CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kevin Harvick acknowledged Tuesday that he approaches the defense of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship with a wide range of feelings, but intense pressure is not one of them.<br />
<br />
He enjoyed the thrill of winning the title by winning the final two races, when no other results would have led to a championship outcome.<br />
<br />
And winning one title certainly has whetted Harvick's appetite for a second one. The driver of the No. 4 Chevrolet said as much during Tuesday's appearance on the Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR Media Tour at the Charlotte Convention Center.<br />
<br />
Dealing with the stress of a title defense, however, isn't a major concern for the first-time champion. In fact, Harvick faced far more pressure last year after he jumped ship at Richard Childress Racing and joined a new team at Stewart-Haas Racing with new crew chief Rodney Childers.<br />
<br />
"There's way less pressure," Harvick said of the upcoming season. "Coming into this situation last year, I was pretty nervous. It may not have shown through, but there's just so many questions in your head that (it's not) a very comfortable situation.<br />
<br />
"But I didn't want to be comfortable. I wanted to experience what we experienced last year, and sometimes you have to make some bold or hard decisions in order to make things like this happen."<br />
<br />
If Harvick moved outside his comfort level with the change of scene in 2014, the championship alleviated any doubts he might have had.<br />
<br />
"I'm as comfortable as I've ever been," he said. "I feel like we're way better prepared than we were going into the season last year. ... For me, I feel as comfortable as I ever have, just for the fact you don't have those expectations to live up to. You lived up to them. You know how to do that."<br />
<br />
That doesn't mean Harvick believes a successful defense will be easy to accomplish.<br />
<br />
"I think it's definitely hard to win, just because you have to have all 10 weeks (of the Chase) line up, but I don't necessarily know that it's any different than it was before, other than the Homestead element really being the one race where you have to make it happen. Winning it once, it obviously took me 14 years."<br />
<br />
And Harvick thinks his victory reinforced a blueprint for making and winning the Chase.<br />
<br />
"I think everybody figured out that winning the race and being aggressive is the most preferable method in order to win the championship and put yourself in the championship," Harvick said.<br />
<br />
"I think you're going to see that carry over very early in the season, because the earlier you can win, the more advantages that you have, because you can continuously take chances to try to keep winning as you go through the season and also give yourself time to prepare for the Chase."<br />
<br />
Harvick aside, the rest of the Stewart-Haas cars failed to find the consistent speed that typified the No. 4 car's effort last season. But owner/driver Tony Stewart says he feels better physically than he has since the sprint car accident that sidelined him in August 2013, and he and crew chief Chad Johnston have developed a familiarity that should make a difference on the track.<br />
<br />
There's obvious chemistry between Kurt Busch and crew chief Tony Gibson, a combination that finished the season on a positive note after their pairing late in the season. Danica Patrick expects to continue her improvement with crew chief Daniel Knost on her pit box.<br />
<br />
Patrick showed considerable speed at certain times during the 2014 season, notably at Kansas and Atlanta, though her 28th-place points finish didn't reflect the gains she made from the previous year, when she was 27th in the final standings.<br />
<br />
"I've always said all along that it's about progress, and it still is," Patrick asserted. "As long as you keep progressing, you're going to get to the top. I've had improvements in the areas I wanted them, and now it's about making those improvements much more consistent."=
