(WOMR file photo)
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Kevin Harvick logged his second victory in as many races this month!
Harvick is now in a zone that has not been witnessed by anyone in many years. As Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers head to California with some California Dreamin’ on their minds! But the looming question has become, can anyone one stop the Freaky Fast Stewart Haas Racing No. 4 team?
The only way that Harvick was going to loose the race last week at Phoenix International Raceway was going to be if he or his SHR team made some sort of mistake that would derail the inevitable.
But that did not happen!
Harvick’s car was on a rail, he was harder to pass than a kidney stone, and he routed the field Sunday just like he did the week previous at Las Vegas, while grabbing his fourth consecutive win at the Avondale,AZ, race track!
This streak that Harvick is on right now dates back to last season, when he won his first Sprint Cup championship. He has now won five of the last 10 races, two straight this season, and has seven (7) consecutive top-two finishes!
Harvick’s streak of top-two finishes is the longest since the King, Richard Petty, did it during his 1975 championship season.
So now Harvick and crew heads to Fontana, CA, looking to bring out his big push broom and attempt to put another whoopin’ on the field, and sweep up the Western Swing!
This SHR No. 4 team has left their competitors awestruck at the chemistry that has been created in just a little over one year! For those who are suffering from Alzheimers, or have been living underneath the big rock, or for those who have been in the government’s witness protection program, Harvick left Richard Childress Racing after 13 years and zero championships. And lest we forget, Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing neatly put it to the rest of the field in their very first year together, pocketing the Sprint Cup championship in 2014!
This year Harvick and Childress are starting right where they left off last year. This duo won the final two races of the year at Phoenix and Homestead, thereby securing the Sprint Cup championship for the rookie team. And if that was enough, now they are clicking on all eight cylinders once again and dominating the field.
There have been other streaks in recent times that rival what Harvick and Childress are putting down: Tony Stewart winning five of the ten Chase races in 2011; Jimmie Johnson won four straight Chase races in 2007, a run that rivaled Johnson’s four win in five races in 2004, when he fell just eight points shy of winning his first championship; and Jeff Gordon in 1998, when he won 13 races, finished first or second in 15 of the final 19 races!
So, as you can see, drivers do cycle to the top of their game, and only Johnson with five consecutive Sprint cup titles has been able to ride that crest for any considerable length of time.
But let this be said, until SHR shifts into an R&D mode for Harvick to prepare for season ending ten race known as The Chase, there is no indication that this team can be stopped anytime soon!
Having been On Pit Row for the races at Las Vegas and Phoenix, I can tell you that there is some heep good mojo emanating from this team right now!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
