Nascar Race Today

Kevin Harvick promised he knew what he was doing when he left Richard Childress Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing after last season.

He proved it Sunday, dominating the Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway to win in just his second start with his new team.

MORE: Danica confronts Allgaier | Earnhardt second | Winners & Losers | Results

Harvick, driving the No. 4 car after wheeling RCR's No. 29 for 13 years, dominated most of the race, leading 224 of 312 laps, and repeatedly pulling away on restarts. He pulled away from Earnhardt and Logano with 22 laps remaining and again with nine laps left. Both Earnhardt and Logano tried to make a move on Harvick on the final restart but could not get to his bumper.

Earnhardt finished second a week after winning the Daytona 500 for the best start of his career to take the early points lead. Brad Keselowski finished third followed by Logano, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.

PHOTOS: Phoenix race

The win was Harvick's fifth at Phoenix and second in a row. He won the November race at Phoenix last year before leaving RCR to join Stewart-Haas this year.

Harvick won four races last year and had finished third in points three of the last four years, but signed with Stewart-Haas at the end of the 2012 season and raced with RCR last year knowing that he would be leaving at the end of the year. He wasted no time proving he may have made the right move. He was racing for the lead at Daytona before wrecking on the final lap and finishing 13th. At Phoenix, he had the fastest car all weekend in race trim.

"This solidifies so many things, so many decisions," Harvick told Fox in victory lane. "I've got to thank all the guys at Stewart-Haas. What a racecar."

Harvick repeatedly held off Logano and Earnhardt on restarts. He was worried about Logano, he said, but pulled away easily on the final green flag.

"The 22 (Logano) was able to time his restarts there and I knew what was going to happen, he was going to take a shot down low. I tried to do the best I could," Harvick said.

Logano said he had nothing for Harvick's No. 4.

"The back of Kevin's car says 'freaky fast,' and they weren't lying. He was freaky fast because he drove away from me all day," Logano said. "... I went to school behind him and learned a little but I didn't have enough to beat him."

Neither did Earnhardt, who ran second to Harvick for most of the race.

"We got to running side by side on that final restart and let Kevin get a little too far out," Earnhardt said. "I thought we would run him down the last few laps but he was just too far away.

"It was a great job by Kevin and that whole team. All week they were fast. We worked on our car and got a little help from my teammates and got it better and better and ended up where I thought we should have finished. We were a little faster at the end but they were stellar, impressive as heck all weekend."

Logano tried to dive beneath Earnhardt for second on the final restart, but couldn't pull off the move and wound up losing third to Keselowski, his Team Penske teammate.

"I tried really hard. With the new points structure, a win means so much to get you into the Chase," Logano said. "Were were sitting there in third and my restarts were real good all day. I wasn't sure I had enough to get three-wide on that last restart, but I was like, 'go for it, what do you have to lose, third-place doesn't mean anything.'"

Harvick and Earnhardt now have a leg up on the competition to make the Chase under NASCAR's new win-based playoff system. With early-season wins, they both are practically assured of making the Chase under the new system, under which 16 drivers qualify by winning races.

After two races, Earnhardt leads the standings by six points over Keselowski, followed by Gordon, Harvick, Johnson and Logano.

Logano, who started on the front row alongside Keselowski, led 71 laps early but could not hold off Harvick, who took the lead for the first time on Lap 74 and took control.

Danica Patrick had another miserable day after a hard crash in the season-opening Daytona 500. Patrick was running 24th when she got together with rookie Justain Allgier on Lap 171. Patrick was able to continue after repairs to her car, but 15 laps later, she wrecked again, spinning out on her own.

"Just sad. I'm so sorry, God," Patrick told her crew after the second spin. "All we have for luck is bad."

Patrick was upset with Allgaier after the race and approached him in the garage, where she was seen yelling at him.

Kurt Busch also had problems for the second week in a row. After spinning late and finishing 21st at Daytona, Busch dropped a cylinder in the middle of the race and finally blew an engine with 16 laps remaining.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Danica Patrick wrecked just past the halfway point of the Sprint Cup race at Phoenix Sunday and her frustration apparently didn't wane over the final half of the race.

Patrick, angry at Justin Allgaier for contact on Lap 171, made a beeline for Allgaier after the race. They talked behind Allgaier's car in the cramped garage for three or four minutes. It appeared to be a somewhat animated, tense conversation. Patrick then left Phoenix International Raceway without comment.

