The Wide World of Dirt

On a gloomy Sunday in March 2011, Kevin Harvick hopped behind the wheel of his #29 Jimmy Johns Chevrolet Impala for the 2011 Auto Club 400.

Rolling off 24th at the 2mi Fontana oval, Harvick had his share of struggles in the Golden State.

His first 10 trips to the world’s fastest oval only brought two top-10s to the #29 bunch while saddling them with five finishes of 25th or worse.

His 10th start at the track was probably his best chance to win in his home state to that point in his career.

Hot off of his Daytona 500 victory the week before, Harvick held second when the final caution was flown, but as the cars began to cool off under yellow, the Bakersfield native recognized he had a flat tire.

Bringing his car down pit road, Harvick relinquished the spot, leaving Matt Kenseth to hold off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to win his first race of the season.

Meanwhile Harvick came home with a disappointing 17th-place finish. Perhaps it was divine retribution for Kenseth giving Kevin the push of the century at Daytona seven days earlier.

The 2007 spring race must’ve shook something loose at RCR because Harvick’s next seven races in SoCal only yielded one finish worse than 14th.

The spring 2010 edition of the Auto Club 500 (yep, they changed the mileage for 2011) saw Harvick miss out on another home state triumph.

The race saw green flag pit stops continue into the closing laps, and a Robby Gordon spin on the frontstretch brought out a caution while Jimmie Johnson was on pit road.

Johnson just barely beat leader and Harvick’s teammate Jeff Burton to the pit exit line to stay on the lead lap and inherit the lead after the remaining lead-lap cars took to the pits under yellow.

Kevin won the race off pit road to line up to Johnson’s outside for the restart, but Jimmie got away from the RCR cars on the short run.

Harvick reeled Jimmie in with less than five laps to go, but he scuffed the wall coming out of turn 4, halting his mounting charge.

Despite getting a runner-up finish early in the season, Happy didn’t hold back in his post-race press conference.

Johnson’s pit stop drew Harvick’s ire. The two other drivers that pit with Johnson both got put a lap down, leaving Johnson as the lone driver to benefit from the caution.

Jimmie was coming off of his fourth consecutive Cup title; Kevin was coming off of his worst points finish since his sophomore season.

Kevin felt like everything was going Jimmie’s way, and he was publicly jealous and pissed off about it. He probably had a right to be.

Though a win that day would be his first at Fontana and in his home state, it also would’ve been his first win in three calendar years.

The Daytona 500 that Kenseth pushed Kevin to? That was Kevin’s most recent victory by early 2010.

Since the introduction of the Car of Tomorrow, Happy Harvick hadn’t visited victory lane in the Cup Series. I’m sure that weighed on him and his team heavily.

Kevin scuffing the wall felt like a starving chimpanzee reaching for banana before the branch splinters off and gives way.

The final 500-mile race in Fontana was indicative of the season Harvick would have as he claimed three victories on his way to a 3rd-place points finish, falling just 41 points short of preventing an unprecedented fifth-straight championship for Jimmie.

With their recent success at the track, 24th was a bit low for where Kevin had become accustomed to running, and with the race losing 50 laps for the 2011 event, this provided for additional concern for his ability to truly contend.

50 laps into the race, Harvick maneuvered his Jimmy Johns Chevy through the midfield and into 12th.

A caution just after the halfway point moved the #29 into the top-5 for the restart where he would remain for virtually the remainder of the event.

A familiar face joined Harvick in the top-5 as the race reached 150 laps.

If you guessed it was the defending champion, you’d be correct! Johnson picked up the pace throughout the race, climbing to 4th as the laps began to wind down.

Harvick and Johnson scraped and clawed their way into contention, but both were simply spectators to a familiar Cup Series program: The Kyle Busch Show.

The JGR driver absolutely walloped the field pretty much from the drop of the green flag, leading 150 of the race’s 200 laps. KFB was easily the class of the field. It appeared no one had anything for him and his backup car pretty much all day.

The leaders made their final green flag stops for fuel with about 30 to go, and the Interstate Batteries machine was legging it out on the field, a win certainly in sight.

That is until the former pilot of the Interstate Batteries machine, Bobby Labonte, spun out of turn 4 with less than 15 to go, disrupting Busch’s magic carpet ride.

While the option to pit was on the table, the top seven cars stayed out, including Harvick, Johnson, and Busch.

