Harvick’s High Hopes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Any driver in the Daytona garage will tell you last season was last season, but it cant be easy for Kevin Harvick. Numbers defined everything in 2006.

Harvicks statistics were impressive in both of NASCAR top two divisions. In Nextel Cup, Harvick won a career-high five races and carried all the momentum into the Chase for the Nextel Cup before finishing fourth in the standings, also a career best. A step down in the Busch Series, Harvick embarrassed all comers, posting nine victories and 32 top 10s in 35 races before winning his second championship by — believe it — 824 points.

The gaudy stats alone make Harvick a favorite to win his first title (+1200 at inspin.com), as the Nextel Cup season begins with Sundays Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. “It would be a disappointment if we werent competing for the championship,” Harvick said. “But I have learned not to sit here and talk about what we are going to do, but to go out and let our cars do the talking for us.”

A record season — and a new multi-year contract with Richardz Childress Racing — has made life easier on the Bakersfield driver, who honed his skills in the NASCAR West and former Southwest series.

“Its so much easier its not even funny. You get to relax,” Harvick said. “You dont have to worry about, ?OK, how am I going to defend myself today? How do I not say something that is going to create more controversy than there already is? I think it is definitely a lot easier coming down here knowing my situation for the next several years.

“Richard and I are on the same page, and my teammates are on the same page.”

Harvick led a RCR resurgence in 2006.

The team had been down in recent years — still trying to recover from the death of legendary lead driver and seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt — but RCR placed two cars in the third edition of the Chase, as Harvick and teammate Jeff Burton qualified for NASCARs postseason. They performed admirably, with Harvick finishing fourth and Burton seventh after Burton won his first Nextel Cup race in five years.

But for RCR, Burton said, last season really was last season, regardless of the numbers he and Harvick put up.

“Theres always more to do, and theres always a way to do it better,” Burton said. “There is no pinnacle. There is no end.”

The always outspoken Harvick — long removed from the transition from Earnhardt, whom Harvick replaced after his death in the 2001 Daytona 500 — has a new look in 2007. Instead of the famed black GM Goodwrench paint scheme made famous by Earnhardt, Harvicks No. 29 Chevrolet will carry the bright colors of Shell-Pennzoil.

He admitted the new sponsor has helped him escape “everything that we had with Dale.” The new yellow No. 29 can help Harvick forge his own identity at RCR.

The high expectations are justified not by numbers alone.

RCR was one of the first teams to take an aggressive approach in developing the Car of Tomorrow, NASCARs new-aged machine that will run in 17 races this season beginning with next months race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. “I have been very fortunate that Richard has given us the opportunity to develop the cars and engines as we have,” Harvick said, “and hopefully we can reap those benefits early.”

The 31-year-old Harvick insists his Busch Series interests didnt take away from his Nextel Cup effort. He and his wife, DeLana, run their own team — Kernersville, N.C.-based Kevin Harvick Inc. — and Harvick plans to run about 25 Busch races this season with a couple of Craftsman Truck starts scattered about. He won Saturdays Busch Series opener.

“I like being in a race car. I like being at the track,” Harvick said. “When I am at the track, I dont really like going outside the track. I like being a part of what is going on. Its just what I like to do.” And most likely hell pad his stats along the way, hopefully with his first Nextel Cup championship.

“To go forward,” Harvick said, “you have to be content to be competitive for the championship and do all the right things while you are in that championship to make it right. Our goals are to do what we did last year and not make the mistakes we did in the Chase.”