On Kevin Harvick’s first lap around the NASCAR Cup circuit, the ghost of Dale Earnhardt rode shotgun. Harvick was 25, a Saturday racer in a Sunday sport just mapping out a course to racing’s big stage when he suddenly inherited his spectral passenger.
Two evenings after Earnhardt died during the 2001 Daytona 500, car owner Richard Childress summoned Harvick to his office. Harvick remembered Childress looking as if he hadn’t slept since the weekend. Earnhardt’s crew chief Kevin Hamlin was present with a glass of bourbon in his hand — and Harvick could tell it wasn’t his first of the day. Kid, they told him, we’re calling you up from Triple-A and putting you in Earnhardt’s seat.
It took only 14 seasons from that dubious launch point, 502 races, a garage-full of almosts, a change in race team and a dramatic, improbable win-win finish in 2014 to get Harvick to his first Sprint Cup championship.
Finally, a driver in full, nothing left to accomplish, having totally separated himself both from the morbid ties to the great Earnhardt and the near misses of six top-five points finishes. What a relief.
“I don’t have to come and answer, ‘Is this the year?’ Harvick said recently. “We’ve been there and done that now.”
So, now go win another.
“He’s not one of these guys who is content winning one of anything,” said Tony Stewart, both teammate and co-owner of his Stewart-Haas race team. “I think that drive and determination is what makes him a favorite this year for sure.”
“The fact that it’s way more fun to win a championship than to lose it is motivation enough,” Harvick said.
He could have written off last season as one of acclimation after packing up and leaving Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas and a chance at a re-invigorating new start. It was the move of a man who does not do contentment well, of an anxious, sometimes fiery competitor who had grown stale at his old workplace.
“I was tired of going to work. I didn’t like my job,” Harvick said.
Admittedly, he began the 2014 a bit shaky, nervous about all the new relationships at SHR. Wild inconsistencies followed — winning his second time out then putting up an average finish of 30th in the other six of his first seven races.
Still, Harvick got all four wheels back on the program in plenty of time to make the Chase. And once in that 10-race playoff, he showed himself supremely equipped for the most win-or-go-fishing format yet contrived by NASCAR. If having to race to win the season’s last two races is what it took to claim this championship, then Harvick would do it.
Yes, there was something very Earnhardt-ian about charging to a title like that.
And something very mature about the way Harvick looked at the long wait that preceded ultimate triumph in Homestead.
“I think it was better that I won a championship a little bit later in my career because I think I respect it a lot more,” he said. “I understand how hard it is to get to this point and really know the work and effort and how many people it takes to be a part of it.”
So badly does Harvick, 39, want to a follow-up hit — “I’ve gone a little over the top in order to send the message to the guys on the team that what happened last year, whether good or bad, you have to be over it,” he said — that he questions whether he has given all the joy to that first championship that it deserved.
His preparation even has included seeking advice from a multi-titled racer of an entirely different stripe, motocross star Ricky Carmichael.
“What I talk about is the fear of failure after you’ve succeeded. Everything he tells me is the second one usually comes easier because you know what to expect. You know the time commitment and the mental focus and the preparation it takes to get to that point.”
So, let’s kick the tires on Harvick’s 2015 prospects.
Head still on straight? “I’m not looking for accolades, headlines, awards. I just want to be a part of the team and go win races. I’m not at the point in my career where I need to build a fan base or earn respect or anything like that,” he said.
Focus pin-point? About the time he became a father two years ago, Harvick gave up dabbling as an owner on the Xfinity and truck circuits. Simplify and thrive became his creed.
Confidence roll-cage sturdy? “I feel as comfortable as I ever have.”
So, now go win another championship.
The list of those to win consecutive Cup titles since 1949 is only 10 drivers long, including some fellow named Earnhardt.
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