Johnson’s hold over Harvick similar to some of tennis’ best rivalries
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Sports rivalries have a way of heightening an event or a competition. Most sports fans usually associate the big team rivalries with Yankees-Red Sox in baseball, Duke-UNC in college basketball or Michigan-Ohio State in college football.
However, in individual sports those rivalries usually take shape on the big stage with lots on the line. And in most cases, one particular person has had a dominant hold over the other that must be overcome for success.
Since moving to Stewart-Haas Racing for the start of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Kevin Harvick has been leading laps and leading laps and then even leading some more laps. He’s paced 3,362 circuits since the start of 2014 and won seven races during that stretch.
During that same time, Jimmie Johnson has led just over half of Harvick’s count (1,742), but has eight wins. And even more importantly, seven of those eight wins for Johnson have come with Harvick as the runner-up.
The two California natives are friends, with Harvick crediting Johnson for his advice during the Championship 4 weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway that saw Harvick win the Ford EcoBoost 400 to capture the Sprint Cup championship.
Overall though, Johnson has gotten the best of Harvick head to head. Of their 13 1-2 finishes, Johnson has finished first 11 times to Harvick’s two, not to mention Johnson’s six championships to Harvick’s one.
With tennis’ third Grand Slam event, Wimbledon, starting this week, Johnson’s hold over Harvick reminded me of how Pete Sampras used to always be able to beat fellow American, friend and rival Andre Agassi in the big spot. Sampras only held a 20-14 advantage lifetime over Agassi, but in Grand Slam events (the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open), Sampras was 6-2 against him and 4-1 in finals.
A more recent comparison in tennis that fits better is Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. For years, it seemed like it was a foregone conclusion that these two would meet in the finals of the French Open (on clay, Nadal’s best surface) and at Wimbledon (on grass, Federer’s best surface), with Nadal winning the French and Federer winning at Wimbledon.
Early on, their rivalry was relatively even, but it really turned when Nadal beat Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final, snapping Federer’s run of four straight titles at the All England Club. Overall, Nadal enjoys a 23-10 record over Federer and is 9-2 against him in Grand Slams (6-2 in Grand Slam finals). But since that Wimbledon final where he won, Nadal is 11-4 against him.
Federer’s dominance on grass, coupled with his defeat of Nadal twice at Wimbledon, helped the Spaniard raise his game to get past the Switzerland-born star and propel him to a long run of dominance over his rival.
Based on how the 2015 season has gone so far in NASCAR, we are very likely to see more Johnson-Harvick duels in the future. And the 2014 champion will almost certainly have more chances to best his friend and fellow championship competitor. Should one fall in Harvick’s favor, it could turn the tide of their rivalry and push him to a second straight championship, while denying Johnson’s quest for a seventh.
Special thanks to NASCAR.com’s Matt Strickert for his statistical analysis.