MORE: Phoenix photos | Phoenix results | Danica wrecks twice | Harvick wins

"She was just upset because she got involved in the crash that we had," Allgaier said. "She said she's been through this and that she felt like I needed to settle down at that point.

"I explained my position on why everything happened. I think she understood where I was coming from. It doesn't fix either one of our racecars; it doesn't fix either one of our days."

Patrick was furious with Allgaier at the time of the accident, telling her team on her in-car radio: "The damn 51 was driving like a complete jackass. I'm not at all surprised we wrecked."

PHOTOS: Danica the showgirl | The other Danica

Less than 20 laps after the accident, Patrick had a tire go down and wrecked again. She finished five laps down in 36th; Allgaier, a Cup rookie, ended up three laps down in 30th.

"I tried to leave enough room for them to not have to jam on the brakes and not get wrecked from behind and obviously wasn't anticipating the inside row checking up as much as they did," Allgaier said.

"We went into the corner and went to the outside and passed her and the 34 (of David Ragan) and got by both of them and was just trying to get back in line and get going and unfortunately the end result is what it is."

Patrick issued a statement through her team spokesmen after the race.

"It's tough," Patrick said in a statement. "That's two weeks in a row we've had good cars and nothing to show for it. The car was good all day, we just needed track position. I'm starting to think if we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. The GoDaddy guys built me a great car for the second week in a row. I hate it for them and I hate it for GoDaddy. This is obviously an important race for them. Hopefully things turn around in Las Vegas."

Having crashed in back-to-back races to open the 2014 seasoan leaves Patrick 41st in owner points after two races. After the third race of the season, 2014 owner points are used to help determine the field each week, determining the final seven spots in the field with the top 36 in qualifying getting in on speed. Another bad race and Patrick could be in danger of missing races.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will travel to Las Vegas this weekend for the Kolbalt Tools 400.

This will be the first race of the season on the 1.5-mile tri-oval race tracks. Since the majority of the races are held on this type of race track, Sunday's race will give fantasy NASCAR players a good indication of who the drivers to beat will be in 2014.

Fantasy NASCAR teams in the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game will get a chance to cheat this week. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will have an extra practice session at Las Vegas Thursday. It would be smart for fantasy players to check out the practice speeds before their Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing lineups must be selected Friday morning.

The strategy for Fantasy Live at Daytona was to select drivers who started in the back who could move to the front. Last week at Phoenix, the strategy was to select drivers who started up front and could lead many laps. This week is a combination of those strategies.

Pick two drivers starting in the back half of the field with an opportunity to move to the front and two drivers who start up front with an opportunity to lead many laps. The last driver should be the best possible driver for the money left for your team.

Here are my top 30 drivers for the race this weekend at Las Vegas.

1. Jimmie Johnson: He is the best choice in the field this week. He has four wins at Las Vegas and a series-best average finishing position of 9.5. Johnson also has a series-best driver rating of 112.3. He should be on every fantasy team this week.

2. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth is the defending race winner at Las Vegas. He was the best driver on 1.5-mile race tracks last season, and he should be strong again Sunday. Kenseth has looked good this season but not as strong as he was in 2013. This will be the week when he gets back to racing for the win.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt is off to a great start in 2014. He won the Daytona 500 and finished second at Phoenix. It only makes sense that he will finish third this week at Las Vegas.

4. Carl Edwards: This is the week to select Edwards for your team. He finished his last two races at Las Vegas in the top five, and he has the second-best average finishing position in the last four races in Sin City. Edwards usually performs well early in the season, and this may be the race track where he wins his first race of 2014.

5. Joey Logano: At the end of the 2013 season, Logano was one of the best drivers on the 1.5-mile race tracks. Penske Racing seems to have figured out the aerodynamics of the 2014 car. Do not be surprised to see Logano running up front again this week.

6. Kevin Harvick: Harvick has been good at Las Vegas but not great. He has never won at the race track, but he has the eighth-best driver rating and the fifth-best average finishing position. He is off to a great start this season. He will finish in the top 10 at Las Vegas.

7. Brad Keselowski: Keselowskihas looked fast in the first two races of the season. There is no reason to think he will not be fast again this week at Las Vegas. Keselowski started on the pole last year in this race and finished third. He will finish inside the top 10 this week.

8. Kasey Kahne: Las Vegas is one of Kahne's best race tracks. If you are going to use him for your team, this is the week to do it. He has the second-best driver rating in the last two races at Las Vegas. He finished second last year and started on the pole in 2012. He will be the third driver from Hendrick Motorsports to finish in the top 10 Sunday.

