Harvick ready for different challenge as N'wide driver

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick's had his cake, if you will, in the Busch Series with two championships and dozens of race wins.

So Harvick can be excused this season, the first known as the Nationwide Series after 26 years of sponsorship by Anheuser-Busch, if he has a little different goal, role and attitude when he races on Fridays and Saturdays prior to his primary Sprint Cup races.

After winning driver championships in 2001 and 2006 for Richard Childress Racing and being part of Childress' owner's championship in 2003, Harvick is coming home to race all his Nationwide Series events in his own No. 33 Chevrolets this season.

On Friday at Daytona, one of Harvick's Chevrolets, 33A, was third-best on the morning, single-car speed chart, behind Phoenix Racing's Johnny Sauter in the No. 1 Chevrolet and Mike McLaughlin, a Joe Gibbs Racing driver development coach who's testing JGR's No. 20 Toyota.

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In the afternoon, when teams quickly went into drafting mode, Harvick's 33B Chevy was sixth-quickest on the chart behind fast man Kyle Busch in the No. 18B Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

"I think we approach this year a lot like we did the Truck season -- winning it as we did, last season," Harvick said on Friday as 20 Nationwide Series teams opened their three-day session of Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway. "We've just basically started over. We bought all new downforce cars, from the chassis-up, and we're doing a lot of development work. These cars, when we unloaded them last year we were dead last and a second-and-a-half off. So I feel like the drag numbers are better, the horsepower is better and the cars are more well-prepared."

Kevin Harvick Inc. ran two full-time cars last season, using a variety of drivers in both the 33, which finished sixth in the Busch owner standings, and the 77, which finished 15th. But this year will be scaled back for the organization.

"So that was a good thing for us, to kind of step back, without the 77 [full-time] program, and to really put a lot of emphasis on the 33 car," Harvick said. "I mean, sure, we could have had sponsors for the [second] car and raced it, but that's not really what our company is all about -- it's to go out and be competitive and win races, week in and week out.

"That's why [we] built it and that's the challenge that I needed in the Nationwide Series. I've been so fortunate to run the 21 and the 2 [for RCR] and to win a lot of races, but it was time to do something different for myself and to meet that challenge."

Harvick, in fact, won the Daytona season opener a year ago and was second here in the mid-summer return event -- but both of those races were in the No. 21 RCR Chevrolet with which he earned all six of his 2007 victories.

In 2008, Harvick is stepping back and taking a page from his successful Craftsman Truck Series program, which won the 2007 driver's and owner's championships after a six-year development program.

"We pretty much started from scratch with all the cars -- just kind of started over," Harvick said. "I think everybody did a great job putting them together and now we have to see how they drive and go from there.

"Daytona has been very good to us -- all the speedway races have been, at RCR -- and I'm looking forward to the challenge of running my own cars and just kind of creating a whole different challenge in all aspects of it."

KHI will run two cars at Speedweeks 2008 at Daytona, with its development driver Cale Gale in the No. 77 Chevrolet. The 77 will do a total of six races, with Gale splitting them, three apiece, with KHI's Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday.

Gale, the Alabama Late Model driver who has been all eyes, ears and as much activity as he can stand since coming to KHI at the beginning of last season, is scheduled to begin testing on Sunday.

But he was busy on Friday, as well.

"He's got me spotting for him," Gale said of Harvick. "But I'm so happy to be driving for Kevin and [wife] DeLana again for the second year. I learned a lot last year and got to go to a lot of racetracks that I hadn't been to yet as a rookie, and to be able to come back again this year and share a car with [Harvick] and Ron Hornaday also is a dream come true for me.

"The main thing for me is to go out there and do everything I can as a racecar driver when I'm in the car, and to start racing consistent and get better finishes each and every week, and learn as much as I can as quick as possible."