NASCAR Dover 2015 recap: Kevin Harvick again rises to the occasion

Dazed, the defending champ was wobbly, ready to be sent tumbling down to the canvas with one solid final body blow. The referee poised to end what had turned into a lopsided affair and not the anticipated showdown between two titanic parties.

But Joe Gibbs Racing and the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup field failed to deliver a decisive jab on Sunday at Dover International Speedway, instead letting Kevin Harvick off the proverbial mat and continuing his quest to repeat as champion.

Demonstrating the same absolute doggedness he used last year in NASCAR’s playoffs, Harvick scored a resounding victory that saw him lead a career-best 89 percent of the laps to secure advancement to the second round.

Harvick entered Dover teetering on the cusp of Round 1 elimination, thanks to a crash in the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and a fuel miscalculation the following weekend at New Hampshire that saw him hit empty while leading with three laps to go. And because of how tight the standings were -- though Harvick could technically advance by not winning -- the odds of everything working in his favor were remote. Which meant Sunday was an absolute must-win.

That the reigning champ who topped the series during the regular season in points, top-fives, top-10s, laps led and average finish was on the brink of getting eliminated, was an enticing prospect for who was going against him. Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon were among those publicly acknowledging that their path to a title that was less daunting with Harvick out.

“Everyone in this Chase knows that they are the biggest threat for the championship and if they get eliminated then that takes the biggest threat out of it,” Gordon said on Friday. “All the other teams are going to be working hard to win this race and potentially eliminate one of the biggest threats.”

Harvick, however, staved off elimination and his championship hopes that once had a flicker of life, have rekindled into an inferno. NASCAR resets the points in Round 2 with the remaining 12 drivers level for the beginning of the next three-race bracket and Harvick is very much reestablished as the favorite going forward.

“Winning fixes everything,” said Rodney Childers, Harvick’s crew chief.

JGR’s lineup of Hamlin, Busch, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards may have collectively won nine of the past 12 races, but for the second week in a row the organization looked incapable of keeping pace with Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team. And were it not for misfortune and injudicious decision-making, Harvick conceivably could have could have swept all three Round 1 races.

Hamlin’s Chicagoland victory was greatly aided when Harvick, who was leading at the time, got together with Jimmie Johnson on a restart resulting in rear-end damage instigating the cut tire and subsequent crash. At New Hampshire, Kenseth won only when Harvick, who led 216 of the 300 laps, and Childers blundered on trying to stretch their fuel past its limits.

Beyond the considerable speed discrepancy, what has to further unnerve the competition is even if Harvick does stumble again and place himself in another unenviable position of needing a victory to advance, the expectation has become that he will be flourish. He has won three of the past five Chase races and in all three instances they were absolute must wins.

“Anytime you can go through moments like this and gain some momentum and prove to yourself that you can do things like this, there’s no way you can’t be stronger,” Harvick said. “... I think we’re better than we were last year just because of the experiences and things that we’ve had. It’s just that never quit attitude.”

That kind of mind set is why Harvick was able to withstand two tumultuous, frustrating races that had him down for the count and still emerge victorious. And also why those who remain in the Chase will regret their inability to inflict a coup de grace.

“That was a guy that we wanted to knock out,” Busch said after a second-place finish on Sunday. “That’s a guy that can win all these races and you don’t want to have to compete against a guy like that.”

Except, Busch and company squandered an excellent opportunity to end Harvick’s bid for a second straight title. Now they will have to deal with the repercussions likely all the way through the championship finale.