RELATED: Series standings | Chase Grid | Clinching scenarios for Phoenix
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Shared setups, shared strategies and ultimately shared goals. There are benefits to teamwork, especially when your name is Kurt Busch, your teammate is Kevin Harvick, and the venue is Phoenix International Raceway, a track where Harvick holds a four-race lock on Victory Lane.
But how far do the graces of teamwork extend, especially when every position on the track is critical in the next-to-last race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs? The Stewart-Haas Racing teammates aim to find out, and a dream sequence for placing both of the organization’s cars into the title-eligible final four has already captured Busch’s fancy.
“For Kevin, he has his agenda and for us, we have our agenda,” Busch said Friday before opening Sprint Cup practice at the 1-mile oval. “The perfect day for Stewart-Haas Racing would be for the 41 car to win and for Kevin Harvick to finish second. That would allow both of us to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead. We hope we are in that position.”
Three teams have the opportunity for the “perfect day” scenario of a two-pronged championship effort after Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix, (which is being renamed Jeff Gordon Raceway for the day, 2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) — the SHR duo of Harvick and Busch, the Team Penske twosome of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, and the remaining Joe Gibbs Racing contingent of Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards. With Jeff Gordon — Hendrick Motorsports‘ lone remaining title hopeful — already reserving a berth among the championship four, only one team (if any) will be able to move both its drivers forward, with only so much water that can fit into the funnel as the title field thins from eight to four.
While overarching team goals play a factor, Harvick said Friday that his focus was singular for now.
“I haven’t really thought about any of that stuff to be honest with you,” Harvick said, dismissing the various clinching scenarios. “The only thing I’ve thought about this week was winning this race.”
No driver has as much winning history to lean on within his team’s framework as Busch. Harvick’s run of four straight victories is part of a portfolio of seven career wins at the flat track in the Arizona desert.
RELATED: Can anyone break Harvick’s hold on Phoenix?
Busch lauded Harvick’s “keen sense” of navigating Phoenix’s oblong layout and his ability to find advantages in running certain lines through the slightly banked corners. But some of the success can be chalked up to handling characteristics, which Busch’s No. 41 outfit hopes to mimic by running a similar setup to Harvick’s No. 4.
“There are always little numbers that get lost in translation, but for us we have been very good at sharing information and having things equal across the board,” Busch said. “I’m looking forward to the race this weekend and trying to go against a teammate that is the fastest car at this track for a shot at the championship. There couldn’t be a better feeling.”
Busch was nearly the caboose of a 1-2 SHR day here in March before a late-race pit call left him to settle for a fifth-place result. Returning to Phoenix this weekend with the stakes much higher, Busch knows a top-five finish likely won’t be enough to punch his ticket for the championship Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Busch’s seventh-place effort last weekend at Texas helped soothe some of the damage from a crash-related 34th at Martinsville. But facing a 28-point deficit below the Chase cut line makes winning even more crucial in the second year of the postseason’s elimination format.
Leaning on Harvick may help Busch’s cause, but it may also have to come at the expense of his teammate’s Phoenix dominance.
“In years past before this format, consistency was still key,” Busch said. “Consistency is key now, but the problem is that you have to get top fives. You have to win. I mean Brad Keselowski did everything right last week except win. That is what we have to do this week, we have to win. A top-five isn’t going to be good enough. Where a lot of people think we did good last week by finishing seventh, and I was like ‘thank you, but what did it do for us?’ Absolutely nothing. And so you have to go and win. That is what this format demands you do this time of year.”