When the checkered flag flew at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway on Sunday afternoon, three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions found themselves without hopes for another trophy, but four drivers found themselves eyeing one.
Their first one.
Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman will head to Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway for next Sunday afternoon’s Ford EcoBoost 400 seeking their first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship trophy in NASCAR’s new version of the Chase.
One of them will earn the coveted title for the first time, since Brad Keselowski won the championship in 2012 driving for Team Penske.
One will rightfully earn that attention, the spotlight, the money, but most of all the respect of being endorsed a champion.
Three others will see the curtain fall on their 2014 season wondering “what if?” However, if there’s to be one denominator between them all, there’s just one thing that best describes it.
They deserve this.
All three drivers have earned attention and recognition throughout the 2014 season. The Chase’s new criteria has paid dividends to some more than others – and when in a year where points weren’t supposed to matter, they did.
That’s the beauty of racing at NASCAR’s top level. You never know what’s going to happen, let alone, what you’re going to get.
Kevin Harvick, in his first year driving for Stewart Haas Racing won Sunday’s 27th annual Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500k at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway. The Bakersfield, California native has been strong all season, but at times where the team needed to perform most, they busted.
Sunday was far from the case. Brilliance on the race track and on pit road sealed the deal for the driver of the No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet SS in a must-win situation.
“We ran about the same way the first time here and came back and the cars have obviously gotten better but we put the same thing underneath it and it had the same amount of speed in practice in it,” said Harvick, the four-time winner in 2014.
“It’s been a nerve-racking week you know because we have had the cars all year to get to where we needed to be. As we got out the gate in Martinsville we kind of had that incident there and got behind but you just never know how it’s going to go. You know, you want to go as far as you can and when you are having a season like this and doing the things that we have done this year you just want to finish it out. I am just really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing.”
2014 hasn’t been easy on Denny Hamlin. A sinus infection forced the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry to sit out a race early in the season at Auto Club (Calf.) Speedway. A potential catastrophe in his championship.
Thankfully, NASCAR allowed the Chesterfield, Virginia native a free pass to keep him contending for a Chase berth. And with a defying win at Talladega, Hamlin secured three Joe Gibbs Racing cars into the Chase, joining teammates Kyle Busch and winless Matt Kenseth, who earned a spot based on his regular season points accumulation.
Struggles in the first round of the Chase threatened to keep the No. 11 team on the sidelines moving forward, but in typical Hamlin fashion, he wasn’t going down without a fight.
Sunday didn’t prove to be much different. After earning his third pole of the season on Friday, Hamlin led the opening 24 laps before a blown tire following the first pit stop of the day – threatened to ruin everything.
Like a predator studying its prey, Hamlin attacked his prey and did it well.
“What a crazy day,” said Hamlin after finishing fifth. “You just think about everything that went on and you’re like, ‘it’s just not meant to be.’ Then you have to just keep fighting and keep fighting. Can’t thank this FedEx Ground crew enough for continuing to just battle. Now we’re in it — have to thank everyone from Coke, Toyota and FedEx for all their support. This is a good week to go to Greenbrier and relax and get ready for a championship weekend in Miami.”
The fight has stretched to one race to go with the 24-time Sprint Cup winner hoping to keep his word to team owner Joe Gibbs and deliver him a Cup championship.
“A lot of confidence because our (Homestead) test went really, really well there,” Hamlin sounded. “We’re going to be the underdogs going up against the 22 (Joey Logano) and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) and the 31 (Ryan Newman), but I can tell you there is no give up. Today is a prime example — look at where we finished after just battling and battling back. Proud of my team. This is redemption and hopefully we’re able to capitalize next week.”
