Harvick victory celebration raises eyebrows among rivals

It was nearly a repeat of last season when he had to win at Phoenix to stay alive and advance to the Championship race at Homestead, a race he also won.

“It’s all bonus from here on out”, said Gordon.

It was only three weeks ago when a confident Harvick said about the JGR drivers, “We’re going to pound them into the ground”. They knew better than to believe Harvick wouldn’t put up an epic fight, at a track where he’d never won before, where anything short of a victory would end his bid to win consecutive titles.

That change aside, Earnhardt wants to keep his over-the-wall gang as is – for strong reasons – even though a few have suggested Earnhardt might benefit from the temporary reassignment of a few of Jimmie Johnson’s crew, with Johnson eliminated from the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in last Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover global Speedway.

“But then I saw on TV that it was back in the garage, and I was like, ‘That’s not good'”.

In fact, Gordon said Harvick is the clear favorite right now.

It is that determination to dismiss, or at least ignore, any fallout from his antics on or off the track that could affect his performance that makes Harvick such a risky opponent.

“I could have dealt with it myself”, said Harvick, now more of a racing philosopher. That includes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (where Harvick led 216 of 300 laps before running out of gas) and Dover (where he led 355 of 400 en route to Sunday’s win).

Harvick would prefer to just ignore it.

Last year, Harvick scored two do-or-die victories to win the title. “We all knew what we needed to do, and it was really no different preparation than what we would do on a weekly basis”. “We got him a stuffed animal to start the day just in case things didn’t go very good”.

Well it certainly wasn’t a detriment on Sunday. Last week and we were fortunate to rebound from the flat, not have it totally take us out of the running.

“If a team would leave, then third cars are the solution to fill up the grid”, Wolff said. It’s racing. I’ve had mechanical (problems) take me out of championships growing up. So while I’ll be selective with drivers I like starting near the back for start/finish differential numbers, I won’t be as beholden to the polesitter if I don’t think he’ll follow through.

Earnhardt demonstrated his hunger to advance with an incredible final restart, as he moved from eighth to fourth by overtaking McMurray, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth in one bold outside move.

Kyle Busch, who ran second to Harvick at Dover and has never been one to lack confidence, sees a bit of that championship magic once again from Harvick. “We’re just going to line them back up and see how it goes next week”. “But a lot of those guys (at Stewart-Haas Racing) haven’t, and I would have felt like I let them down more than anything”.

There is a host of young drivers champing at the bit in both the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series to get to the Cup series such as Erik Jones, Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr., Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick and Calgary’s Cameron Hayley.

Not so the past two seasons and especially not so this season.

Martin Truex Jr.’s 11th-place finish Sunday at Dover global Speedway was more than enough to advance the Furniture Row Racing driver to Round 2 of the Chase playoffs.

Johnson was philosophical about losing. They all have their distinct traits, but strength at one likely means strength at all of them.

Over the course of his six championships, however, there have been plenty of lucky moments that kept him in the hunt, so much so that Kevin Harvick once commented that Johnson drove with a horseshoe up his (rear end).

“We didn’t expect an axle seal would be the culprit and take your championships hopes away (but) it’s racing”.