AVONDALE, Ariz. — Different team, same result.
Kevin Harvick, who won the November 2013 race at Phoenix International Raceway in his next-to-last race with Richard Childress Racing, returned to the track with new bosses and a new team last weekend.
The cars were new, too, because of a new aerodynamic package.
So although Harvick won Sunday at the same track where he had won about four months ago, there wasn’t much that could be considered the same.
“You look at the springs, ride heights, shocks, pieces and parts (we used) — one is in Arizona and one is in North Carolina,” Harvick said about the difference in setups. “They're so far different, you wouldn't even recognize the two setups to be in the same spot in victory lane.
“It's just a different vibe and different feeling. Nothing is really the same compared to what it was in the fall.”
While Harvick could boast similar speed and a great feel for the 1-mile track, he didn’t have the awkwardness of four months ago when he was finishing out his 13-year tenure with RCR. Harvick had decided in October 2012 that 2013 would be his last year at RCR and he would go drive for friend Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.
He won at Phoenix in 2012 on the same weekend that news of his pending move leaked out and the 2013 win at Phoenix came two weeks after Harvick had blasted the grandsons of team owner Richard Childress, making for an awkward postrace news conference.
There was nothing awkward Sunday night as Harvick was much more jovial and relaxed.
“I just enjoy racing the cars and being around the people and seeing the enthusiasm that comes with everything,” Harvick said. “It doesn't seem like a job to everybody. It seems like everybody wants to be here and is having fun doing it.
“It's just a different atmosphere for me. The enthusiasm is just through the roof.”
The enthusiasm at SHR can be attributed to several things. Stewart is back after breaking his leg last August. Kurt Busch has replaced Ryan Newman, giving the team another former Cup champion.
And then there’s Harvick, who left an organization where he had finished third in points in three of the last four years but wasn’t satisfied with his team's performance. Harvick hand-picked crew chief Rodney Childers from Michael Waltrip Racing and the two have bonded quickly. Childers put together an entirely new crew to work with Harvick.
They were strong starting in December at the NASCAR test in Charlotte.
“I have to admit, I was on top of the truck ready to puke before Kevin made the first lap at Charlotte,” Childers said. “(I was) thinking, ‘This is either going to be really good or really, really bad.’ … For me it's been adrenaline and confidence that we can do this, that we will.”
Harvick was thinking after just a couple of laps that he had made the right decision. Those thoughts haven’t changed and just two races into 2014, he is a winner.
The team apparently made a setup mistake that cost them in qualifying — a move that might have made Harvick furious in the past — but he took it in stride.
“We've had some hiccups throughout the first week,” Harvick said. “I felt like we were going to have those. I think everybody anticipated those. Nobody has pointed fingers and said it's this guy's fault or that guy's fault. It's, ‘What do we need to fix that or this to try to make that better?’
“I think as you go through time, the sky's the limit for this team because everybody is still trying to learn each other's names let alone what's going on with the racecar.”
And Harvick is learning something about his co-owner.
“I sat at a roulette wheel with Tony in Vegas about four weeks ago — I learned he's just short of Rain Man,” Harvick said. “He doesn't say anything. He sits there and listens to everything you say, takes all these things in.
“I know I'm going to say something and he's going to remember it four, five, six weeks down the road, ‘Remember back in this meeting when you said this, why do you think this today?’”
Stewart also isn’t treating Harvick as much as a newcomer as a partner. Harvick doesn't hesitate to say what he thinks — not that he ever has — but feels as if he has a more welcoming listener than in the past.
“He expects me and Rodney to help lead the charge on the competition side as to what needs to be the direction,” Harvick said. “When he basically said that, it's like, right off the bat, I felt comfortable speaking my mind, 'Let's do this. It gives these guys a lot of leeway to do the same thing.'”
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