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Tag: Kevin Harvick

  • Fourth Turn, A Fan’s Perspective …. Post Season Withdrawal

    Fourth Turn, A Fan’s Perspective …. Post Season Withdrawal

    Well the season has officially ended. The NASCAR Champions banquet has been held and the dishes are done, the smoke has cleared and yes Jimmie really did win it for the 5th time, even if you did have to stay up half the night to see the presentation of the cup. The crew chiefs have all gone back to work making bigger, badder and meaner race cars. The pit crews are in off season strengthening mode. The marketing people are looking for new twists and new angles. The big chiefs are looking for more innovative sponsorship arrangements. And drivers are working out with their children and families. Some are challenging for a new trophy in Fantasy Football. Some are meeting the challenges of new fatherhood.

    [media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]But for the fan’s the off season is more of a challenge. For instance, Santa Rick Hendrick gave three of his drivers’ fan contingencies their Christmas gifts early, presumably so he could get back to his normal business routine of playing Santa to his Grandchildren and taking care of business for his employees across the country. Though the act was well meaning, it added to the long, long off season wait for the return to racing. You could almost see him checking off his list. There was a new crew chief for Jeff and Mark and Junior, A new building for Jr. Nation, A new paint job for Jeff’s and Mark’s fans, and a new look and feel for the 5 time champ. That should about do it you could almost hear him chuckle. But oh the horror of the wait Santa H, we have the new toys but can not play with them until February.

    In order to assist his fans in their withdrawal modes, Kevin Harvick made available a few items featuring the new Budweiser 29 Chevrolet. Just in time for your Christmas shopping pleasure and to avoid the need for hospitalization for your favorite NASCAR fan.

    Jeff Gordon saw the need as critical for his fan base and unveiled the new Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet on every major morning TV show. The car, a sharp new Candy Apple Red and Silver Metallic, oozed speed even while it sat still. But one could almost hear the yells at the female anchors who so obviously had no idea what front down force meant and had been schooled about the importance of the Daytona 500 but were obviously not sure when that was.

    NASCAR is trying hard to do their part with updates on the Hall of Fame Inductee’s and Christmas packages at the NASCAR Superstore. The fan council has new TV survey’s to complete and the media has story lines from 2010 to rank. There are the rumors of mid season changes to the COT’s fuel delivery system. The new nose has been unveiled. The determination of Sprint Cup driver participation in the Nationwide Series has yet to be released. And of course there is the new fuel to debate and learn the fine points of.

    But still the fan’s grow restless it’s been 3 weeks since the engines fired. There are cars on GM’s test track in Arizona but we can’t see them, hear them or smell them. Brad Keselowski is in Columbus Ohio to help Nationwide celebrate its champion festival, but we aren’t there. Even Jeff Gluck and Joe Menzer are relatively quiet. The minds of NASCAR fans are searching for a way to fill the void. The chat rooms and message boards are running qualifying lap speeds and still the matrixing has begun.

    Stories are pouring in of new ways that NASCAR fans have found to ease the discomfort of withdrawals from the sport. The rearranging of rooms of memorabilia, holiday pies shaped like the 5 Sprint Cups all bearing the 48 in whipped cream. The holiday Coconut cake that was Amp Green with red 88’s, (they are Christmas colors after all) the Christmas trees that are decorated all in NASCAR and team ornaments, including the one that is all car parts and sheet metal wreaths.

    Which brings us to the David Letterman standard; the top 10 ways you know if you or someone you love is a NASCAR fan in withdraw. *insert drum roll here please*

    10. You go through the chip display to find a bag of Bugles with the 33 Chevrolet on it instead of the new holiday bags.

    9. You get volunteered to take the boys of the family Christmas shopping and you say to your young male shopping companions as you enter the mall, “Boogity, Boogity, Boogity Let’s go shopping boys.”

    8. At a holiday party alternative fuel sources come up in the discussion and you start your opinion with, “Sunoco’s E 15 fuel, partners American Farmers with Speed for the good of the planet and the sport….”

    7. You see an Intimidator Monte Carlo complete with Taz in the parking lot of the grocery store and you stand in awe with tears in your eyes and Whisper ‘It’s a beautiful thing’.

