Harvick's Michigan win leaves all doubts behind (cont'd)

And it all goes back to Southern California, where Harvick led 27 laps before Johnson took the lead on a pit-road exchange. Harvick had whittled a 1-second advantage down to .311 seconds with four laps remaining when he tried to make the pass -- and instead banged off the wall.

"I think California should have been for sure the first win, but we hadn't won in so long that I forced the issue," Harvick remembered. "That for me was the best point of the year, remembering and telling myself, 'You can't force winning.' Winning just happens, and it comes in cycles, and those circumstances all of the sudden start going your way. When I tried to force it at California, if I'd have waited two laps I'd have driven right by [Johnson]. That would have been the first win. Instead, I tried to force it too soon. That was really what got me going back on the right path as far as how to think and not force those things."

Sunday, he put that lesson to use. With about 20 laps remaining, Harvick made a move on Hamlin and backed off. With 11 to go, he came back and finished it. With that unparalleled Earnhardt-Childress horsepower underneath the hood -- Harvick had led by more than six seconds earlier in the event -- he ran away from the field, leaving other drivers and any questions about his legitimacy as a title contender behind him.

"When you're that much faster than the guy in front of you, you've got to take your time until the laps are out," Harvick said. "That's kind of what I did today. I didn't want to make a mistake by running into the wall when Denny rolled up to the top. I didn't want to do the same thing I did behind Jimmie, and push into the fence in the middle or up off the corner. I just tried to take care of my car and let time take care of his. Mine got better as it progressed, and I knew that. There was no reason to force it until it was very clear we were going to make the move and go by."

So many small details go into such a victory. Harvick said he studied tapes of some of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s old races at Michigan, trying to get a feel for how to run the wide track's high line, and doing it expertly on Sunday. Crew chief Gil Martin said the No. 29 team is doing a better job of preparing race strategy and making fewer off-the-cuff pit decisions, which perhaps played into the call to stay out on old tires during the final caution period. And then there's Harvick, clearly more patient, and seeming only to get better as rival teams struggle to figure out shortcomings in the final few weeks before the Chase.

Even though he leads second-place Gordon by 293 points, his victory total still isn't quite as high as some other drivers', and if the regular season ended today he'd still be looking up at Hamlin and Johnson in the revised standings. But after one close call after another -- at California, at Atlanta, at Las Vegas, at Pocono, at Indianapolis -- Harvick at last showed that he's capable of winning even when the plates are off. The one remaining question about the No. 29 team seems to have been answered, and emphatically so.

"We know we're going to be a contender," Childress said. "That's all we can ask for is to be a contender. If we're that, we'll have a shot at winning it."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.