It’s not often that a driver can double down in NASCAR but Kevin Harvick did just that, winning the Ford EcoBoost 400 as well as the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. This was Harvick’s 28th victory in 502 Cup races, his fifth victory of the season and his first victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Well, I just really don’t know what to even say about how much I appreciate this,” champion Harvick said in Victory Lane. “I’m just really excited. It’s really special for everybody.”
“Been trying for 13 years,” Harvick continued. “I just have to thank Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson for helping me through this week. Jimmie was in my trailer as much as many of my teammates – doing all the things that it takes to tell me what I needed to do today.”
For Harvick, the win and championship was indeed a family affair with wife DeLana and son Keelan in Victory Lane.
“It is surreal,” DeLana Harvick said emotionally. “To come fight for this championship with one of the best group of guys I have ever been around…they did this. They deserve it. They are champions.”
Harvick, a veteran of all three of NASCAR’s national series, is the third driver to win the Cup and Nationwide crowns, joining Bobby Labonte and Brad Keselowski in that achievement. He is also the 30th champion in the 66-year history of the Cup Series.
Team owner Tony Stewart was also celebrating his driver’s win, especially significant after the difficult year personally that he has been through. While this was also the second championship for Stewart-Haas Racing, both Kevin Harvick and his crew chief Rodney Childers won championships for the first time ever.
“It’s great,” Smoke said on ESPN SportsCenter. “That’s why we have a four-car team to make sure we have every opportunity we can to come to Homestead and have a chance to race for a Sprint Cup championship.”
“This is an awesome night for our whole organization and Gene Haas and Kevin and Rodney Childers and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing.”
“This is an unbelievable evening.”
Ryan Newman, who worked his way into the championship contender round with a last lap pass, finished the race in the runner-up position. This was Newman’s fifth top-10 finish at Homestead and his 16th top-10 finish in 2014, again confirming his consistency throughout the season.
“These guys did a really good job,” Newman said. “We had a couple pit stops that kind of put us back, but the guys stepped it up the last couple pit stops and we gained a few spots; gave ourselves a shot.”
“Luke (Lambert, crew chief), I thought made a great call on the two-tire stop, and we got some track position,” Newman continued. “And then when Jeff (Gordon) pitted, that kind of caught me by surprise and gave us the front row.”
“In the end, I’m just so proud of our team. It is disappointing, don’t’ get me wrong, but there’s no point in being a sore loser.”
Brad Keselowski, who had such a strong season, finished third in his self-proclaimed white deuce. This was his second top-10 finish in seven races at Homestead.
“Yeah, it was a heck of a season, not just for me but for all of Team Penske,” Keselowski said. “Certainly a year that we’ll look back on with a lot of pride.”
“I’m kind of wishing it wasn’t over, but we still have some work to do to continue to work and get better. We have to go back and work a little bit harder and find a little more speed and try to keep up with that.”
Kyle Larson officially claimed the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title, having been in that position most of the season. He finished 13th in the race finale and was yet again the highest finishing rookie of the race.
“We were really competitive all season long with the Target team and came really, really close to winning a couple of them,” Larson said. “There was a lot of room on the Kyle Larson bandwagon to start the season. I think a lot of people chose Austin Dillon to win it and I was pretty confident in myself and in my team that we could do it.”
“I knew there would be some ups and downs but I felt like we would be the top contender once we got halfway through the season and we definitely were,” Larson continued. “Really proud of that, proud of the effort everybody has put in on these race cars. We’ve gotten better throughout the season and just is a huge honor to win this title with all the other names that have won it.”
For Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, who were also contending for the championship in addition to Harvick and Newman, it was all about the difficulties on the restarts and in the pits that led to their respective downfall.
Hamlin finished seventh and Logano finished fourth, both unable to claim the championship crown.
“I thought we had a better car than those guys, just I had a bad restart and lost position to the No. 4,” Hamlin said. “Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made the decision to leave us out there on tires trying to do something to get that track position back that I lost on the restart and it just didn’t work out for us.”
“With all of those cautions, it just allowed all of those guys to close back up and it was kind of all she wrote for us,” Hamlin continued. “Sometimes the cautions fall your way and sometimes they don’t. We definitely gave ourselves a shot and things were looking really good for us, but those cautions just really, really hurt us.”
“It was a heck of a race up there,” Logano said. “I screwed up and hit the wall early and we were able to recover then had the mistake on pit road, which didn’t give us enough time to recover from that.”
“It is unfortunate,” Logano continued. “Execution was our strong point all year and we just didn’t do it tonight. For that reason, we finished fourth after I think we scored the most points this whole Chase.”
Congratulations are also due to Chevrolet, who secured yet another manufacturer’s championship. This was their 12th consecutive championship and the 38th time overall that they have won it.
“Winning the Manufacturers’ championship is one of the goals we set at the beginning of every season,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “This championship is the result of great teamwork by the owners, drivers, crew chiefs, crews and technical partners. Special thanks to the Chevrolet powertrain team, along with the engine shops at Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt-Childress Racing for delivering the right combination of power, fuel economy, and reliability throughout the entire season.”
“Congratulations to everyone who has made this special achievement possible for Chevrolet.”
This year needs an asterisk!