Kevin Harvick aiming to win race, championship at Homestead

Winner takes all is just fine with Kevin Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing team for the Cup Series finale at Homestead.

Considering the strength of the Championship 4 for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it might take winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 to win the championship. For Kevin Harvick and his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Considering Harvick and company had eight victories on the way to Homestead, they found themselves in an unusually precarious position last week at Phoenix. Harvick took the checkered flag at Texas and should have been in fantastic shape for the penultimate race of the NASCAR Playoffs, but an L1-level penalty involving his car’s spoiler washed away the benefits of the win and docked him enough points to leave the 4 vulnerable at ISM Raceway.

That left Harvick in an unusual position: Just trying to advance instead of going all-out to win, while at the same time watching his three Stewart-Haas Racing teammates, who all advanced to the Round of 8, fall by the wayside. Harvick told FanSided by email that it was a nerve-wracking day all around.

“Last weekend we just tried to stay out of trouble,” Harvick said. “It was tough on the rest of the guys on our team, but we race each week to win, no matter who is on the track alongside us.”

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Because of the Phoenix penalty, Harvick also had to survive the afternoon without crew chief Rodney Childers, who has played a major role in the team’s success in 2018. Fortunately, SHR had a solid backup plan in Tony Gibson, an experienced hand who had been taking it easy since suffering a mini-stroke this summer.

Gibson has been a part of championship-winning teams before, so no one doubted his ability to come in and get the job done — and Harvick also noted that Childers would play his part too, remarking that the “internet works well” between Phoenix and North Carolina after last week’s race. Still, getting one race under their belts together before Homestead was no small thing.

“It is important, Tony brings a ton of experience into our team and is very calm in the pit box and over the radio,” Harvick said. “We feel good heading into Homestead this weekend and we know that every time we show up, we have a shot, and that doesn’t change heading into the Championship 4.”

It’s possible the team may have another edge in their favor as well. All four SHR teams work together with sponsor Mobil 1, which goes beyond just putting its name on the cars and helps develop oils and engine lubricants specifically for the race cars driven by Harvick and his teammates.

Andy Moran, Mobil 1 Motorsports Technology Advisor, also weighed in with thoughts on how his company believed it could help Harvick reach his final goal on Sunday.

“We have worked very closely with SHR and Roush Yates Engines to develop race oils that give SHR competitive advantages over the rest of the teams on the track,” Moran said. “One new oil actually made its debut at Talladega where SHR led 155 laps out of 193. As Greg Zipadelli said, ‘Every time Mobil 1 sends us a new product our race cars go faster, it happens every time.’

“I know the SHR team has the upmost confidence in Mobil 1, our technology and the advantages that we give them on the track. It’s this confidence that allowed us to develop a new race oil so quickly, which delivered great results as you can see.”

Harvick may need the greatest of results in the Ford EcoBoost 400 to bring the championship to Stewart-Haas Racing. The last four years, the winner of the race has also claimed the Cup Series crown, something Harvick knows only too well since he did it himself in 2014.

It would almost be a shame for him not to finish the job this time around too, considering the season the entire organization has had. But he knows what he’ll probably need to do, and unsurprisingly, isn’t phased by the stakes.

“I am racing against three other great drivers for the title, but we are heading to Homestead with the aim of winning the race and the Championship.”