Even before the green flag dropped a sense of inevitability hovered over the NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday. Something fluky or extraordinary needed to occur for Kevin Harvick not to win.
NASCAR Phoenix 2015 recap: Never satisfied Kevin Harvick continues roll
There is no letup for Kevin Harvick, who won for the second week in a row and has seven consecutive finishes of second or better.
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Nothing of the sort happened. No misfortune struck down Harvick and while there were stout challengers, including teammate Kurt Busch, no one had the necessary speed to fend Harvick off over a substantial period of time.
That’s why for the fourth straight Phoenix race and five of the last six, there was Harvick in Victory Lane celebrating. A mastery not seen in NASCAR on one track since Jimmie Johnson won four consecutive races at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2004-05.
But the events of Sunday go beyond just Phoenix. By winning Harvick extended his streak of having finished second or better to seven races, a run dating back to last year when he steamrolled to the Sprint Cup championship. He has won five of the past 10 races overall. On the season Harvick has two victories and a pair of seconds.
“It’s almost scary how well things are going,” Harvick said. “You don’t want to talk about it too much because you want it to keep going.”
What Harvick is in the midst of is historic. The last driver to record seven consecutive top-two finishes was Richard Petty in 1974. It’s that kind of company Harvick is now keeping.
“When you said the Richard Petty part, that gives me chills,” said Harvick when informed of the statistic.
And there is no reason to think the streak may end anytime soon. Of the next eight races Harvick owns victories at seven with the lone exception being Texas Motor Speedway, where he finished second last fall, which begun this blitzkrieg.
Every week the ceiling continues to raise for what Harvick and the No. 4 team can accomplish in 2015. More victories are an absolute given. The only question is whether he can approach the modern-era record of 13 wins in a season shared by Petty and Jeff Gordon.
“I remember the days when Jeff Gordon won 13 races in a year,” said Jamie McMurray, who finished second Sunday. “I remember watching every week, it was incredible. I think our sport is much tougher now to do that in now.”
Last season was Harvick’s first with Stewart-Haas Racing, which created a brand-new team led by crew chief Rodney Childers. En route to the championship Harvick won five times and would have had several more were it not for mechanical failures and other mistakes commonly associated with a fledgling team.
“I remember when the 4 car unloaded at the Charlotte test (in December 2013), and the first lap on the track he was literally the fastest car,” McMurray said. “For a year it’s been that way.”
But the speed was and continues to be omnipresent. And the bad news for everyone else is that mistakes no longer slow the No. 4 car. Harvick was near flawless in the Chase last season and that’s carried over to 2015. If you’re going to beat the defending champion you’re going to need to do so straight up on the track and not rely on happenstance. Gone are the days when Harvick would limp to the garage the victim of a parts failure.
“You got to keep working on your stuff and keep making it better,” Childers said. “If you don’t, you’re going to get beat ... the more you win, the more you expect out of yourself and the more pressure you put on yourself.”
That mindset of not being satisfied with their recent success is what makes Harvick and Childers formidable. They seek greater fulfillment. A second title. More. More. More. Always pushing, never content. Phoenix was nice, but next week brings another race.
A race Harvick is again likely to win.
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