
Harvick won the pole two days before he just flat out dominated the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire on Sunday, drawing first blood in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship. Yes, the weekend belonged to Kevin Harvick and Richard Childress Racing.
"We just have to keep doing what we're doing," said Harvick after leading 196 of the 300 laps paced around the 1.058-mile oval en route to his fourth win of the Nextel Cup season. "If we keep winning races, we're not going to get outscored in points."
Harvick's win was not controversy-free. On lap 35, Harvick drove in between the side-by-side battle between teammate Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin. Harvick made contact with Hamlin sending the NASCAR rookie up the track and almost into the wall. Even though Hamlin rebounded to finish fourth, he wasn't very happy with 'Happy'. You'd think (Harvick) would be a little more cautious, but it's all good. It was real risky at the time. Had it caused us a bad day, I would have probably said never mind...I think he could have passed me and (Burton) fairly easy in five laps, but that's the way he wanted to get to the front in a hurry. He didn't want to get messed up in traffic. He left that to me."
Also, in post-race inspection, the rims on Harvick and Burton's cars were found to be in the gray area of the NASCAR rulebook. The rims were laser-cut in order to release air pressure, similar to a bleeder valve, which ultimately gave the two Richard Childress Racing team's a slight performance advantage. Did they cheat? Not really, but they pushed the envelope pretty darn hard. As all of the Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus fans said a year ago, Todd Berrier and Scott Miller, the RCR crew chiefs, were displaying shrewd ingenuity.
Three months ago, Jimmie Johnson was straightforwardly picked as the favorite to win the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship, but his quest for the Cup took a gargantuan hit on Sunday when he first lost a cylinder. After re-starting the race towards the back, he was turned around by Sterling Marlin. Johnson finished 39th, and has fallen 139 points behind Harvick in the Nextel Cup championship standings.
Before the race, Johnson ironically quoted, "You can't win the championship here in New Hampshire, but you can lose it today.'"
Kyle Busch also had a rough outing. After being involved in the lap 3 crash with Jeff Green, Busch's car was never able to handle favorably. Eventually, Busch would get run over by rookie Clint Bowyer, temporarily sending the 5 car into the garage.
Busch finished 38th and has fallen to 10th in the Nextel Cup standings, 146 points off the pace.
Other chaser's- Jeff Gordon finishd 3rd, Denny Hamlin finished 4th, Jeff Burton finished 7th, Matt Kenseth finished 10th, Mark Martin finished 11th, Dale Earnhardt Jr finished 13th, and Kasey Kahne finished 16th.
Quote of the week
Kevin Harvick explaining the incident with Denny Hamlin
"We're not that smart when we're sitting in the driver's seat."
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