Johnson made his way up to 2nd alongside his former HMS teammate for the final restart with nine laps to go; Harvick restarted 5th.

A great launch saw Johnson take the lead briefly, but not before Busch swept back by before coming back to the line.

Kevin risked being engulfed by the pack of cars with fresh tires in his rearview mirror, but a strong run off the top of turn 4 kept him in the hunt.

The first car with new tires was Kasey Kahne, and even with those fresh tires, Harvick was still able to beat the Red Bull Toyota out of turn 2 with seven laps to go to set his sights on Johnson and Busch.

Just as Harvick completed the pass on Kahne, Mike Joy remarked on the broadcast, “Look at Harvick coming! Harvick’s the best closer in the business, and the bigger the track, the faster he seems to be in the final five to eight laps.”

The top two drove wheel-to-wheel coming to the stripe with three to go before Johnson completed the pass coming out of turn 2.

What they didn’t account for was the Freaky Fast Chevy was firmly in their rearview.

Harvick utilized a line that he’d seldom used to track down the leaders: the high side. Sure, his most notable victory at the Cup level (his first win at Atlanta) saw him eke out a win against Jeff Gordon using the high side.

But, outside of that, Harvick was predominantly a bottom feeder, preferring to hug the apron at most tracks.

In fact, running the top against Johnson in 2010 is how Harvick put his car in the fence and failed to capitalize.

Coming off turn 4, Johnson was just a car length ahead of Busch who was just a car length ahead of Harvick. You probably could’ve fit them in one pic on your iPhone 5.

Kyle attempted to take Kevin’s line away in turn 1, but his car lacked the grip necessary to hold the line, ceding the position to the #29.

All that stood between Harvick and victory was Jimmie Johnson.

Knowing the competitor Kevin is, I’m sure he’d replayed the finish of the previous year’s race in his head a thousand times in preparation for this race and this scenario.

It’s almost poetic that he found himself behind Johnson again. It was like fate was giving him a second chance.

Kevin backed up the entry to turn 3 to avoid hitting the wall coming out turn 4, and he succeeded, getting a massive run down the frontstretch to keep himself on Jimmie’s bumper heading into turn 1 for the final time.

Unlike Kyle before him, Jimmie didn’t take away Kevin’s entry into turn 1, opting instead to take the line that he could run his car the fastest. Kevin took the top.

Driving what felt like the race of his career, Harvick ripped the car around the first two turns and pushed the slower Johnson the entire length of the backstretch.

Kevin didn’t lift until he made sure to give Jimmie one final tap into the corner to disrupt the five-time champ’s entry, and it worked.

Jimmie entered turn 3 right below the final seam, giving Kevin just enough time and room to fill the gap between the #48 and the wall.

Just as Jimmie was about to slide up and close the door, Kevin was fully alongside, causing Jimmie to lift ever so slightly and giving the edge to Kevin.

Kevin pulled the car down to the apron of the track after clearing Johnson off turn 4 to end Johnson’s advances and finally claimed that elusive homecoming win.

Mike Joy let the moment breathe before echoing his statement from earlier, “The best closer in the business. Harvick proves it again today.”

To cap it all off, the final lap was the only lap he led the entire race, and really, he only led the final half-mile.

With how Harvick mowed down Johnson and Busch, Jimmie thought the #29 put on tires during the final caution. Sorry bud, Kevin just raced better than you that day.

Busch said his car couldn’t run the top like he wanted on the final run due to his car running too tight.

As soon as Kevin got out of the car in victory lane, he swiftly acknowledged that he should’ve won the year before but gave it away.

Harvick celebrated in victory lane as the broadcast sent it back up to the booth. In reference to Harvick’s tremendous late-race drive, Mike Joy asked the audience for the first time: Where did he come from?

Joy would have to ask himself that very same question the next week at Martinsville when Kevin passed Dale Jr for the lead with less than five to go to win for the second week in a row and again at the Coca-Cola 600 when Kevin scooted by Dale off the final corner for his third victory of the year.

As his career continued, Harvick embraced his reputation as the Closer. The moniker followed him all the way to his first championship in 2014, claiming a win at Phoenix to put himself in the Championship Race.

At Homestead the next week, Harvick used a series of late restarts to get by leader Denny Hamlin to close out the 2014 season with his first Cup.

In his final year of Cup Series racing, maybe Harvick will be able to close a race out in dramatic fashion just one last time.