Kevin Harvick Wins Sprint Cup Title in Final Race

16 Nov, 2014

There was no trick to Kevin Harvick’s first Sprint Cup championship. Competing for the title against three other drivers, he seized his opportunity with a relentless dash through the field in the closing laps of the season finale.

It was exactly what NASCAR was looking for when it revamped its playoff format this year to try to force drivers to win races.

Harvick picked off car after car, and passed two other title contenders on a series of restarts as he aggressively chased both the victory and the title Sunday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His desperate drive from 12th to first over the final 15 laps gave Harvick the championship over Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano.

All four were determined to claim their first career title, and all four raced to win – because winning, it turned out, mattered in this Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

“If you want to win the championship, you’re going to have to figure out how to win races,” Harvick said. “In the end, that’s what it came down to, was winning the race to win the championship. It all worked out.”

The four drivers all found themselves racing each other at the front of the field after the sun went down on the 400-mile race. All four teams were forced to make tough strategy decisions that ultimately decided their fate.

The victory capped a magical first season at Stewart-Haas Racing, where Harvick moved this year after 13 seasons with Richard Childress that failed to produce a championship.

Harvick, who had to win last week at Phoenix just to advance into Sunday’s final four, wrapped up his third victory of this Chase and fifth of the season.

He leaned this week on team co-owner Tony Stewart, a three-time champion, and Jimmie Johnson, the six-time champion who moved from California to North Carolina to chase a career in NASCAR about the same time as Harvick made the move east.

“Been trying for 13 years,” an emotional Harvick said. “This week ate me up. If it wasn’t for Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, I would have been in bad trouble this week. Those guys really helped me get through the week. After every practice, Jimmie was in there, and in our team debriefs Tony was constantly telling me just to go race and that it’s just another race.”

Stewart shared an emotional hug with Harvick, and then beamed during the celebration.

“That’s about as emotional as you can get, to have one of your greatest friends go out in one of your race cars and win a championship in the toughest series in the country,” Stewart said.

Newman, winless on the season, finished second. Hamlin faded to seventh and Logano was a distant 16th.

AP

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