Harvick taking it one year at a time

Kevin Harvick’s decision to leave Richard Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing next year isn’t looking like a shrewd move at this point.

Harvick has won two races this year and is closing in on a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

On the other hand, the three Stewart-Haas drivers are struggling so far this season. Ryan Newman is the best of the group so far, but he’s 16th in the points standings with just one top-five and six top-10 finishes. Team co-owner Tony Stewart has no top-fives and just two top-10s and is 20th in points, while Danica Patrick is 30th in points with one top-10 finish and an average finish of 26.5.

Harvick said in the winner’s news conference after his victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway that the woes of the Stewart-Haas team aren’t among his concerns, at least not for now.

“You look at what we’re doing, and we’re focused on this year,” he said. “We go out and race week to week, do the things that we do to try to win races, win a championship.

“Whatever happens in the future, we’ll work on some other time. Right now we’re working on winning next week’s race.”

Children's hospitals could be winners: If Marcos Ambrose were to drive his No. 9 Ford into Victory Lane at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, his sponsors, Stanley and DeWalt, have agreed to donate $1 million to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals to benefit sick and injured children.

The big payoff isn’t as unlikely as it might seem. Ambrose has three top-10 finishes in his past four Dover starts, including a third-place run there in 2011.

He also runs well at Bristol Motor Speedway, like Dover a high-speed, high-banked concrete oval.

“Perhaps I get a different feel behind the wheel, or I’m able to adjust the car a little better for these concrete tracks than others,” he said. “A bit of a mystery, but I’ll take it.”

New HOF class: The Dawsonville-based Georgia Racing Hall of Fame has announced its 2013 class of inductees.

They are Charles Barrett of Cleveland, Hank Blalock of Decatur, Frank Christian of Dahlonega, Huston Platt of Buford and Freddy Fryar of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Barrett was a star on the dirt tracks of the Southeast and also made several starts in the series now known as Sprint Cup. He drove George Elliott’s Ford before Elliott’s son Bill Elliott was old enough to drive and had a best finish of 10th at Talladega in 1973.

Blalock was a Midget racer who raced in the 1940s and 1950s at tracks across the South. He died from injuries suffered in a crash at Toccoa Speedway in 1955.

Christian was a car owner in the early days of NASCAR, when many of the sport’s top drivers got their starts hauling moonshine from stills in the north Georgia mountains to customers in Atlanta. He was the car owner for Chevrolet’s first Sprint Cup victory, which came in 1955 at Columbia, S.C., with Fonty Flock driving.

Freddy Fryar, the younger brother of Harold Fryar, was one of the top asphalt short track drivers in his day. He was a two-time winner of the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., and won seven NASCAR short track championships.

Platt was a pioneering Funny Car drag racer best known for his “Dixie Twister” Chevrolet. After being involved in a tragic crash at the Yellow River Drag Strip in 1970, he worked to improve safety in racing.