Crew chief change will pay dividends for Harvick

Mark my words: Kevin Harvick is going to run a lot better with his new crew chief, Todd Berrier, who was put on his car after Gil Martin was kicked upstairs. It's a chance to test a theory of mine, that owners would be wise, when hiring a new driver, to bring the guy's old crew chief with him.

	Todd Berrier

There are so many little things that can affect a car, and most of them can't be described easily with words. It's sort of like describing how ice cream tastes to another person. It takes someone who can understand things that aren't spoken clearly -- like the rest of the Rolling Stones when Keith Richards talks. To me, being able to communicate those incommunicable things is the most important trait in a driver and crew chief. Plenty of guys know how to take care of a car. Much tougher is taking care of a driver.

Berrier was Harvick's crew chief for two years in Busch and the pair had eight wins and eight poles, and Harvick won the series' Rookie of the Year Award in 2000 and the championship in 2001. "Having Gil and Todd working together like they did in the Busch Series is the biggest thing I'm excited about with this move," Harvick said. "Gil brings a lot of organization and people skills to the table so he will be helping the GM Goodwrench team streamline everything it has. Todd has come in to open our minds up to trying some different stuff to get this race team turned around."

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I think it'll be a longstanding relationship, and if it is, we can test another one of my theories: You shouldn't keep a driver and crew chief together for too long. (I've got plenty of theories, most of which are half-baked.) We'll leave that for another day.

Flags

Green Flag: Kurt Busch -- He's back to his Kobe-like dominance, and he even seems to know a thing or two about college hoops. (Asked who'll win it all, he was the only Jack Roush driver to give a compelling argument for a decent team: "The Arizona Wildcats ... they're the No. 1 seed in their division and they're going to sweep the competition.") In the last six races he's finished, he's got two wins and four seconds. That's not too shabby.

Yellow Flag: Matt Kenseth -- The only thing holding him back in our eyes is athletic apathy. "I really don't watch college sports so I'm not even sure who is in it," the Wisconsin native said of the NCAA tournament -- in which the Badgers rolled into the Sweet 16 (and ruined my bracket by knocking out Tulsa.) On the track, you can't really knock him. He can't qualify worth a lick -- and when he does he invariably has to go to the back of the field -- but nobody can weave through a field like he can.

Red Flag: Kyle Petty -- He got hit more times that Jack Nicholson in Chinatown. More times than Gerry Cooney against Larry Holmes. More times than ... well, you get the idea. That last smack of the wall was brutal. And when he gets out of the hospital, he's in 35th place.