9. This is Busch's home race track. He won here in 2009 and would love to take the No. 18 car back to Victory Lane Sunday. His stats are not great, but he usually starts in the top five and finishes in the top 10. He is a great choice for your team this week.

10. Greg Biffle: Biffle is a much better driver on the two-mile race tracks than he is on the tri-oval race tracks. If you are going to use Biffle at a 1.5-mile race track, though, Las Vegas is the track to select him for your team. He has the fourth-best average running position and fourth-best driver rating. He should easily finish in the top 10 at Las Vegas.

11. Tony Stewart: Stewart has some of the best stats of any driver in the field this week at Las Vegas. He has the third-best driver rating and the sixth-most laps run in the top 15. He won this race in 2012 and finished 11th last year. Stewart has not looked great this season, but he should still be able to finish near the top 10 Sunday.

12. Denny Hamin: Hamlin does not have great stats at Las Vegas. He has either been really good or average at the race track. In his eight starts at Las Vegas, Hamlin has four top-10 finishes and four finishes outside the top 15. He is off to a great start this year, so look for the "good" Hamlin to show up Sunday.

13. Jeff Gordon: Gordon's last victory at Las Vegas came in 2001. He has not been great at the race track in the past three years, but Hendrick Motorsports is the best team in the Sprint Cup Series right now. The team will give Gordon a car good enough to finish in the top 15.

14. Ryan Newman: Newman had two consecutive top-five finishes at Las Vegas in 2011 and 2012. Last season, he was running in the top 15 when his engine blew up. Newman will bounce back this season with a top-15 finish in the desert.

15. Paul Menard: Menard is a sleeper pick this week. He finished 10th in this race last year and seventh in 2012. He is unlikely to finish inside the top 10 again this week, but expect a top-15 finish from him at Las Vegas.

16. Jamie McMurray: McMurray has had fast cars so far this season. He has a streak of two consecutive races at Las Vegas where he finished in the top 15, and he will make it three in a row Sunday.

18. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex has had fast cars and bad luck this season. He had one of the fastest cars at Daytona but finished last. Furniture Row Racing will provide another fast car for Truex this week. He will easily finish inside the top 20.

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: The 1.5-mile intermediate race tracks are where Stenhouse has his most success. He only has one career start at Las Vegas in the Sprint Cup Series. Last year, he started seventh and finished 18th. Look for the same type of results from Stenhouse this week.

Trying to Stay on Lead Lap

Almirola is often overlooked in fantasy NASCAR. He usually runs in the top 20, but he seldom runs in the top 10. Almirola will run inside the top 20 Sunday but only finish inside the top 25.

23. Marcos Ambrose: Ambrose has five career starts at Las Vegas. He has finished three of his starts inside the top 20. He will just miss out on another top 20 finish.

24. Brian Vickers: Vickers is much better on the short race tracks and the road courses. He is nothing more than an average driver this week. There are better selections for your team at Las Vegas.

25. Austin Dillon: Dillon will once again be the best rookie in the field. He has the talent to race inside the top 20 but not the experience. He will easily finish inside the top 25 this week.

28. Casey Mears: Mears started 30th and finished 27th in this race last season. The same results can be expected Sunday.

29. Kyle Larson: Larson has never raced in a Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas. He started 13th and finished 32nd in his only start in the Nationwide Series at the race track. A top-30 finish is all that can be expected from the young driver this week.

30. Danica Patrick: Patrick looked lost in this race last season. She started 37th and finished 33rd. She did finish two of her three races in the Nationwide Series at Las Vegas in the top 12, however.

Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing Picks

Group A: Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth

Group C: Jeff Burton, Trevor Bayne

Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Jeff Burton, Michael McDowell

Fox Fantasy Racing Picks

Captain: Jimmie Johnson

Driver 2: Matt Kenseth

Driver 4: Kasey Kahne

Driver 5: Kyle Busch

Kevin Harvick celebrates in Victory Lane with his crew after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Associated Press SHARE

By JOHN MARSHALL, AP Sports Writer

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Kevin Harvick and the rest of the new team at Stewart-Haas Racing are still trying to learn everyone's names.

That hasn't stopped them from winning right away.

Dominating from the start, Harvick raced away from the field for his second straight win at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, putting a stamp of validation on his new relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing.

"This phenomenal," said Gene Haas, co-owner of SHR with Tony Stewart. "I think there was a lot of skepticism last year about what myself and Tony (Stewart) what we were up to, was there a lot of madness to this. Quite frankly, it's a great team, there's a lot of synergy at the shop, people working together. I don't know what we did, but I think we put together a great organization."

