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CUP: Chase Bio - Kevin Harvick

Kevin Harvick’s three victories trail only the five wins posted by Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin...

Tom Jensen | Posted September 07, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Kevin Harvick drives towards the start / finish line to take the checkered flag and win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series CARFAX 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

KEVIN HARVICK, Richard Childress Racing
Points position: 1st
2010 season: 3 wins, 11 top fives, 16 top 10s
Defining moment: Runner up, Auto Club Speedway

Not only is Kevin Harvick the winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season points title, he’s been the prime beneficiary of the Phoenix-like ascension of Richard Childress Racing during the 2010 season.

PHOTOS: 2010 Chase Contenders - Kevin Harvick

After a 2009 season that saw Harvick and team owner Richard Childress spar verbally as all four RCR cars missed the Chase, the team reorganized and regrouped, placing all of its drivers in this year’s Chase.

Harvick said he knew the team was back in a big way in the second race of the year at Auto Club Speedway. Although he slapped the wall late in the race and ultimately finished second to four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, Harvick realized at that moment that his cars were good enough to win.

And from there, Harvick took off. He opened the season with four consecutive top-10 finishes, including runner-up wins at Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

When Harvick won at Talladega Superspeedway, it was his first points race victory in a Sprint Cup car since winning the Daytona 500 in 2007. He then captured the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July and won again at Michigan last month. He has led the Sprint Cup points standings after 20 of 25 races so far this season.

“I think Harvick is just having one of those years,” said four-time champ Jeff Gordon, who is second in points. “It seems like Childress has gotten their program much stronger. I don’t want to say he is owed one or due or anything like that. He is just a solid driver with a solid organization and they have got their act together this year. I think they are going to be really tough to beat.”

That said, Harvick still things the championship favorite is Johnson. “We’ve run well and we feel like we can contend for a championship,” said Harvick. “But contending and winning are two different things and I think we’ve shown we can win races and have shown that we can run good. But, I still think until somebody completes the deal and knocks them off, they have to be the ones you have to beat just because they have done it four times.”

PHOTOS: 2010 Chase Contenders - Kevin Harvick

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

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