Enter Sandman: Harvick The Closer Does It Again

Enter Sandman: Harvick The Closer Does It Again

 

Kevin Harvick, the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins leader, has perfected the art of closing – likely terrifying news to the rest of the competition.

Consider these points…

•           Each of Harvick’s three wins have featured late-race passes for the lead. At Auto Club Speedway, he passed Jimmie Johnson on the final lap. At Martinsville, he swiped the lead away from Dale Earnhardt Jr. with four laps remaining. Last Sunday, he won his first Charlotte points race, again snatching the lead from Earnhardt – this time on the final lap.

•           Harvick has led a combined nine laps in his three victories this season. In his 17 career wins, he has led triple-digit laps four times.

•           Of his 17 career wins, 10 featured race-winning passes for the lead with 10 laps or less remaining. Four his last seven victories came on last lap passes for the win.

But there’s plenty more to his Coca-Cola 600 victory than that.

Harvick pretty much locked up a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs – the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

After race number 26 at Richmond, the top 10 drivers will earn a spot in the Chase. Spots 11 and 12 – the Wild Card spots – will go to those outside the top 10 who have the most wins, provided they are in the top 20. Harvick, currently second in the points, will likely not need that fall-back – but it’s there if he does.

Owner Richard Childress said the team could be more aggressive now that it seems a lock to earn a playoff spot when the Chase begins at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 18. Click here to listen to Childress’ thoughts.

At Kansas, Harvick has four top 10s in 10 starts – including a third-place finish last season. True to form, Harvick closed strong in that race, too. His Average Running Position was 6.9.

 

Sooner Than Later: Junior On Verge Of Breakthrough

 

“Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Victory Lane” visions have evolved from calm ripples, to a steady simmer and now, after his near-win at Charlotte, to full boiling over.

There’s good reason for optimism. His 2011 season is looking much like his 2008 season – the last in which he won a race and made the Chase. Just as encouraging: This season looks nothing like 2009-10 when he finished the season 25th and 21st in points, respectively.

Some facts to back up the optimism …

•           Earnhardt’s six top 10s this season already surpasses his five from all of 2009. Last season he had eight. His two top fives match that of 2009, and are one short of last year’s total.

•           Earnhardt’s average finish of 11.0 ranks third in the series behind points leader Carl Edwards (8.0) and five-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson (10.9).

•           He has completed more laps – 4,073 – than anyone in the series. He has finished off the lead lap twice this season: Daytona (202 of 208 laps) and Richmond (398 of 400).

•           His consistency – as illustrated by his Driver Rating – is up. This season, Earnhardt has scored a Driver Rating over 90.0 in eight of the 12 races. In 2010, he did that in five of the first 12. In 2009, just three of the first 12.

•           His fourth-place points position is his highest after 12 races since 2008, when he was third. Last year after 12 races, Earnhardt was 16th in points. In 2009, he was 19th.

Earnhardt has struggled recently at Kansas Speedway. His last two finishes have been out of the top 20. Overall, he has four top 10s in 10 races, leading laps in five of them.

 

Bowyer, Edwards, McMurray Hope To Shine In Homecoming

 

This Sunday’s inaugural STP 400 is a homecoming of sorts for a trio of drivers – but so far Kansas Speedway hasn’t been very hospitable to its native and adopted sons.

Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray count one NASCAR national series Kansas victory between them – and none in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Edwards, from Columbia, Mo. won the 1.5-mile track’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series stop in 2004.

“I’d like to race at Kansas every week,” said Edwards, whose best finish of second in 2008 is one of five top-10 finishes in the current NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader’s seven starts at Kansas. “It’s a lot of fun for me because so many people from Columbia, Mo. go to this race so I’m glad they have two races now.”

Based on his team’s record – Roush Fenway Racing has won three times at Kansas Speedway – Edwards would seem to have a solid chance to break through. “The way this team is running I think we have the best chance we have ever had,” he said.

Bowyer, from Emporia, Kan., finished second in his second trip to Kansas Speedway in 2007. He once was a regular at nearby Lakeside Speedway.

“The race is very exciting to me. Always, to go back home, and race in front of the hometown crowd; two dates there is just big, it’s very special for me,” said Bowyer, whose Richard Childress Racing team continues to pursue its first Kansas Speedway victory. Click here to listen to audio from Bowyer on his return home.

A victory at Kansas Speedway would be special on several levels for McMurray, whose hometown of Joplin, Mo. was virtually leveled by tornado on May 22. McMurray hasn’t had much luck at the track since back-to-back top-10 finishes in his first two appearances.

McMurray, however, will leave thoughts about the upcoming race until later this week after a Thursday visit to his hometown with Convoy for Hope, a group bringing tornado relief supplies to the devastated city.

”I haven’t been back to Joplin for four or five years and I moved away from there when I was 20 years old,” said McMurray. “But Joplin will always be my hometown. And I’ve got, I don’t know, maybe it’s a different outlook now, but when we go do fundraisers, certainly I’m still going to do a lot with Autism, but I think for a long time it will be about Joplin and trying to get the city back where it was.”

 

Hamlin, Once Down And Out, Knocking On Top 10’s Door

 

New point system; old point system - it matters not. The cream ultimately rises to the top.

That would seem to be the case for Denny Hamlin, who stood 20th, 39 points out of the top 10 after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ seventh race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Many speculated that under the 2011 point system a nearly one-race deficit would doom Hamlin’s chances of qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in which he finished second last season.

Stop the presses; Hamlin’s fortunes have been reversed.

With this Sunday’s STP 400 at Kansas Speedway marking halfway to September’s Chase cut-off, Hamlin has climbed to 12th in the standings, just 14 points out of the top 10.

Loop Data Statistics tell the tale of Hamlin’s comeback. After failing to post a triple digit Driver Rating through the season’s first five races, the Virginian has rated 104.6 to 126.7 in four of the past seven races. That includes a Driver Rating of 119.3 in the Coca-Cola 600, a race Hamlin had a chance of winning until a late fuel stop left him 10th.

Hamlin, who made his series debut at Kansas in 2005, will make his 200th series start on Sunday.

 

NSCS Etc.

 

On hand at Kansas Speedway will be 1,100 corn farmers from across the Midwest associated with the National Corn Growers Association, the workers behind American Ethanol, which has been used in all three NASCAR national series starting this season. To help further recognize NASCAR’s historic partnership with American Ethanol, the backstretch at Kansas will be painted green this weekend’s NCWTS and NSCS events. … Fittingly, Richard Petty will serve as the Grand Marshal for Sunday’s STP 400. Richard Petty Motorsports driver AJ Allmendinger will pilot the No. 43 STP Ford, which will feature a 1972 STP Petty Blue paint scheme made famous by the NASCAR Hall of Famer. … Patrick Carpentier returns to NASCAR Sprint Cup racing in the No. 32 FAS Lane Racing Ford. His last race was Texas, last November. ... Kansas is known as a track with surprise winners. Three of the seven Kansas Chase races have been won by non-Chasers. … Don’t be surprised if Sunday’s winner comes from the back of the pack. Seven of the 12 races this season have been won from a starting position of 20th or lower, including Kevin Harvick’s win on Sunday from the 28th starting position. That’s the most wins from 20th or worse through 12 races in series history.