NASCAR

Kevin Harvick Won’t Repeat As NASCAR Champion

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Kevin Harvick Champion

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There’s no doubt that 2014 was the best season in Kevin Harvick‘s career. The 39-year-old won five races, matching a career high en route to picking up his first NASCAR Sprint Cup title for Stewart-Haas Racing. That success has Harvick’s name on the short list of legitimate Cup contenders heading into 2015. However, there are several factors that indicate a repeat title for Harvick probably just won’t happen.

The first thing to look at is history. In NASCAR history, a driver has won more than one title in a row 13 times, including Jimmie Johnson‘s string of five from 2006-2010. But Johnson’s five-peat is the only title streak since Jeff Gordon won two in a row in 1997-98. That means over the past 16 seasons, there have been 11 one-time winners. That statistic points to the competitiveness of the sport and also illustrates Johnson’s greatness, though that is a topic for another day.

Also, among the repeat winners, only five repeated after winning their first championships with Johnson being the last. Before that, Darrell Waltrip was the last driver to turn the trick, winning his first championship in 1981 and following it with another in 1982.

But history isn’t the only factor stacked against Harvick this year. After only one season under the new format of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, it’s apparent that a lot of luck and consistently fast race cars will be mandatory of the eventual champion driver. Even Harvick needed a win at Phoenix in the next to last race of the season just to advance to the championship race. He was that close to missing out on the opportunity to even compete for a title, much less win it.

Another result of the new format is that underdogs have a much better chance of winning a title as evidenced by Ryan Newman finishing second last season despite not winning a race. That expands the field of legit contenders even more. If Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Johnson, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne or even Kyle Larson win a title next year, would anyone really be surprised with any of those results?

Harvick proved a lot last season and took a huge step forward in his career, clearing the final and most important hurdle. But to pull off that feat again the very next season? The smart money is on no.

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