By Mike Finney

DOVER — Over the first half of Kevin Harvick’s career, he was never really one of the drivers mentioned when it came to listing the favorites for who was going to win a Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway.

That apparently all changed when Harvick joined forces with crew chief Rodney Childers for the inception of Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

Since then, Harvick has found resounding success at the racetrack known as the Monster Mile, driving to three victories at the high-banked, one-mile concrete oval, including the second race of last summer’s Dover doubleheader — the last race at the track.

When the stars of the Cup Series crank up their engines for the Drydene 400 at Dover on Sunday, one can be rest assured that Harvick will be among the favorites to wind up in victory lane at the end of the day.

“Dover is one of those racetracks where if we don’t win, we feel like we’ve let everybody down,” said Harvick, who led the Cup Series with nine wins last season. “It’s been a great racetrack for us, and we’ve had some really dumb luck there with lug nuts and valve stems, but outside of those few races, it’s been a very successful racetrack for us.

“I think that was Rodney’s (Childers, crew chief) goal when we got to Stewart-Hass Racing (in 2014), because he loved racing at Dover, and it was always my worst racetrack when I was at RCR (Richard Childress Racing).”

Harvick added, “Ever since the very first day that we’ve gone to Dover at Stewart-Haas Racing, it’s been a good racetrack for us, and we’ve run well.”

Harvick has developed a knack for creating positives out of difficult circumstances throughout his career.

One just has to look back to 2001, when the death of legendary Dale Earnhardt Sr. on the last lap of the season-opening Daytona 500 changed Harvick’s life forever, as car owner Richard Childress tapped the young driver to take over Earnhardt’s seat for his first Cup race the following week at Rockingham.

Then, on March 11, 2001, Harvick provided a much-needed uplift to a still-mourning NASCAR community when he won the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, nipping Jeff Gordon at the checkered flag only three weeks after Earnhardt’s death.

And while he might not have been very comfortable on the high banks of the Monster Mile earlier in his career, he is apparently making up for lost time.

“It’s a racetrack where you have to have your hands gripping on the steering wheel and gritting your teeth all at the same time in order to go fast every single lap,” Harvick said, of Dover. “When your car’s off there’s just nowhere to hide. You wind up going a lap down, probably two laps down, because you pit early and then the caution comes out.

“It’s a beast of a racetrack and there’s a reason they call it the ‘Monster Mile’ because you can get yourself in trouble really quick.”

Harvick, the 2014 Cup Series champion, has yet to win a race this season but appears to be gaining momentum heading into Dover.
He is riding a streak of three straight top-10 finishes and has totaled nine top-10s in 12 races this year with a best finish of second two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway.

No other active Cup Series driver has led more laps at Dover than Harvick. His 1,666 laps led are 453 more laps than next best Kurt Busch. No other active driver has cracked the 1,000 laps led mark at Dover.

Harvick has only failed to finish one race at Dover back in 2006, and it wasn’t even a crash, he was the victim of an engine failure.

That’s why he is confident he will contend on Sunday and hopefully bring his kids home one of the famous Monster trophies that goes to winners at Dover.

“My kids love Miles,” Harvick said, referring to the mascot for the speedway. “There are so many racetracks that have terrible trophies — the plastic trophies — I feel like they smash up and I’ll take them home and (son) Keelan will be like, ‘Hey dad, that’s a terrible trophy.’

“That is not the case at Dover. They have a very unique trophy that is easily known as to what racetrack it came from and that’s what every racetrack needs.”

Harvick has 58 career wins at NASCAR’s top level, including victories in the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500.

While he knows he has his work cut out for him, he said he is ready for the challenge the Monster Mile is sure to offer on Sunday afternoon.

“Dover is just one of those grind-it-out-type of races,” said Harvick. “The harder you can drive it and the more aggressive you can be lap after lap by being more aggressive and consistent, you can grind a lot of them (other drivers) into the ground there just because 400 laps around Dover, staying focused, and being able to grind away with your racecar that hard for that long is tough mentally and physically.

“It’s a fun race.”