Chase Race No. 10: Harvick, Childers Wins First Title in First Year at SHR

Kevin Harvick after winning the race and the 2014 title in Homestead
(Photo: Google Images)

After 36 races, five wins, 21 top tens and one season at Stewart-Haas Racing, Kevin Harvick can now add one championship to his 2014 resume.

NASCAR reinvented the Chase for the Sprint Cup this season to make winning more of a factor. And while it didn't necessarily seem that way early on in the Chase, the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway proved to be the winner take all battle that Brian France intended to create.

Three of the four Chasers, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Harvick started near the front of the field, while the fourth Musketeer, Ryan Newman, rolled off from 21st spot. Initially it seemed as if Newman's title run had been something of a fluke, having not won a race all season, yet still being able to run for the title.

But as the event progressed, the race for the title became tighter and NASCAR saw its vision for a one race, winner take all finale come to fruition. Harvick, Logano, Newman and Hamlin all made their way to the front and, right up until Logano's car fell off the jack on a pit stop and he lost track position late, any one of these four could have been the champion. On the final restart, it was Harvick and Newman because on the previous restart, Hamlin spun his tires and lost a few spots.

The Newman-Harvick dynamic was also interesting. Harvick took sponsor Budweiser and left Richard Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of last season, while Newman was forced out of SHR and found a home replacing Jeff Burton in the No. 31 Caterpillar car at RCR. Both drivers believed that these new teams would offer them a better shot at a title and, right up until the Ford 400 at Homestead, I at least believed that was just the stereotypical, PR driven response any driver says when they land at a new team.

Kevin Harvick poses with son Keelan after the race (Photo: Google Images)

But Newman and Harvick apparently weren't kidding because they were the two who would up fighting it out  for the title. Newman had a shot to maybe wiggle Harvick a little bit coming into turn three heading for the white flag, but other than that, he couldn't get close enough to Harvick's No. 4 to move it out of the groove.

This was also Rodney Childers first title as a crew chief as well. I have long maintained he is the most underrated crew chief in the garage ever since he scored his first two career wins with driver David Reutimann in the No. 00 car, he has proven he knows what it takes to build winning race cars on a weekly basis.

This duo also provided a bright spot in a fairly dismal year at SHR. Danica Patrick had another sub par year, owner Tony Stewart was embroiled in a legal battle after killing Kevin Ward Jr at an upstate New York dirt track the weekend of Watkins Glen, and Kurt Busch was recently suspected of beating his now ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll the weekend of the fall Dover race. Meanwhile Harvick rattled off 5 wins and captured his first Sprint Cup crown and SHR's second.

If the 2014 season proved anything, its that anything can, and probably will happen. The revamped Chase for the Cup format might have a few bugs in it still (maybe nix the eliminations and keep the winner take all finale for the top four in points?), but for the most part, it proved to be very exciting. To quote ESPN's Allen Bestwick after Harvick took the checkers, "That's how you crown a racing champion."

Here's to crowning a 2015 champion in exactly the same way when next November rolls around. If 2014 was this exciting, who knows what next season holds.