Who’s the NASCAR championship favorite: Jimmie Johnson or Kevin Harvick?

The bond between Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick runs deep. Each hails from Southern California and they once shared a sectional couch in the North Carolina home of Camping World Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. in the late 1990s while plotting how to reach NASCAR’s upper echelon.

As Harvick stormed to his first Sprint Cup title a year ago, Johnson was a constant in Harvick’s corner. During the championship finale, which Johnson failed to qualify for, he would immediately make his way to Harvick’s trailer after every practice session to lend advice, discuss strategy and provide the wisdom that comes with being a six-time Cup champion. Harvick would credit Johnson for his help and support.

But while Johnson may have played the role of confidant last fall, he’s taken on a different persona in 2015 -- that of Harvick’s main rival for this season’s championship.

The longtime friends have clearly established themselves as the two best drivers near the one-quarter mark of the season. Johnson’s victory Saturday night at Kansas Speedway was his third, one more than Harvick, who’s finished outside the top-10 just once in 11 races.

It’s not just the wins that separate the previous two series champions from everyone else -- it’s the kind of tracks they’ve won on. To win a championship a driver must excel on mile-and-a-half speedways that are the backbone of the schedule and comprise half of the Chase tracks.

Thus far, Johnson and Harvick are undefeated on 1.5-milers. Johnson took the checkered flags at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway, while Harvick won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and was runner-up to Johnson in all three of the latter’s victories.

That Johnson and Harvick are dominating on the style of track that will dictate the championship -- the season finale is held at 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway -- is of no surprise.

Although Johnson drives for Hendrick Motorsports and Harvick for Stewart-Haas Racing, the pair are quasi teammates as Hendrick supplies SHR with engines and chassis’ -- giving both identical equipment. And the supremacy of those engines was on full display at Kansas, where Hendrick-powered drivers finished 1-2-3-4.

Just three months into a grinding schedule that won’t conclude until mid-November may seem early to make grand proclamations, but by all appearances Johnson and Harvick aren’t going away.

A year removed from struggling with a rules package that made the cars handle drastically different than he prefers, Johnson is resembling the driver who won six titles in an eight-year span and is eighth on the all-time wins list.

Though Harvick may have more outright speed and greater high-level consistency -- he’s finished second or better in 11 of 14 races dating to last season -- Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus are adroit at finding ways to reach victory lane. Witness Kansas, where Harvick had the better car but finished runner-up to the No. 48 thanks to a late strategy call to keep Johnson on the track with older tires. After restarting sixth with six laps to go, Harvick didn’t have the time to retake the lead.

“He wasn’t that strong,” Harvick said of Johnson. “He was just trying to run right in front of our car, so for those first few laps when you’re pushing like that it really takes the air off the front of the car and it gets the chatter in the front end and it snaps around. But that was the strategy that they took, and it worked out for them.”

However, if Johnson wants to topple his old couch buddy, he’s going to need to find another gear. Mere strategy won’t be enough come the playoffs.

Since Harvick joined SHR prior to last season he’s been the driver to beat almost every single week and the torrid run he put forth in the Chase to secure the championship has carried over to 2015. He may have one less victory than Johnson, but Harvick’s win total could just as easily be doubled.

“I still think he’s the car to beat right now,” Johnson said. “I mean, he qualifies better than we do. We’re finding ways to win races, but I just think that they have a bit more control of their own destiny right now.”

Said Knaus: “I think we execute better than they do consistently, but as far as having all that raw speed, I think they’ve got us beat on that right now.”