Second to only one: Kevin Harvick's mastery on 1.5-mile tracks continues
As many expected, defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick was a serious contender on Saturday night in the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway.
Finishing second to Jimmie Johnson, Harvick earned his seventh finish of first or second in the last seven races on 1.5-mile tracks.
During that streak, Johnson has won each of the four races Harvick finished second. And that was the case again when the latest race finally finished up in the early morning hours Sunday at Kansas Speedway.
Harvick's impressive streak on the 1.5-mile tracks goes back to Oct. 2014 when he won the Bank of America 500 Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Since the start of last season, in fact, Harvick has nine top-two finishes in the 14 races run on 1.5-mile tracks.
Despite the success on the 1.5-mile tracks, Harvick understands everything needs to line up just right to contend for the win.
"I've been on the other side of this deal where the cars aren't running good and you don't have a chance to win," he said. "We won a championship on pit calls and tires, and everything fell our way. We've had a lot of things go our way, and we've had a lot of things work out, and running up front and having a chance to win, it's almost harder to win the races when you're leading races."
The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has certainly been leading a lot lately.
From 2010 until 2013, Harvick led a total of 1,285 laps. Through the first 11 races of 2015 he has led in every race but the Daytona 500 and has a total of 1,006 laps led. That is 279 laps less than that earlier four-year combined total.
Starting from the sixth spot, he quickly worked his way into contention and was out front twice for 53 laps in the SpongeBob SquarePants 400, which spanned Saturday night into early Sunday morning due to a lengthy rain delay.
With a fast Rodney Childers-prepared car under him, Harvick made a hard charge from the sixth spot on the final restart of the race to challenge for the race win.
On that final restart with six laps to go, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the field to the green flag after staying out on track when Harvick led most of the field to pit road. Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon also stayed out.
When Busch stumbled on the restart and stacked up the inside lane, Harvick took advantage and quickly dove under Gordon and moved into third. As Johnson and Earnhardt raced side-by-side for the lead, Harvick put the pressure on from behind.
Once clear of Earnhardt, Harvick tried to take advantage of his two fresh right-side tires and worked the high line on Johnson through the corners. With clean air on his side, Johnson was able to move up the track and use the air to slow Harvick's charge by making the No. 4 car aerodynamically tight.
In the end, Harvick finished second to Johnson, but was proud of his team's efforts to turn around the handling of the car late in the race.
"Rodney just made some great adjustments there under that green flag pit stop, packer in or out of the front, I don't remember what, and then two jack bolts in the rear and air pressure all in one stop and the car really came to life," Harvick said. "They just did a great job, they put us in a position to have a chance to win, and in the end, the 48 (Johnson) and 88 (Earnhardt) didn't have the speed so they gambled and they were able to get enough cars in between us that we were not able to have enough laps to get around them."
Despite yet another strong performance, crew chief Rodney Childers was initially frustrated with the runner-up result, saying it "sucked" on his Twitter account. However, the usually mild-mannered crew chief quickly came around and thanked the team for all their hard work.
Gotta admit, that sucked.. But really proud of @KevinHarvick and all of the guys for working their butts off making the car better..
— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) May 10, 2015
11 top 2 finishes in the last 13 races for @KevinHarvick and the 4 Team.. Unbelievable the determination in everyone right now.. #4thewin ??
— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) May 10, 2015