Harvick raised a few eyebrows last season when word leaked that he was leaving Richard Childress Racing, a team he had been a part of since 1999, for Stewart-Haas.

Harvick worked around the distractions by winning his penultimate race with RCR and spent the offseason trying to mesh with everyone on his new team.

After a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500, Harvick had the fastest car in practice at Phoenix and carried it into the race, charging to the lead early and staying there most of the day. He led 224 of 312 laps and pulled away on several late restarts to win for the fifth time on the odd-shaped oval at PIR, passing Jimmie Johnson for most all-time.

Not bad for his second race with SHR and new crew chief Rodney Childers.

"As you go through time, the sky's the limit for this team because everybody's still trying to learn each other's names, let alone what's going on with the race car," Kenseth said. "They all know the parts and pieces of the race car that they're working on, but I guarantee you if line them all up, there would not be one person who knew everybody's name on the team."

A few of the other developments from Sunday's race:

JUNIOR'S FINISH: Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a whirlwind week after winning his second Daytona 500, spending the week making appearances and accepting congratulations.

It would have been easy for him to have a letdown or be fatigued with everything that went on, but he didn't back off the throttle.

Earnhardt qualified fifth in NASCAR's new knockout qualifying and ran near the front all afternoon.

He didn't have enough to catch Harvick, but finishing second a week after winning at Daytona was quite an accomplishment. Earnhardt leads the Sprint Cup series with 90 points.

KESELOWSKI STILL STRONG: Brad Keselowski had a strong start to his weekend, earning a pole sweep in Nationwide and Sprint Cup in Phoenix.

He had to spend the last half of the weekend without his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, who left the desert to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.

Keselowski did just fine with team engineer Brian Wilson and its Nationwide Series competition director Greg Erwin at the helm, running near the front all day to finish third.

"They did a great job," Keselowski said. "Still had two spots to go, but all things considered I thought they did really well. I was very proud of the effort."

LOGANO'S GAMBLE: Joey Logano started on the front row next to Keselowski and stayed up front most of the day. He was running third on the final restart and tried to dive down to the inside for a pass, but didn't have enough pace to pull the move off and ended up losing a spot, to fourth.

"It's all about the win, right?" Logano said. "Really, third place doesn't mean anything. Last year, you may have taken third place and taken the points. This year, hey, go for it."

ROUGH DAY FOR DANICA: Danica Patrick had a rough weekend at what's essentially her home track.

Patrick, who lives in the Phoenix area, struggling in NASCAR's new knockout qualifying, starting 33rd, and didn't have much luck once the race started, either.

Kevin Harvick held off the competition to win The Profit on CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday.

It's his fifth victory at the track, which is the most all time, per ESPN's Matt Willis. He has also won three of the last six races since the track was reconfigured in 2011:

Kevin Harvick has won 2 of the 5 NSCS races at Phoenix since the reconfiguration... trying for 3 for 6 today.

Brad Keselowski on Harvick: "They beat everybody before they came to the track today. ... They were really prepared." #NASCAR

Harvick was a deserving winner, leading 224 of the 312 laps. For most of the race, he remained about a second ahead of the driver in second place, which was often Dale Earnhardt Jr. To be able to hold such a significant lead for so long illustrated both how well Harvick drove, and how much better his car was than the rest of the field's.

After the race, Brad Keselowski admitted how Harvick's crew put him in a great position to win this weekend, per USA Today's Jeff Gluck:

How many more shots is the field going to get at Harvick? He's held them off every time. This could be it.

Late in the race, though, the caution flag came out quite often, including three times in the final 34 laps. The restarts put both Earnhardt and Joey Logano, who led 71 laps and finished fourth, right back on Harvick's tail, and it was fair to wonder if sooner or later they'd overtake the leader.

NASCAR.com

However, Harvick remained on top each time.

Here are the top 10 finishers from the race. You can view the full leaderboard on NASCAR.com.

Dale Jr. says it was a confidence-builder just to run with Harvick all day bc Harvick was so fast.

Although he couldn't come up with the win, Earnhardt at least built on the momentum he earned with his Daytona 500 victory last week. He kept his performance in perspective, because when somebody is driving as well as Harvick, the rest of the field pretty much doesn't stand a chance:

It's easy to wonder if this is the year that everything comes together for Junior. With one win and a runner-up already in 2014, Earnhardt could be poised for a huge season and possibly a points title challenge. He remains on top of the points standings for the time being.

