{"id":61286,"date":"2015-09-15T15:12:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T07:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=61286"},"modified":"2025-01-08T10:57:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:57:29","slug":"harvick-not-ready-to-hand-crown-over-to-joe-gibbs-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/09\/15\/harvick-not-ready-to-hand-crown-over-to-joe-gibbs-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvick not ready to hand crown over to Joe Gibbs racing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kevin<\/a>
Kevin Harvick competing (Wikipedia photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 Every indication the last three months is that Joe Gibbs Racing is going to be a major force in NASCAR\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n

But if anyone thinks JGR\u2019s four-car lineup is going to run away with the title, reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick has other ideas.<\/p>\n

Harvick, who finished 14th in the regular-season finale Saturday night, gave no indication he\u2019s intimidated by JGR. Matt Kenseth won at Richmond International Raceway for his third victory in six races, and JGR\u2019s eighth win in 11 Cup events.<\/p>\n

Because those eight wins have been divided by Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, Harvick doesn\u2019t see one standout team in the group capable of sustaining a 10-race playoff run.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be good once every three weeks, you\u2019ve got to be good for 10 weeks,\u201d Harvick said. \u201cI know those guys have run fast, (but) it\u2019s been a different Gibbs car that we\u2019ve raced against for the last 10 weeks. As a company, they\u2019ve had some good success in winning races, but it hasn\u2019t been the same car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully they\u2019ll be peaky like they normally are and we can capitalize on the solid momentum we\u2019ve had throughout the last two years and do what we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chase begins Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway in the second year of its elimination-style format. Harvick prevailed last season with three Chase victories \u2013 a win in each of the first three rounds automatically advances a driver into the next segment \u2013 that included a victory in the championship-deciding finale.<\/p>\n

But he was also consistent, with just one finish lower than 13th.<\/p>\n

Harvick has been even steadier this year: His 22 top-10 finishes through 26 races are remarkable, but what\u2019s most impressive are his 10 runner-up finishes.<\/p>\n

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Although others have been faster at times this season, he’s certain his Stewart-Haas Racing team can win a second-consecutive title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019re the team to beat,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I know that we can beat anybody as we go through a week-to-week basis on any style racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching the competition<\/strong>: There was a great deal of satisfaction at Chip Ganassi Racing when Jamie McMurray took the green flag Saturday night and wrapped up his first career berth in the Chase.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s been almost three years since McMurray\u2019s last victory, and he\u2019s only got one win in almost six seasons.<\/p>\n

Team owner Chip Ganassi, who just celebrated the IndyCar championship the team won when Scott Dixon won the race to rally from third in the standings to the title, understands the organization needs to be better for McMurray to have his own shot at a title.<\/p>\n

And even that might not be good enough to get past the Gibbs contingent. There was a stretch Saturday night in which the Gibbs cars ran first, second, third and fourth and seemed untouchable to the rest of the field. Meanwhile, McMurray and teammate Kyle Larson were following the Toyotas in their Chevrolets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can give it a shot here, I think we can drill ourselves deep into it,\u201d Ganassi said. \u201c(But) the final four, looks like it might be one team the way I\u2019m looking at it. I noticed for a while we were running first and second in class, but I think we were fifth and sixth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s last chance: Jeff Gordon quietly secured his berth in his final Chase by putting together a solid run at Richmond.<\/p>\n

But if things don\u2019t change quickly, Gordon will have no shot at winning a fifth championship.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s retiring at the end of the year, and his final season has come at a downtime for Hendrick Motorsports.<\/p>\n

A year after Gordon came within a point of making it to the championship round, he\u2019s so far winless and the last Hendrick victory this season was Dale Earnhardt Jr.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s win at Daytona on July 5. The organization also failed to get all four of its cars in the Chase as Kasey Kahne missed the cut for the first time since he joined Hendrick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re behind. We know that,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a lot of ways to make it to Homestead and there\u2019s a lot that can happen and we\u2019re working as hard as anybody to try to see what we can do better, learn from our competitors, and try to catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon also thinks Earnhardt, who has two wins and 17 top-10 finishes, is the best in the Hendrick fleet right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work hard together to try to improve for each of us, and if we continue to do that, we\u2019ll make gains,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of pressure in this final season to make that Chase, so I\u2019m glad we got that done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hello, newman<\/strong>: Ryan Newman is back in the Chase for a second consecutive year, and is again winless on the season.<\/p>\n

Newman defied the system last year by using consistency to make it to the final round, and he finished second in the final standings despite failing to earn a trip to victory lane.<\/p>\n

Newman doesn\u2019t think that strategy will work again this season, mainly because he lost the title in part because Kevin Harvick won the finale.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to win. You\u2019ve got to win when it comes to the last race, for sure,\u201d Newman said. \u201cAnd every race in between that, it helps to win. You don\u2019t have to win, but the last one is the one that\u2019s important. So, you\u2019ve got to build up to that and keep yourself in the hunt and build up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 Every indication the last three months is that Joe Gibbs Racing is going to be a major …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":61291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-61286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-original","mauthors-jenna-fryer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280838,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61286\/revisions\/280838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}