CUP: Notebook - Harvick Wants Cup Title

Sprint Cup

CUP: Notebook - Harvick Wants Cup Title

Kevin Harvick will not run the full NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule...

Tom Jensen | Posted May 27, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Kevin Harvick is currently the points leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: Getty Images)

HAPPY TIME, PEOPLE — Kevin Harvick is a two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion, but with a freshly inked contract with team owner Richard Childress, Harvick will spend this year concentrating on the big prize: Winning his first Sprint Cup title.

“No, I’m not going to do the whole Nationwide schedule,” said Harvick, who leads the Sprint Cup points standings by 69 points over Kyle Busch and 126 over Matt Kenseth. “... The Nationwide races are fun and we like to be competitive, but we have won a couple championships and a lot of races, and we really want to win the Cup championship. The only way to win it is to be competitive and to race for it.”

A key element in Harvick’s decision was a change to the NNS schedule, where The Milwaukee Mile is being replaced with a road-course race at Road America in Wisconsin.

“They’ve made it impossible to not take away from both programs with the Road America race, and if I can’t do them all there is no reason to even worry about the whole summer stretch,” said Harvick. “Mike Bliss will be in the car for the next couple weeks and at St. Louis at the end of the year. Ron Hornaday will be in the car at Road America and ORP. Montreal will still be up in the air. We’ve known that that was what we were going to do for a couple weeks; we were just trying to make sure that we had all our ducks in a row before we made that happen.”

GETTING IT DONE — Matt Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, finds himself in a curious position with the 26-race Cup regular season about to hit the halfway points. Kenseth is riding a 46-race losing streak, yet he’s an impressive third in points behind Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.

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Kenseth, like his three teammates at Roush Fenway Racing, is scratching his head trying to figure out how to make his Ford handle better. “We just aren’t going through the corners fast enough,” said Kenseth. “Whether that is chassis, shocks or aero I don’t know. We are working on all areas to try getting it better. Certainly over all of this year we are better than where we were last year, we just still need to get a little better to run up there with the best cars.”

DOUBLE INDEMNITY — Although Charlotte Motor Speedway President Bruton Smith and Izod IndyCar Chairman Randy Bernard have floated the idea of paying $20 million to any driver who can win the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, so far the idea hasn’t drawn much driver support at all.

“It doesn't affect my decisions on doing it,” said Jeff Gordon of the big payday. “To me, they could offer a $100 million to run both of those races or win both of those and it wouldn't affect my decision because I'm only going to go there if I feel like I can be competitive. To be competitive, I would need to be in those cars all of the time.”

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Tom Jensen

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