Talladega a wild-card race, Harvick liking his odds

a wild-card race, Harvick liking his odds


By Jim Pedley
Special to Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

Some drivers refer to the autumn stop at Talladega Superspeedway as the X-factor Race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Or the Wild Card race.
Kevin Harvick is looking at the 2010 edition of the Amp Energy Juice 500 as the Opportunity Race because history seems to indicate that he could leave the high banks Sunday evening at or near the top of the Chase standings.Harvick, third in points and 62 behind leader Jimmie Johnson after finishing third last week at Martinsville , rubbed his hands together Dracula-style early this week as he pondered Halloween at Talladega .
"Everybody said it was going to be a two-horse race (at Martinsville ), and we were right there in the middle of it," Harvick said. "I had a lot of fun last week. Right now, we have four more races. I'm really looking forward to Talladega and just racing hard."
The numbers say Harvick races well at Talladega and at restrictor-plate tracks in general.
He won at NASCAR's biggest track in April, beating Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray by .011 seconds.
That was Harvick's only career victory at Talladega , but it was not an aberration when it comes to good finishes there. He's had four podiums and eight top-10s. His average finish is 15.5, which is better than both Johnson (17.8) and Hamlin (19.3), who is second in points and whom Harvick trails by 56 points.
But perhaps the most significant number Harvick has at Talladega is zero; as in zero DNFs. That definitely tops Johnson and Hamlin, who have seven and two, respectively.
No, Talladega does not scare Harvick the way it does many others.
"I'll take the odds," Harvick said if he felt less at risk of getting involved in a big wreck at Talladega than the folks he's chasing. "We've been really good on those (plate) racetracks this year. I feel like we've had good strategies, done the things that we have needed to do, and had fast cars. So, in the end, fast cars are what it takes to even have shot at winning a race. You have to have a car that is capable of doing that."
While fast cars are important at Talladega , there is something else that is equally important there—getting drafting help from a "dancing partner."
Often that partner can be a teammate, and therein lies a potential problem for Harvick this weekend. At Martinsville , Harvick mixed it up with Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton. Harvick, who felt he was "chopped" by his teammate, had some angry words for Burton .
Burton responded with: "If he thinks I did anything wrong, then we can't race, and there is nothing that I did that I regret and there is nothing I won't do next week."
Harvick seemed to shrug that off this week. He was more in a bring-it-on kind of mood.
"I think after you leave Talladega ," he said, "you'll kind of know where you stand as far as what you need to do over the last few weeks. I think the last few weeks are really good racetracks for us, and Talladega is a good racetrack for us, as well. They can all flip you upside down and turn things around and have things turn at any given week, but it seems that Talladega is definitely the biggest wild card as far as what's going to happen, and who is going to get caught in a wreck and who isn't. I think everybody has been waiting for this particular race to see where you stack up from here."
Harvick may just top the stack.