{"id":17109,"date":"2018-05-08T18:48:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T23:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=17109"},"modified":"2018-05-08T18:48:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T23:48:54","slug":"historic-start-for-harvick-has-stewart-haas-racing-clicking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/08\/historic-start-for-harvick-has-stewart-haas-racing-clicking\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic start for Harvick has Stewart-Haas Racing clicking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

In the hours following Kevin Harvick\u2019s<\/strong> impressive victory at Dover International Speedway<\/strong> on Sunday, his Stewart-Haas Racing<\/strong> team revealed a very philosophic path to not only the No. 4 Ford\u2019s success, but to an organization operating on all cylinders.<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, poses with the trophy after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Harvick\u2019s work in the car \u2013 four wins in the opening 11 races of the season \u2013 isn\u2019t just a hell of a start, but a historical feat that hasn\u2019t been accomplished for 11 years – since Jimmie Johnson won four of the first 11 races of the 2007 season. Yet for all the sporting significance, crew chief Rodney Childers explained that the focus of the entire SHR team isn\u2019t what they\u2019ve done well, but what they need to do well, next week.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fundamental approach, that\u2019s quite obviously served the organization well. No rearview mirrors here \u2013 even if there are a lot of trophies to see in them this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have confidence in the cars and the tools and everything going on, I think the biggest thing is just all the cylinders are clicking right now, and they’re working together,” Childers said Sunday. \u201cThe biggest thing is we haven’t went back and talked about the races that we’ve won. We go back and we talk about how to get better every week, and we build better race cars and they build better engines, and we’ve done better on pit road.<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, takes the checkered flag to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTo keep this going, we’re going to have to get a lot better every single week, and to keep it to where it needs to be when the championship comes around. Like I said, everybody is working hard. All the guys are building great cars, and Kevin is doing a great job here at the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve had the kind of success Harvick and Childers have had, it would be easy to give in to temptation and to feel secure. The No. 4 Jimmy John\u2019s Ford has a series best four wins, won a Busch Pole position [at Talladega] and has led the most laps (741) in Cup competition this season.  As a matter of perspective, Harvick has led a hefty 243 miles more than the season\u2019s current championship leader and three-time race winner Kyle Busch.<\/p>\n

Through the opening 11 races of the season, Harvick has nine finishes of seventh or better \u2013 eight of those nine races, he finished fifth or better.<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, celebrates with a burnout after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The only two times he hasn\u2019t scored a top-seven result \u2013 were because he did not finish the race. His day in the season-opening Daytona 500 (31st-place) was cut short because of a crash. And his 35th-place showing at Auto Club Speedway was the result of a mechanical problem.<\/p>\n

Sunday was a historical day for the SHR team with three of its drivers finishing among the top-five for the first time \u2013 Clint Bowyer was second and Kurt Busch was fifth. And the team\u2019s fourth driver Aric Almirola was 11th.<\/p>\n

Bowyer has already won a race (Martinsville) to essentially earn his Playoff ticket. And the four are ranked in order in the season standings very similar to the order they finished Sunday\u2019s race. Harvick is third in the points \u2013 40 behind leader Kyle Busch. Bowyer is fourth in the standings, followed by Kurt Busch (sixth) and team newcomer Almirola (11th).<\/p>\n

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Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Jimmy John’s Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think [former NFL quarterback] Brett Favre said this in a quote once, is that success is kind of one of the worst things that can happen to you because some guys feel like they’ve got where they need to be and they lose that intensity, and that’s something that I feel like our group is really good about, not losing that focus on the fact that we’re a technology driven sport, and we have to keep pushing all the time to keep finding more things to go faster and be better than we were the week before, and Rodney really hit on it there,” Tony Stewart said Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go back and we celebrate the wins, but instead of looking behind us at what we did, we look forward at what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re trying to do the next week, and that’s something that from the ownership side, for Gene and I, we’re really proud of our group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreg Zipadelli and the aero group and the chassis department and everybody at Roush Yates Engines and Mobil 1, they all work really hard. I mean, it’s just a bunch of people that really have their eye on the prize, so to speak,” Stewart continued. \u201cIt’s days like today, that you can get four cars that are running as well as these four did today, it’s an awesome feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll high five each other at the shop tomorrow, but at the same time, we’re digging in for the next week and trying to get ready for Kansas and trying to do the same thing again next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In the hours following Kevin Harvick\u2019s impressive victory at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, his Stewart-Haas Racing team revealed a very philosophic path to not only the No. 4 Ford\u2019s success, but to an organization operating on all cylinders. Harvick\u2019s work in the car \u2013 four wins in the opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[591,222,95,16],"class_list":["post-17109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-aaa-400-drive-for-autism","tag-dover-international-speedway","tag-kevin-harvick","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/MENCS_Dover_HarvickVL_Trophy_050618.jpg?fit=4208%2C2472","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4rX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17111,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17109\/revisions\/17111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}