Harvicks' team wins truck championship, easing disappointment of Cup season
The NASCAR Nextel Cup season that began in such promising fashion for Kevin Harvick, winning the Daytona 500, didn't live up to his hopes or expectations.
The Richard Childress Racing driver did make it into the 12-man Chase for the championship, but he failed to win another Cup race and wound up 10th in the points - not exactly the stuff of dreams.
But add in six wins and a fourth-place finish while driving a partial Busch Series schedule, as well as a Craftsman Truck championship won for Kevin Harvick Inc. by Ron Hornaday Jr. and the 2007 season doesn't seem so disappointing for Kevin Harvick and wife DeLana, the team's co-owner.
"I've been fortunate to be a part of championships with Kevin, but there's nothing that can quite describe the feeling that you have when it's your own team because we're there every day with these guys and we see how hard they work," DeLana Harvick said.
Hornaday had a season-long battle with Mike Skinner and didn't wrap up the championship until the finale race of the season in Homestead. Kevin Harvick also drove in that race and was among the first to congratulate his driver and longtime friend, pulling alongside his truck on the back straightaway and giving Hornaday a thumbs-up.
It was an emotional moment for Kevin Harvick, who slept on Hornaday's couch for several months when he was trying to make his way into NASCAR.
"To be able to give something back to somebody, I mean, you can't put a price on it," Kevin Harvick said. "I grew up racing on the West Coast with Hornaday and he did so much for me and for my career. It's reward, it's satisfying."
It was the biggest moment yet for KHI, which has entries in both trucks and Busch, which will be called the Nationwide Series next year.
"You know, I tell my people, and DeLana and I talk about this a lot, owning a race team is a lot like owning any other sports franchise, and it's taken us six years to get our truck team to where it's at," said Kevin Harvick, who will turn 32 next month. "A lot of people want to know why your Busch team isn't running as well. Three years ago the truck team was about where the Busch team is. We got the right people in there this year, and from that point all the pieces were in place.
"We employ about 80 people now and to see it start from one truck, a bunch of guys from RCR, and evolve into 70,000 square feet, four race teams, is something that's also very rewarding to be a part of. To build from scratch and see it evolve into a championship-winning organization is very gratifying."
DeLana is also a big part of the growth of their team.
"There are days that I questioned Kevin, 'Why are we doing this?' It's odd because when I'm down, he's not, and when he's down, I'm not," she said. "I think that's been the best part of how we've kind of evolved and made it through this process of building a company. It's moments like this (championship celebration) that you realize why you do it."
So, is Cup in the team's future?
"I think for right now the focus is still driving the Nextel Cup car," Kevin Harvick said. "I enjoy that, I enjoy the Busch Car, I enjoy the Truck, but the competitor in me still likes to sit in the driver's seat and go out and race for wins.
"I'd have been a nervous wreck (at Homestead) sitting up on top of that pit box as an owner.
"And Cup racing can be so not fun, so much of a burden from an owner's side of it," he added. "You see how much Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick and all these guys put in. There's no way right now that I could be as competitive driving and be a part of Nextel Cup teams."
For now, anyway.
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AUSSIE MOVING UP: Marcos Ambrose is moving up in 2008 after becoming the first non-North American driver to finish in the top 10 in one of NASCAR's top three professional series.
The Australian, who finished eighth in the points and was second to David Ragan in a close battle for rookie of the year in the Busch Series, will run the full schedule next year in what is now called the Nationwide Series and will also be entered in 12 Nextel Cup races by the Wood Brothers/JTG team.
"The Busch Series is tough, Cup is another level again," the 31-year-old Ambrose said. "But we've achieved a lot as a team this year and the work going on behind the scenes is great. I'm confident we can achieve some good things in these races.
"Yes, it's a big challenge to run against the biggest names in the sport in my third year over here, but it's what I'm here to do. I've always said that I enjoyed running in Busch races when there were a lot of Cup guys running as well because you had a benchmark and you could compare yourself to them."
The first Cup event for Ambrose will be June 22 on the road course at Sonoma.
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HE SAID IT: "It has just been weird to me. The bad luck we have had, that is the thing. I have never seen us have some of the stupid things that have happened this year. Some of them have been self-inflicted. I have been busted for speeding on pit lane twice this year. That is something, I mean; I have sped twice in eight years. It was just little things here and there, things that just weren't things this team is accustomed to." - Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart commenting on a season in which he won three races and made the Chase, but slumped at the end of the year, finishing a disappointing sixth in the points.
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STATS OF THE WEEK: Jimmie Johnson's second championship season was considerably more impressive than his title run the year before.
Johnson had 24 top-10 finishes in each of his championship years, but last year's stats included five wins and 13 top-five finishes. In 2007, Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet had 10 wins and an impressive 20 top-fives. He also matched the career-best four poles he had in 2002.
In six full seasons in Cup, Johnson has never finished worse than fifth in the standings.
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