For one day only, Phoenix International Raceway will change its name to Jeff Gordon Raceway as a tribute to the four-time NASCAR champ’s final season and last race in the Arizona desert.
His name may not be hanging above the gate on race day Sunday, but thanks to a recent run of smashing success, the 1-mile track may as well be Kevin Harvick‘s house.
The dominance of a four-race Phoenix win streak makes Harvick a heavy favorite heading into Sunday’s Quicken Loans Race for Heroes (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the next-to-last race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs. The 312-lap event will whittle the field of title-eligible drivers from eight to four ahead of the Nov. 22 championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Harvick’s status as Phoenix’s stone-cold lock has traction, with Chase rival Kyle Busch proclaiming after last Sunday’s event in Texas: “I do not think it’s a winnable race until Kevin Harvick gets beat.” Only Gordon’s spot among the final four is secure, thanks to his victory at Martinsville.
If Harvick is such a certainty, are the remaining six Chasers vying for a solid points day and hoping for the best? The jury is still out.
“All reigns come to an end,” title contender Brad Keselowski said during a test last month at the 1-mile track. “Every driver has had a track that he dominates on and it changes. Jimmie (Johnson) dominated here for a long time and obviously that’s not been that case as of late. The way you beat somebody or break that domination is you go out, you go to work and you try to do better.”
Harvick’s track history since 2012 is unparalleled. He has scored seven of his 31 Sprint Cup wins at Phoenix and has led more than two-thirds of the laps in his most recent three victories. Last season, Harvick led 264 of 312 laps to springboard into the final race at Homestead, where he roared to his first Sprint Cup crown in the first year of the new-look Chase format.
This season, Harvick sits third in the standings — five rungs up from last year’s cellar-dweller position entering the semifinal race. Despite the potential for reduced urgency from the Stewart-Haas No. 4 camp, Harvick’s rivals aren’t expecting any let-up.
“We look at the points situation and guarantee Harvick winning that race,” Busch said, referencing a Harvick “stranglehold” on Phoenix. “Then you have to figure out who you’re racing after that to know what you have to do in order to point your way through. If we can go out there and win the race, then we will. As far as we’re concerned, that’s how we look at it.”
Four drivers still in the title hunt — Gordon, Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. — participated in an Oct. 14 open test at Phoenix, experimenting with some rules under the 2016 configuration, but keeping the primary focus on preparing for a pivotal race in the Chase. Neither Kyle Busch nor Carl Edwards — title contenders both — attended, but teammate Matt Kenseth gathered extensive data to be shared among Joe Gibbs Racing‘s four-car effort.
Practice, qualifying and the race will tell whether any of the extra rehearsal will make a dent in Harvick’s hot streak, altering the complexion of the Chase. Jimmie Johnson — who’s had his own dominant stretches at Dover and Martinsville over the course of his career — knows it won’t be easy, despite how Harvick has made it look.
“Anybody with a streak at a particular track, you’ve got to show up with realistic expectations but enough swagger knowing it’s a track that’s good for you, then go get it done,” Johnson said after last weekend’s victory at Texas Motor Speedway. “It’s so hard to make it through an entire weekend, make it through an entire race. We saw the flat tires today, mechanical issues, racing issues that can pop up.
“Phoenix is a tight little scrappy race track. The streak with four wins in a row is impressive. That’s not an easy place to get it done.”
