Kevin Harvick Freaky Fast at Phoenix

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

If there are racetracks that Kevin Harvick expects to be the class of the field, there’s no doubt one of those is Phoenix International Raceway for the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

It’s entirely fitting that the black-and-white paint scheme of Jimmy John’s adorns Harvick’s No. 4 Chevrolet this weekend at Phoenix. While the “Freaky Fast” livery is in place to promote the company’s dedication to high-speed execution and fast delivery of the freshest ingredients possible, when one considers Harvick’s record at the track, there couldn’t be a more fitting description for the driver of the No. 4 Chevy, nor a more appropriate racetrack to have that messaging displayed on the quarterpanels of his racecar.

After all, Phoenix has been the site of four of Harvick’s 23 career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins – a season sweep of the events in 2006, and the November races in 2012 and 2013. In his last seven starts at Phoenix, Harvick has four top-five finishes and has finished outside the top-10 just twice during that span of races.

Harvick’s success at Phoenix hasn’t been limited to the Sprint Cup Series. In fact, in April 2006, on the same weekend that Harvick claimed his first Sprint Cup win at Phoenix, he also won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race. And on November 8, 2002, Harvick scored his first-ever Camping World Truck Series victory to become the fifth driver to win at least one race in each of NASCAR’s three national series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck.

The Bakersfield, Calif., native would like nothing more than to score another win in Sunday’s The Profit on CNBC 500k to record his fifth Sprint Cup win at Phoenix, which would break a tie with Jimmie Johnson and make Harvick the winningest driver at the mile oval. It also would lock Harvick into the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup. With the new 16-driver Sprint Cup championship format, scoring a win will guarantee a driver and his team a berth into the Chase

Under the new format, the top-15 drivers with the most wins over the first 26 races will earn a spot in the Chase. The 16th position will go to the points leader following the Sept. 6 Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway if that driver does not have a victory.

While Harvick and his No. 4 team aim to be leading the points at that time, they’d like to go ahead and score an early win in the regular season, and punch their ticket into the postseason.

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Speedway Digest Staff
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