Last year's points champion, Jimmie Johnson, finished sixth. He'll be disappointed by ending outside the top five, especially since he was hanging around there throughout the race. With the result, Johnson sits fifth in the overall points table.

For those interested in the Danica Watch, Danica Patrick made it through 306 laps. She was involved in a wreck with Justin Allgaier and Travis Kvapil on Lap 171, and then on Lap 186 she blew her left rear tire. It was another frustrating performance for Patrick, and after the race she gave Allgaier a piece of her mind, per Bob Pockrass of Sporting News:

Danica and Allgaier had about a 3-4 min discussion after race. She wasn't happy. #nascar http://ift.tt/1n0slkp

The drivers head to Las Vegas next week for the Kobalt 400. It will be interesting to see how Harvick follows this win up and whether Earnhardt will remain atop the leaderboard. Matt Kenseth is the defending champion, so the race is a great opportunity for him to kick-start his 2014 campaign.

Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images Michael Schumacher fans wish him well soon after the skiing accident that put him in a coma Dec. 29.

I stand reminded once again that there is a fate worse than death. I have seen people suffer it too often. The memory is a gloom unlike any other.

John F. Burns, London bureau chief of The New York Times, has in my mind produced the most profound body of work on the tragedy of Michael Schumacher.

This week, Burns went to Grenoble, France, where Schumacher has lain in coma since his injury in a skiing accident Dec. 29.

The indication was that Burns was the only journalist, or one of a handful at most, still there.

"The hubbub of jostling reporters and television crews," he wrote, "is a memory now ..."

This in an Alpine city that was mobbed by media for weeks after the winningest driver in Formula One history -- 91 Grand Prix wins and seven world championships -- was brought there.

The theme I gleaned from the Times story is that Schumacher is slipping from the mind of the world, slipping toward the ranks of the forgotten comatose.

I've been there. Not to Grenoble, but there.

I went to Madison, Fla., while an obscure driver named Don Williams was setting the terrible record for living in coma after a NASCAR crash -- 10 years and three months. I went to his funeral in 1989.

I went to San Antonio while another NASCAR driver, Rick Baldwin, surpassed Williams' awful milestone, surviving in coma for two days short of 11 years, until 1997. I saw his two daughters grow up, from little girls into lovely women, during the time their father was "going for the Guinness Book of World Records for taking a nap -- for sleeping," as one of them put it, bravely but tearfully, to her friends at school.

Another NASCAR driver, Bruce Jacobi, lay in coma for nearly four years after a crash at Daytona in 1983. Butch Lindley, champion of NASCAR's National Sportsman Series, now the Nationwide Series, in 1977-78, lived comatose for five years after a crash in a non-NASCAR race in 1985.

Pattie Petty, Richard's daughter-in-law, accepts comatose kids at her and husband Kyle's Victory Junction camp in North Carolina. Seeing them, Pattie once told me, reminds her to be thankful that their son, Adam Petty, killed at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2000, was taken from them immediately rather than lingering in what neurosurgeons call persistent vegetative state for months or years or decades.

[+] Enlarge ISC Images & Archives/Getty Images Bruce Jacobi, who raced in NASCAR, USAC Sprint Cars and Indy car, lay in a coma for nearly four years after suffering extensive injuries in one of the qualifying races for the 1983 Daytona 500.

If not for Victory Junction, these kids would be forgotten by all but their mothers -- some fathers, unable to deal with the burden, just up and walk out on the families.

Another friend, Dr. Jerry Punch, the ESPN reporter, once told me of the terrible conflict of intellect and emotions all good trauma docs face often.

To paraphrase Jerry, when a patient is brought in, critical from a highway accident or other trauma, every bit of a doctor's training compels him to save this person whatever it takes -- this, even though you know that, if the person survives, he or she will be comatose, an awful burden on a family, perhaps for years.

But you save the person. Period.

"There's just too much we can do to keep you alive once you get in here," the neurosurgeon who initially treated Don Williams at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach once told me.

Doctors at University Hospital Center in Grenoble could do vastly -- perhaps exponentially -- more for Schumacher than the docs at Halifax could do for Williams in 1979. Schumacher was put into a medically induced coma, a technique I first learned of in 1994 when Karl Wendlinger, a former teammate of Schumacher's on the Mercedes Junior team when they were rising through the ranks, was placed in an artificial coma after a crash in Monaco.

When the heavy sedation was removed, Wendlinger woke up. Schumacher hasn't, as far as we know, with his family and manager remaining silent about his condition and asking to be let alone. Burns quotes one neuroscientist as saying "it's too early to say somebody is in a persistent vegetative state."

