Kevin Harvick, No. 4 team honored at White House

As he has done on several occasions, President Obama welcomed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions to the White House Wednesday. This time it was to honor and celebrate the Stewart-Haas Racing team’s 2014 Sprint Cup title.

“As the season started, Kevin had a new team, a new crew chief to adjust to,” the President noted. “It usually takes a little time for a driver and a crew chief to find their groove, but Kevin and Rodney seemed to figure out each other in a hurry — sort of like when (Vice President) Joe Biden joined my team.”

“There were blown tires, engine failures, cut oil lines, a slew of obstacles that held the ‘4 Car’ from finishing any higher than 36th in three out of four straight races. But Kevin and Rodney stuck with it, and by the time the Chase rolled around, this team was ready.

“A win at Homestead capped a season where Kevin picked up five wins, led more laps than anybody on the grid – picking up his first Sprint Cup championship.

“And by the looks of it, with two quick wins and the points lead already in place, 2015 isn’t shaping up to be too much different.”

Harvick, 39, won five times last season en route to capturing his first Sprint Cup Series championship, and did so under an elimination-style format that sent four drivers into the season’s final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a shot at the title.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions’ visits to the White House.

Prior to joining SHR, Harvick won 23 races while driving for Richard Childress Racing, finishing as high as third in points (2010-11, ’13).

“It’s just different when you’re celebrating your own championship and not somebody else’s,” Harvick said after posing for pictures with the President in front of the red-and-white No. 4 Chevrolet.

“It’s a huge honor to be here, and for the guys on the team it’s really an honor to see how excited they are, the things that are happening, to see them take it all in is pretty neat.

“Really (family) was the majority of the conversation (with the President). The family life and the change over the past four or five years (for myself and Delana) to get to this point.”

Stewart made the trip as car owner – he and Gene Haas co-own the four-team Stewart-Haas Racing organization. In 2012, he made the visit to Washington as both winning car owner and driver following his 2011 championship at SHR.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime,” Stewart said of Tuesday’s visit. “To have this honor to come up here for a day and acknowledge what our team’s accomplished is a huge honor to come here.”

As for the President getting behind the wheel of the No. 4?

“I said, ‘Well I’m the car owner so you have my permission,’” Stewart said. “But I think there are a lot of other people he has to convince other than me; but definitely the offer’s there.”

Childers said winning the championship “is something that we all dream about as you grow up … it makes you proud and these guys did an awesome job.

“Meeting the President? It’s something that may be a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Seeing the White House, the Capitol building, everything that goes on is just amazing to me.”

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