Surprisingly, winning crew chief Rodney Childers, who guided Kevin Harvick to victory in Sunday’s race at Phoenix, said he felt more pressure to win that event than he did entering last year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Somebody asked me what was wrong with me this morning,” Childers said after the race. “I said that I felt more pressure to win this one race at Phoenix than I did to win the race at Homestead.”
At Homestead, Harvick and Childers teamed to win their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, but the expectations this week at Phoenix might have been even greater, given that Harvick was riding a streak of three straight wins at PIR entering the race.
“When you bring him here, I think everybody expects him to win,” Childers said. “I didn’t want it to be my fault if we didn’t. Just proud of everybody, like I said. Just a great effort.”
And Sunday’s victory put Harvick one step closer to his goal of sweeping NASCAR’s West Coast swing. Harvick goes to next Sunday’s race at his “home track” — Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX) — buoyed by victories at Las Vegas and Phoenix, both in dominating fashion.
“When we left Vegas last week, (Harvick) made a point to say, ‘I want to win all three of these West Coast races,’” Childers said. “I think anybody that knows Kevin Harvick, if he puts his head to something, he’s going to try to make it happen.
“These races mean a lot to him. He grew up around here, has a lot of family around here. That’s our goal, for sure.”
Source: Reid Spencer / NASCAR Wire Service
