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No one should be surprised at Kevin Harvick's dominating win at Phoenix on Sunday.
With the victory, his fifth at the one-mile oval, Harvick becomes the winningest driver at the facility.
And he did it in only his second points' race with his new team Stewart-Haas Racing after 13-year tenure with Richard Childress Racing.
Just like Matt Kenseth, went on a tear last year leaving Roush Fenway Racing for Joe Gibbs Racing winning seven races and finishing second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, the move has fired up the driver known as “Happy”.
“Man, this just solidifies so many things and so many decisions," said Harvick.
"It's been so much work with all the time and effort that these guys have put in, but what a race car. Rodney Childers (his new crew chief) has just done a phenomenal job of putting this team together. These guys all want to win. That's why they came here. That's why I came here, too.”
Team co-owner, Gene Haas, wasn't surprised about overcoming skeptics when his and Tony Stewart's team went from two cars to four cars.
“No, this is phenomenal,” Haas, said. “I think there was a lot of skepticism last year about what myself and Tony (Stewart), what we were up to. Was there a lot of madness to this?” Haas added rhetorically.
In the end it comes down to the full support of the owners for their drivers.
“Like Gene said, there's been a lot of skepticism as we've gone through the off season,” Harvick explained. “For me, honestly you hear it, I paid attention to it during the off season obviously, but as we've gone through the first few weeks, you try to put yourself in your own little world.
“Last three days I've sat in my hotel room from about from about 7:30pm on and said, 'How are we going to mess this up, as we trying to go through everything that we could do wrong?' Rodney is probably annoyed with me as I've come in the hauler and asked about five thousand questions about probably the dumbest things he's ever heard of.
“All in all, Gene has given us every resource that you can imagine. Tony (Stewart) has been just very supportive of whatever we wanted to do. Rodney has put together a group of guys that believes in what we're doing.”
It's early days in the Harvick SHR mix; but like Kenseth both drivers put in long careers with contending teams only to leave and reach success quickly with new teams.
If Harvick can replicate Kenseth's 2013 season with JGR he'll be proof that breaking up isn't so hard to do.
With the victory, his fifth at the one-mile oval, Harvick becomes the winningest driver at the facility.
And he did it in only his second points' race with his new team Stewart-Haas Racing after 13-year tenure with Richard Childress Racing.
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| Kevin Harvick leads the pack in Phoenix. (Photo: Getty Images/NASCAR) |
Just like Matt Kenseth, went on a tear last year leaving Roush Fenway Racing for Joe Gibbs Racing winning seven races and finishing second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, the move has fired up the driver known as “Happy”.
“Man, this just solidifies so many things and so many decisions," said Harvick.
"It's been so much work with all the time and effort that these guys have put in, but what a race car. Rodney Childers (his new crew chief) has just done a phenomenal job of putting this team together. These guys all want to win. That's why they came here. That's why I came here, too.”
Team co-owner, Gene Haas, wasn't surprised about overcoming skeptics when his and Tony Stewart's team went from two cars to four cars.
“No, this is phenomenal,” Haas, said. “I think there was a lot of skepticism last year about what myself and Tony (Stewart), what we were up to. Was there a lot of madness to this?” Haas added rhetorically.
In the end it comes down to the full support of the owners for their drivers.
“Like Gene said, there's been a lot of skepticism as we've gone through the off season,” Harvick explained. “For me, honestly you hear it, I paid attention to it during the off season obviously, but as we've gone through the first few weeks, you try to put yourself in your own little world.
“Last three days I've sat in my hotel room from about from about 7:30pm on and said, 'How are we going to mess this up, as we trying to go through everything that we could do wrong?' Rodney is probably annoyed with me as I've come in the hauler and asked about five thousand questions about probably the dumbest things he's ever heard of.
“All in all, Gene has given us every resource that you can imagine. Tony (Stewart) has been just very supportive of whatever we wanted to do. Rodney has put together a group of guys that believes in what we're doing.”
It's early days in the Harvick SHR mix; but like Kenseth both drivers put in long careers with contending teams only to leave and reach success quickly with new teams.
If Harvick can replicate Kenseth's 2013 season with JGR he'll be proof that breaking up isn't so hard to do.