    6. You and your best friend race the motorized carts at Wal-Mart in the Wally World 250 and use your cell phones for in cart cameras.

    5. You nominate the HMS Paint and Body Department for best Artistic presentation at your Alumni Christmas party.

    4. Your date is describing a play from the football game and he says, “He got loose and headed down the field …” And you say “maybe they need to go a round up on his track bar.”

    3. You are waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office addressing envelopes and another patient says, Christmas Cards? You shake your head in disbelief and say ‘Daytona 500 party’.

    2.  You are watching a NASCAR race on TV and are very animated when your house mate reminds you this race was run in 1999. You calmly look at them and say “So what’s your point man on any given day anyone can win.”

    And the number one reason you know you are a NASCAR fan in withdraw.

    1. You pull up to a stop light and look to your left and see a Toyota Camry and say to your best friend. I can take it. Watch. Your best friend reminds you that this is a Malibu and you say yeah but I got my Malibu from Rick Hendrick and you both give thumbs up.

    If any of these sounds like your favorite NASCAR fan or even yourself, please don’t panic. Remain calm and remember that the Daytona 500 is in 75 days. The first official test of the season at Daytona on new pavement is December 15th and 16th. So it’s not long and it’s not far. Please be considerate of the safety of others and try to remember, ‘Have at it Boys’ does not carry over to Target at Christmas time.

    Happy Holidays to all!

    *Legal Disclaimer, any resemblance to any party, including the writer of this piece, is purely your imagination. Photo documentation and at least 3 statements of confirmation from at least 3 series champions will be required to verify these acts as factual. No animals, small children, or elderly individuals were injured during the performance of any of the above acts.

    ~~~~~****~~~~~

    Thoughts and prayers to the friends and families to all that we have lost this year, this is a difficult time but know that you are not alone. Continued thoughts and prayers for a speedy and full recovery go out to Shame Hmiel.

    Happy Holidays to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you had to give every single week, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.

  • NASCAR’s Final Chapter of 2010: Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and Hope

    NASCAR’s Final Chapter of 2010: Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and Hope

    The Daytona 500 may still be months away, but fans, media and the drivers themselves are already gearing up for the 2011 season.  After the wild ride that we took in 2010, how could next year possibly compare?

    For the first time in since the introduction of the Chase in 2004, where only 18 points separated points leader Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson heading into Homestead, have we seen such a close battle for the Sprint Cup. Another first was seeing someone other than Jimmie Johnson sitting in the No. 1 position after race 35, a position that Johnson had majestically held since 2006.

    [media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]Denny Hamlin gave us hope. Hope that the winning streak the No. 48 team so gleefully basked in four times prior would be broken. Hope that maybe the Chase was not the flawed monster that conspiracy theorists declaimed. Hope that for once in a great while fans would watch every lap of the Ford 400 without changing the channel in disgust, because a champion had been crowned long before the final lap was run.

    Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

    Hamlin may not have been able to steal the golden crown from Johnson, but he did give him a hell of a fight. The trophy was Hamlin’s to lose and Johnson stole it away with calculated perfection and luck.

    After a rear axle problem took Johnson out of the Daytona 500 on lap 185, we delighted in the notion that maybe the 48 crew’s cream would not rise to the top in 2010.

    Chad Knaus proved us wrong by whipping up a brand new batch of vanilla confection and boldly serving it atop a plate of crow, after the 48 team posted a first place finish, just one week later in California.

    On February 21, during a post-race press conference in Fontana, fans may recall a certain scorned second placed finisher, hailing Johnson and his crew for their serendipitous win.

    As luck would have it, Johnson pitted right before Brad Keselowski spun out on lap 230 and was able to restart in the first position with just 20 laps to go, all but forcing the other leaders to pit under caution. Despite a rear bumper full of Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 machine, Johnson maintained his position until the checkered flag waved.

    Once again a strange twist of NASCAR fate worked in favor of the No. 48 team, but how?

    Kevin Harvick had his own theories stating in his post-race interview, “They did a good job today in winning the race, but they have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass. I mean, there’s no way to get around that.”

