Kevin Harvick embraces must-win situation

Despite being mired in a nearly insurmountable points deficit and facing a virtual must-win if he wants to remain in the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff, Kevin Harvick says he’s not feeling any pressure entering Sunday’s elimination race at Dover International Speedway.

Harvick, the defending Sprint Cup champion, is ranked 15th out of 16 Chase drivers, 23 points behind the final transfer position -- a gap that mathematically can be overcome, though not likely because so much would have to work in his favor.

“You know that these types of situations are going to come about and you react to them the best that you can,” Harvick said. “You swing for the fence and hope that you make a spectacular moment. It’s something that you know you’re going to be a part of at some point, and we have been a part of many times throughout my career as far as scenarios, situations, and it’s just really part of sports and that’s what makes it exciting.”

Thriving under pressures has been a staple throughout Harvick’s career. He draws on his experience of producing last year in a similar situation when he notched a crucial victory at Phoenix International Raceway to advance to the championship finale, which he also won.

And in 2001, Harvick filled the seat vacated by the death of Dale Earnhardt, who was killed when he crashed on the final lap of the Daytona 500. Harvick would reach Victory Lane in his third start as Earnhardt’s replacement.

“For me personally, I think that these things are kind of a walk in the park compared to the Earnhardt situations of taking over his car and having to deal with that and all the things that we dealt with back in 2001,” Harvick said. “It kind of makes these scenarios a little bit easier to deal with because you’ve dealt with things that are on a much bigger scale than the current things of just performing on the racetrack.”

Drawing on that experience is why Harvick nor crew chief Rodney Childers will change their mindset Sunday. Harvick has never won at Dover in 29 starts, but led a race-high 223 laps in this event last season before a tire issue caused him to finish 13th.

“For us, it’s really just another week and obviously the circumstances and what’s on the line is different than what would be on the line (during the regular season), but it really doesn’t change our approach,” Harvick said. “You look at the things that we have been through as a team over the past couple years, we have been in a lot of pretty intense situations.

“As a team, we’ll do everything from a preparation standpoint the same.”

The predicament Harvick finds himself stems from back-to-back poor finishes to start the Chase. Contact with Jimmie Johnson on a restart caused a cut tire that sent Harvick, who was leading, spinning into the Turn 3 wall. Last week, Harvick had the dominant car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, leading 216 of 300 laps before running out of fuel three miles short of the checkered flag.

Harvick said there is no second-guessing the events of the past two weeks. Childers’ data showed Harvick had saved enough fuel to make it to the finish line without stopping, and the smoke emanating from Harvick’s tire rub was dissipating just before he crashed at Chicagoland.

“I don’t look at either of those scenarios as risks,” Harvick said. “The tire rub is hard to see and I think with the smoke going away, you obviously didn’t know it was as bad as it was. I think last week nobody viewed as a risk, just for the fact that it shouldn’t have even been close with the pace that we had to run and the mileage that we had gathered from everything that we had in the pit box.”

Nevertheless, a 42nd at Chicagoland and 21st at New Hampshire has Harvick, who accumulated the most points, top-fives, top-10s, laps led and average finish during the regular season, on the brink of playoff elimination after just one round.

“Obviously, we have been in this position before,” Harvick said. “So, it’s really no different, other than the circumstances with the points and the championship and everything that goes with it.”