NASCAR at Las Vegas recap: Kevin Harvick’s early season dominance continues

The topic du jour during the off-season was whether Ford, with its outdated body style, could keep pace with the sleeker and faster Toyotas and Chevrolets. Conventional wisdom had the Ford struggling most weeks and it would face a long season where wins would be hard to come by.

Neither Kevin Harvick nor Stewart-Haas Racing bought into that thinking. And whenever asked if he was at a disadvantage because he was driving a Ford, Harvick would smirk and quickly state he never thought for a second that he wouldn’t be competitive.

The confidence the 2014 Cup Series champion had wasn’t misplaced, having now won two of the first three races to begin the season. On Sunday, he thrashed the field leading 214 of a possible 267 laps in winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This followed a similar dominant win the week before at Atlanta Motor Speedway where he led 181 of a possible 325 laps. The margin of victory in both races exceeded 2.5 seconds.

The primary difference between what was expected of the Ford teams prior to the season and what has actually transpired on the track can be explained by the process in how NASCAR now inspects cars.

Previously, teams could legally tweak and manipulate the splitter on the nose of the car how it best saw fit. And because NASCAR used tempates to measure the cars, which were not as precise and allowed crew chiefs to play within the margins of the rulebook and take advantage of the gray areas.

NASCAR’s introduction of a new inspection system featuring 17 cameras that examines cars in a more accurate and precise manner has changed the game.

“The technology changes so much, and you never know what’s going to happen with tech inspection” SHR co-owner Tony Stewart said. But it seems to be a little bit smoother than last year up to this point.

“It’s just a much better deal than it was.”

Another significant adjustment is teams being required to use a common front splitter, thus negating any of the legal -- or illegal -- modifications made in the name of finding of speed.

The intent was to bring the performance level of the three manufacturers closer inline where one doesn’t hold an overwhelming superiority like Toyota had last season where its drivers combined to win 16 of 36 races and saw Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch finish 1-2 in the championship and each lead over 2,000 laps.

“That’s definitely brought people closer together,” said Busch, who finished to Harvick Sunday, of the inspection process. “There were some guys that were really, really aggressive with that stuff and they were really good. And there were guys that weren’t so aggressive with it that maybe kind of showed a little bit slower speed.

“Definitely some of the rule changes has leveled some things out.”

As is always the case, the pendulum continually swings back and forth between who possesses the secret sauce to consistently running up front and winning. Right now that is obviously Harvick, crew chief Rodney Childers and Ford, which has also seen strong runs put forth by the Team Penske cars of Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano, all of whom finished seventh or better at Las Vegas.

But the Toyota and Chevrolet camps will study what has been working for Ford through the early weeks of the 2018 season, and with 23 races remaining in the regular season before the 10-race playoffs that determines the championship.

Such is the reality of racing where the top team knows its position is tenuous.

“You have the whole winter to step back, take a deep breath and work on some things,” Harvick said. “Obviously, I think as you look at everything that’s changed, it’s obviously not hurt us as much as it hurt some other people.

“There’s still a lot of racing left to go.”