CHICAGO, Ill. - Don’t talk to reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick about the Joe Gibbs Racing contingent as favorites to win the Chase.
He doesn’t want to hear it, and he’s not afraid to provide bulletin-board material to the JGR shop.
“I think we’re going to stomp ‘em,” Harvick said during question-and-answer session with reporters on Chase Media Day at The Murphy event space in Chicago. “That’s what I think. Hopefully, they can beat themselves. I don’t know that we’re better than them. I think, for us, it’s all about having the experience.
“It’s really not about having the fastest car at this particular point. It’s about having the experience to be able to go out and handle the emotions of 10 weeks. And I think that, as you go into these 10 weeks, you have to put it all together, and there’s a lot more than racing to handle.”
No one handled the pressure better than Harvick last year. Forced to win the final two races to claim the title, he did so. He’ll begin the next wave of his title defense in Sunday’s MyAFibRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.
A New Experience For Paul Menard
The week leading up to the Chase race has been a novel experience for Paul Menard, who qualified for the 10-race playoff for the first time in his career.
“I’ve never been in this position before, so I’m taking it like I take every week, with a busier week leading up to the event this week, obviously,” Menard said. “Monday was kind of a normal day. Tuesday we went to Martinsville, got a parade and got a key to the city and a bunch of cool stuff (as part of NASCAR’s Chase across North America).
“From there we flew out to Kansas and tested all day yesterday, then turned around and flew back up here last night, and here we are today. So a busier week than usual — different dynamics, for sure.
Menard has been in contention for a Chase spot before, but steadier results throughout this season finally got him into the field.
“Since 2011, going into Richmond, we were in position to make the Chase,” he said. “We had a shot at it points-wise, and obviously, since last year, if you win, you’re in. Points-wise, we were in a good spot in ’11 and ’12 and saw it slip away a lot during the summer.
“There was a lot more consistency this year. We minimized mistakes. When we had a 15th-place car, that’s where we finished and sometimes overachieved a little bit by making some adjustments at the end that helped us. We were close for a few years and could never seal the deal, but we did this year.”
Will The Same Approach Produce Similar Results For Ryan Newman?
In executing his game plan during last year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Ryan Newman failed miserably.
Even so, with a runner-up finish to Kevin Harvick at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Newman came within a half-second of winning the series championship.
“Our approach last year was to win every race,” Newman said Thursday afternoon. “We didn’t win any of ‘em. We came really close at the end.”
Newman enters this year’s Chase with the exact same attitude.
“So, yes, my approach is the same, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to guarantee us to advance past the first round,” said Newman, who hasn’t won a race since he took the checkered flag at Indianapolis in 2013.
As his 51 career poles will attest, Newman historically has been one of the strongest qualifiers in the series, but he hasn’t won a pole since 2013 either. And that’s one area he knows he and his team need to improve, if the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet is going to remain in contention for a title.
“I haven’t won a pole since they went to group qualifying (in 2014) — haven’t really been that close,” Newman said. “I think we were second at Martinsville. I don’t think that I’m due. I don’t think that there’s anything that it owes me.
“I think it’s just a matter of us doing a better job, and that could be the way we do any part of it — the strategy part of it, adjusting the race car, working through our setup package, when to go out, when to do it strategy-wise. There’s a lot more to it than just picking the random draw and saying, ‘OK, it’s your turn.’”
WDUN will have live MRN Radio of the first race in The Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series MyAfibRisk.com 400 from Chicagoland Speedway beginning at 2 pm on 102.9 FM.
