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Harvick's return to Victory Lane a sign of things to come?

The Closer is back.

Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

NASCAR Media

Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet takes the win
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates with Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet celebrates with Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Race winner Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Rodney Childers, crew chief for Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

It had been 18 races since Kevin Harvick’s last Sprint Cup victory, at Phoenix in March, but you couldn't tell there had ever been a drought, based on the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team's dominating victory on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. 

Harvick started 24th on the half-mile track — the farthest back a victor has battled through the field to win at Thunder Valley since Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to Victory Lane from 30th in 2004. 

We've been able to compete with the Gibbs cars, and that's what you compare yourself to every time you come down pit road

Rodney Childers, No. 4 crew chief

Although Kyle Busch controlled the early stages of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, which was delayed more than 20 hours because of rain, the No. 18 Toyota crashed after leading 256 of the first 357 laps. And Harvick was there to capitalize. He earned the first Bristol win for SHR and his second at the half-mile track en route to his 33rd career Cup victory. 

Don't beat yourself

Harvick said the team’s achievement was not about beating Joe Gibbs Racing, whose Toyotas, along with affiliated Furniture Row entry driven by Martin Truex Jr., have won 11 of this season’s 23 races. The key, Harvick said, was avoiding the sorts of critical mistakes that had kept the team winless since Phoenix.

“Today we didn't beat ourselves, and that's what we've been talking about,” Harvick said. “The performance of our race cars will be there. We've done a good job in getting pit road where it needed to be. Whether it's been me or whatever the situation has been, we've had some circumstances that hadn't worked out. We've had a lot of bad luck. We've had some things that we've done wrong.

“But the performance hasn't really been an issue.  Yeah, there's been a couple racetracks where they beat us, but I don't think I could count more than three races that I thought that we wouldn't have been in contention to win. We're going to block all that out. You know, it's us against us. That's how we're going to treat it, and if that's not good enough, then we'll go back to the drawing board next year.”

Putting all the pieces together for the Chase

Harvick, who has led the standings for 17 of 23 races, believes his team has a solid plan moving forward. With the exception of crashes at Daytona in July and the Watkins Glen earlier this month, Harvick has been consistent. He’s posted 10 top fives and 18 top10s. He’s comfortable with where his cars are and the adjustments the team has made to improve performance since the season started. 

“There's just a lot going on,” Harvick said. “I think hopefully this win and everything getting ready to start with the Chase is going to put all the pieces together, and I think everybody has been working hard to do that.”

Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, says Bristol has been circled on his calendar for quite some time, and he was understandably ecstatic after his first Thunder Valley win. Although the Toyota teams have been solid this season, Childers believes the SHR cars are on equal footing. 

However, one area where they’ve been getting beaten this season is on pit road. Over the last month, changes were made to the pit crew. On Sunday, when Childers sensed the crew was starting to feel the heat, he immediately addressed the situation.

“We've been able to compete with the Gibbs cars, and that's what you compare yourself to every time you come down pit road, and like Kevin said earlier, it's about not beating yourself,” Childers told Motorsport.com. “You know, as the night was going on and we became the dominant car and started to lead the race, that's when everybody's nerves get up, and we started having mistakes. 

“I walked to the bathroom during that one caution after that and just thought about what's the right thing to do. Got them all together behind the pit box, which I don't normally do. Sometimes people take that the wrong way, and it makes things worse. But they all looked me in the eye, and I could tell as soon as I turned around that they were ready to do this, and we were going to win a race tonight.  

“I got back on the pit box and told my engineer Dax (Gerringer) that they're going to be good to go from now on, and next time we come down pit road it was great. It's all about confidence. This win will mean a lot to those guys, and believing in themselves and not getting nervous when the time comes, and that's really what's important.”

Perfect timing 

The win couldn’t have come at a better time for Harvick either. With three races remaining before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sunday’s win could be the catalyst that fuels the 2014 championship team to its second title.        

“It's all about confidence, and it's all about momentum,” Harvick said. “I think we've been confident in our cars, just not confident in closing everything out, from myself, to is it ever really going to happen again, and I think that goes away tonight, and you get back into that ‑‑ we know we have fast cars, knowing that you can win again, and it kind of happened that way for us in 2014 at Charlotte when we won, and it just kind of reinstilled that confidence of everything we know we can do, and it finally all just came together tonight.  

“We're three weeks from the end of the regular season, and I don't think it could have come together at a better time. I'm looking forward to going to the next few weeks and really getting started in Chicago with our test (on Tuesday)…A lot to be learned there.

“Confidence and momentum go a long ways in racing, baseball, football, basketball, whatever it is, and you just want to ride the wave.”

NOTE: Harvick came from the rear of the field in his 2005 Bristol win after his team was penalized for unapproved adjustments once the car was impounded.

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