Burns' movement around Grenoble was respectful and unobtrusive, and his phrasing was delicate, sensitive -- "what is known seems increasingly dispiriting ..."

The irony of Schumacher's injury is not lost on anyone who knew him, or even of him -- those countless risks taken in racing cars, only to be felled while on vacation in a skiing accident, apparently at moderate speed.

So what I write here is not an indictment of motor racing. It is a lament over one of the worst words in the English language, and the worst and longest nightmare in all the human condition: coma.

NASCAR

The 2014 season got off to a fast start in Daytona. Rains caused heavy delays at the Great American Race, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave his fans another big victory to cheer about, pulling away from the field in the final stages.

Earnhardt recently spoke to Jeff Owens of Sporting News about the great atmosphere during 's signature race to start the year:

Earnhardt and other drivers called Sunday's Daytona 500 one of the most intense races they have ever run, and the whole sport is riding a wave of momentum following Earnhardt's dramatic win.

The drivers will get back to the track Sunday from the sunny site of Phoenix International Raceway, where 's best will go at it in The Profit on 500, Presented by Small Business Fueling America.

This marks something of a trial run for , as this week marks the first race with the new group qualifying format and aerodynamic rules.

So, who's going to be cheering in Victory Lane in Phoenix? Here's a look at three top contenders for Sunday.

Where: Phoenix International Raceway

When: Sunday, March 2

Time: 3 p.m. ET

TV: Fox

Distance: 312 miles (312 laps)

Happy Harvick at PIR @PitNotes @NASCAR http://ift.tt/1ddsJZC

Happy Harvick was the talk of the town Saturday in Phoenix after winning the final tuneup practice before Sunday's main event.

relayed the speeds and top finishers from Saturday:

Rookie Kyle Larson was second-fastest at 136.596 mph, followed by Ryan Newman (136.508), Kurt Busch(136.503) and Jeff Gordon (136.374).

This boost of momentum bodes well for Harvick, who historically been able to drive very well at throughout his career. In fact, it was just about four months ago that he was able to capture a victory in the second-to-last race of the 2013 season in Phoenix.

Not to mention, he finished second at the rain-shortened Nationwide Series race Saturday behind Kyle Busch.

FINAL: Busch, Harvick, Brad, Larson, Matt, Sadler, Trevor, Regan, Chase, Ty, B. Scott, J. Buescher, Dylan K, Sieg, C. Buescher, Brendan.

In all, Harvick has four wins and seven top-five finishes here, helping him earn a 101.3 driver rating at , second-best only to Jimmie Johnson (116.7). Given his track record of success, Harvick should be considered a favorite to win in Phoenix once again.

The No. 99 car nearly pulled off a sweep at in 2013 but fell short on gas right before the white flag went up at the 500 in November, allowing Harvick to steal the victory on the final lap.

Still, Edwards was able to finish the deed last March in this event, and he has a history of recent success at .

Chris Estrada of NBC MotorSports Talk recently relayed comments Edwards made to Rick Allen on NBC Sports Network about his success in the desert:

The secret is we' been building really good race cars. [Crew chief] Jimmy and those guys, everyone at the shop - you spent a lot of time at and you know how hard those guys work. But they' really stepped it up.

While he finished 17th at the Daytona 500, Edwards was a late leader in the Great American Race before he was involved in a last-lap crash that pushed him down the leaderboard.

If recent history is any indication, he will be a major force to reckon with Sunday.

It's rare that a driver follows up his victory in the Daytona 500 with a victory the following week, but Junior is a rare driver. After waiting out the rain, Earnhardt was able to outlast the field in a scintillating opening race for . And he isn't expecting to have a letdown as the regular season gets under way in the Sprint Cup Series

passed along recent comments from Earnhardt about following up on his strong start to the season:

"I feel like I shouldn't have any problem getting out there on the racetrack and doing the best I can do," he said. "I've been doing this a long time and have had the opportunity to win races and get back the next weekend and do well. It should be no problem."

It's already been an entertaining 2014 for Junior, who also joined the Twitter world recently. Earnhardt has been very active on the social media service and gave his thoughts on his practice run following Saturday's action:

Decent practice. Felt like we made some gains that last run or two. Gonna watch this NW and talk setup w/ .

Junior finished in the top five at both of the Phoenix races last year, and he's got the momentum right now, so don't be surprised if he snaps his 10-year victory drought at .