    Hmmm…so that’s where he’s been hiding that good fortune for the last five years, knowing all along it was the one place that NASCAR would never inspect. Reminds me of the story told by Captain Koons to a young boy named Butch in the movie Pulp Fiction regarding the child’s birthright, his great-grandfather’s watch.

    “He hid it (the watch) in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. And then he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.”

    Jeez, what does this mean? If Jimmie dies from dysentery will Chad Knaus have to hide that golden horseshoe up his own ass until the next champion comes along?

    Hey, I’m not knocking the guy, I’m just saying that it might be easier to just carry a rabbit’s foot, but to each is own. 34 races later,  The golden horseshoe proved lucky for Johnson in Homestead, just when he needed it most. In the end, the luck o’ the 48  propelled him from a 15 point deficit to a 38 point lead over Hamlin and the “Drive for Five” was in the books.

    But what if?

    What if Harvick hadn’t launched his No. 29 Chevrolet like a loose hand grenade into Kyle Busch’s bumper on lap 242?

    I know that Harvick hoped to capture the title in the end and in turn raced hard to gain points on Hamlin and Johnson after battling back from a speeding penalty on pit road at lap 188. I know he had his own frustrations with Busch on the track stating,“He raced me like a clown all day – three-wide, on the back bumper, running into me, and I just had enough. The last time I just didn’t lift”

    If he hadn’t wrecked Busch, the caution flag would not have flown with 25 laps to go. Hamlin would not have gone a lap down, leaving him in a position to restart the final leg of the race at the tail end of the lead lap in the 20th position; conclusively dashing any chance of winning the championship.

    Hamlin knew it was the perfect storm of mayhem that the 48 team needed to grab hold of the reigns and steer it home.

    “I thought it was over when the 18 (of Kyle Busch) wrecked, for sure – that trapped us a lap down,” Hamlin said. “The 29 (of Harvick) and the 48 (of Johnson) were actually just a straightaway ahead, but the way it timed out to when that caution fell, it trapped us a lap down, and so they stayed out and the cars at the back all came and got tires, so it separated us.

    “What was a straightaway turned into 15 spots when that caution flew, and that really hurt us quite a bit. But we were lucky to be in that position – our car was banged up bad and we just could not overcome that.”

    Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs said he wasn’t happy with the Harvick-Busch incident, saying it impacted the Chase by putting Hamlin a lap down.

    “We got wrecked by the 29 [of Harvick], so that was really frustrating – it caused Denny to go a lap down,” Gibbs said. “That was disappointing.”

    What if Hamlin had not damaged his splitter after spinning out on lap 24, was he doomed from the start?

    What if Johnson’s engine had given up the ghost on lap 200 instead of teammate Jeff Gordon’s?

    What if anyone, anyone, other than Johnson had won the championship this year, would we fans be happy with what we could have gotten in the end?

    Life continuously leaves us wondering “what if” and as we reflect on all of the different scenarios, we often kick ourselves over the “shoulda, whoulda, couldas,” but never can we go back and change the outcome.

    There is always next year, right? Yes there is! A new year filled with anticipations of what the 2011 Sprint Cup season will hold. Sure, some say that they’ll never watch another NASCAR race since it is so “obviously rigged” in Johnson’s favor, but I don’t believe you. You’ll find yourself flipping through the channels on February 20 and pause “for just a moment” to watch the green flag drop. Before you know it, you’re hooked all over again.

    While Jimmie Johnson does not top my list of favorite drivers, I do have respect and a clear understanding of his accomplishments. We witnessed something on November 21 that we will probably never see again. It was an amazing piece of history in the making and as a NASCAR fan, it is something that I am proud to have been a part of.

    The 2011 season will no doubt bring lots of hope and hype. I, along with millions of fans around the world will be there once again for the ride of our lives. So, NASCAR show me what you’ve got! Jimmie Johnson may be your “ace in the hole” for now, but I’m pretty sure we ain’t seen nothing yet.

  • 2010 Championship Week Preview: Hamlin, Harvick, Johnson gunning for the title

    In recent years, Jimmie Johnson had a three-digit points lead and only needed to finish the race to win yet another Sprint Cup Series title.

    Things have changed — drastically.

