NASCAR SATURDAY ADVANCE--ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

 

GM RACING WINSTON CUP ADVANCE; KEVIN HARVICK; BASS PRO SHOPS/MBNA 500; ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY, OCT. 25, 2003; PAGE 1

 

Hampton, Ga., Oct. 25, 2003 - As the NASCAR Winston Cup season winds toward its inevitable end, Kevin Harvick remains steadfast in his role of hunter. His prey? Point leader Matt Kenseth and his first NASCAR Winston Cup driver's championship.

 

Harvick, who will turn 28 in December, is 240 points behind Kenseth in the race for the Winston Cup title. Kenseth has led the points since the Atlanta race in the spring and once held a commanding 436-point lead following the second Dover race. But in a three-race span, he lost more than 40 percent of his point lead to Harvick, who has reeled off five straight top-10 finishes, including a top-five at Dover. "You can start to trace the trails of blood, but we still have a long way to go to find the kill," was how Harvick put it after qualifying at Lowe's Motor Speedway..

 

Asked what he has to do to overtake Kenseth in the four remaining races, Harvick was matter-of-fact: "Just keep doing what we've been doing," he said. "We can't control anything that Matt does. We just have to keep a hold on our own race team and make sure we keep doing the things we've been doing and we'll be fine."

 

Harvick is no stranger to points battles, winning the 2001 NASCAR Busch Series title while taking over Dale Earnhardt's GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo after the latter's tragic death at Daytona. The Bakersfield, Calif. native also won the NASCAR Winston West title in 1998, the late model series championship at Mesa Marin Speedway in his hometown (1993) and seven national go-kart titles.

 

However, racing for the Winston Cup title is just a bit more pressure-filled than any of his previous championships, according to Harvick. "I think there's a little more pressure on the Winston Cup championship, but all in all, it's really just the same stuff we went through."

 

When Kenseth's point lead reached that 436-point plateau, Harvick insisted that the title chase was not over and that if he and his Todd Berrier-led team paid attention to details and continued to string together top-5 and top-10 finishes, then the points would take care of themselves. For the most part, the team has done so, while Kenseth has experienced some of the inevitable troubles that are part and parcel of a 36-race grind.

 
Now that the point lead is a manageable 240 with four races left, Harvick has lost none of his hunger for the final Winston Cup trophy. "Oh, yeah. I'm still as ambitious as ever to get things done and probably more so than I was six months ago," Harvick said with the trademark half-smile he employs when he's on the prowl.

 

The math involved is fairly simple: Harvick trails by 240 points with four races remaining. In order to win the title, Harvick has to score 60 more points per race than does Kenseth. All Kenseth needs to do is average 126 points per race to win the title. To do so, he must finish 12th or better, lead a lap and finish 13th or better or lead the most laps and finish 15th or better in each of the final four events, no matter what Harvick does.

 

On Saturday morning, Harvick put the proof to his quest by clicking off the fastest lap in the first of two Happy Hour practice sessions on Saturday morning. His lap at 189.746 miles per hour was a tick faster than polesitter Ryan Newman's.

 

Behind the leaders, five of the top 10 positions in the points are separated by 65 points, meaning there could be a significant shakeup among those drivers, the majority of whom drive Chevrolet Monte Carlos.

 

Sunday's Bass Pro Shops/MBNA 500 gets under way at 12:30 p.m., with live television coverage from NBC and live radio coverage from the Performance Racing Network.