Harvick best understated driver heading into Chase

RICHMOND, Va. -- Kevin Harvick got lost again Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson won the race. Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were involved in an on-track incident. Clint Bowyer was trying to hold off David Ragan and Kasey Kahne. Meanwhile, the driver of Richard Childress Racing's No. 29 car posted the latest in a series of solid but not exactly headline-grabbing finishes, then answered a few questions from the media, and went to suit up for the Nationwide Series half of Sunday's NASCAR doubleheader at Richmond International Raceway.

Kevin Harvick

• Results of past 10 races
• Chase tracks, '08 results

Past 10	Fin.		Chase	Fin.
Loudon	14		Loudon	14
Daytona	12		Dover	38
Chicago	3		Kansas	N/A
Indianapolis	37		Dega	24
Pocono	4		Charlotte	14
Watkins Glen	6		Martinsville	12
Michigan	8		Atlanta	7
Bristol	4		Texas	11
Fontana	4		Phoenix	29
Richmond	7		Homestead	N/A

• Store: Harvick | Chase

Ignore him at your peril. Because even though he hasn't won this season -- actually, he hasn't won since the 2007 Daytona 500, now a long 71 races ago -- no one seems better equipped to challenge the Chase's lead triumvirate of Busch, Johnson and Carl Edwards than the driver ironically known as "Happy."

The numbers speak for themselves. Sunday's storm-delayed regular-season finale at Richmond brought the kind of under-the-radar result Harvick has been churning out all season, a seventh-place effort completely overshadowed by who did and who didn't qualify for the sport's year-end playoff. It was the sixth consecutive finish of eighth or better for Harvick, who during that same span has climbed from a perilous 13th in the Sprint Cup standings on July 27 to a shoo-in to make the Chase. While he hasn't won, and he's been in the mix at the end only a handful of times -- a dearth of laps led has been one of the few criticisms of the RCR organization this season -- 10 more finishes like the one he manufactured Sunday could very well earn him a big silver trophy and a large check.

How good is it going? Harvick led almost as many laps Sunday at Richmond (80) as he had the entire season entering the weekend (88). And he still felt like he left something on the table.

"This week, obviously we didn't capitalize 100 percent on our car," he said. "I felt like we had a top-three car ... I felt like if we were able to get track position like we had at the beginning of the race, we were good, and we just got off a little bit in the middle of the race. The car has been really good over the last three months. That's me, I like to lead laps, but I haven't been a big lap leader. I seem to lead a few laps at the end. If we win, it's not like we are really dominant. That's just kind of our M.O. and how we function. For whatever reason, that's the way it is. I'm just glad that the cars are running good. We just have to pick it up a notch. I've told them, first or 12th, that's all that matters. We've been everywhere in between. Take some chances, on pit road, off pit road, in the car and everywhere in between, I hope."

He's been here before. Harvick entered the 2006 Chase on a roll, scoring finishes of 11th or better in nine of the last 10 regular-season events. He took the finale at Richmond and the playoff opener at New Hampshire. But he wasn't able to keep it going, and Johnson won a Chase fraught with contenders who had done themselves in. But unlike then, Harvick believes his team's strength today is on 1.5-mile intermediate tracks, which comprise half of the final 10 venues. Again, back to the numbers: eighth- and fourth-place results in the two races at California, fourth at Las Vegas, seventh at Atlanta, third at Chicagoland. Fans may hate the so-called "cookie cutters," but Harvick will be happy to see them.

"Well, I think 2006, we were able to capitalize on the days when we had really good cars and were able to capitalize and win some races. I think we won five or six races that year," he said. He won five. "I believe we won this race and Loudon. So we had a lot of momentum, but we faded at the end. I feel like our 1.5-mile program is very good right now. For whatever reason, that's been our weakness before, and right now that's our strength. So hopefully that continues, and we can keep that going forward on the big tracks, because that's where you're going to have to be good, because there's so many of them."

Chicagoland, where the No. 29 team changed almost everything on the vehicle and found a combination their driver was comfortable with, was something of a turning point. Three more cars just like that are in the pipeline, ready to attack those five remaining intermediate tracks. He may not have won a race in almost two years, but Happy is feeling happy again. In the face of Busch, Edwards and Johnson, are people giving him enough credit as a championship threat?

"I don't know," he said, as understated as his race results. "We'll find out."

Also
• Chase for the Sprint Cup: Complete Coverage