    Three guys — Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Johnson — are in the running for the championship, which will undoubtedly come down to the final lap of the Ford 400 this weekend.

    [media-credit name=”Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”400″][/media-credit]Only 15 points separate the top-two drivers in the closest championship battle since the advent of the new points system in 1974. Hamlin, the points leader, can only clinch by winning the race or leading the most laps and finishing second. Otherwise, he will need to outrun Johnson and Harvick.

    “I’m in a good spot knowing that I just have — I can control my own destiny and not have to worry about anything else,” Hamlin said during Thursday’s championship contenders press conference. “If we win the race, it’s a moot point.”

    Johnson has more to overcome than Hamlin’s one victory and three top-five finishes in five starts at Homestead. Since 1975, only two drivers have ever come from behind in the final race to win the title In 1979, Richard Petty won the championship after entering the season finale trailing Darrell Waltrip by two points and most recently in 1992 when Alan Kulwicki overcame a 30-point deficit to beat Davey Allison. Still, Johnson says he is more relaxed coming into the finale than he ever has been.

    “For us, I mean, we have nothing to lose,” Johnson said. “… When you’re defending, your mind starts to change, and you start to think about the ‘what ifs.’ When you’re chasing, it’s more about ‘What do I need to do?’ It’s been a more relaxed week for me, even though I’m down 15 points, than I’ve ever experienced before.”

    Johnson is looking for his fifth straight championship title while Hamlin and Harvick are both looking for their first.

    Storylines:

    At the end of the year banquet held in Las Vegas, the top-ten drivers in the chase will be invited to come up on stage, the 11th and 12th place drivers will not. As Hamlin, Johnson and Harvick battle for the championship, the other end of the chase field is battling to stay in the top-ten. Kurt Busch currently holds the tenth spot, but Clint Bowyer is only five points behind.

    The final race of the 2010 season also means it’s the final opportunity for cars to either gain or lose a spot in the top-35 owner points race. The No. 71 team currently holds a 74-point lead over the No. 38 team, who is in 36th. The first five races of next season will use the top-35 owner points from the end of this season to determine which cars will be guaranteed a starting spot.

    Last year:

    The 2009 Ford 400 was won by Denny Hamlin after Jimmie Johnson, eventual champion, sat on the pole.

    Race information:

    Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway; Homestead, Fla. (1.5-mile oval)
    Date: Sunday, Nov. 21 at 1:00 p.m. ET
    TV: ESPN, 1 p.m. ET (pre-race starting at Noon ET on ESPN2)
    Radio: MRN Radio/Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio 128

  • Realtree to Sponsor Harvick, No. 29 Team at Talladega

    WELCOME, N.C. (October 21, 2010) — Realtree®,the creator and marketer of the world’s most versatile camo patterns, will be the primary sponsor of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 Chevrolet team with driver Kevin Harvick for the Oct. 31 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AMP Energy 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

    Realtree, based in Columbus, Ga., began its involvement with RCR in 1997 on the No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet teams with the legendary Dale Earnhardt. It began its relationship with Harvick at RCR in 1999 and continues today as an associate sponsor of the No. 29 team. In addition, Realtree president Bill Jordan and RCR president and CEO Richard Childress have been personal friends for decades through racing and their love of the outdoors.

    “It is always a pleasure to work with Richard and Kevin,” said Bill Jordan, the founder of Realtree. “It doesn’t matter whether we’re in the field or at the track. Their passion is contagious. And this Talladega race comes at a perfect time for hunting and racing fans. Cool fall weather is in the air and Kevin and RCR are hot on the track

    “Of course, we still manage to get Richard, Kevin and lots of others in and around the NASCAR garage out for quick hunting getaways this time of year, and we’ve already had an incredible start to fall 2010. Outdoor Channel viewers are going to see some great hunts with their favorite NASCAR drivers starting in July 2011.”

    Harvick and the No. 29 team are currently third in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings after 31 of 36 races. They are 77 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson and 41 behind second-place Denny Hamlin.

    “It’s great to have Bill Jordan and Realtree on board next weekend,” said Harvick. “They have sponsored me at RCR since 1999, when I ran the ARCA Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, so I look forward to driving the No. 29 Realtree Chevrolet in the Chase at Talladega.”