Harvick shoots for third consecutive Bud Shootout victory

Reporting from Daytona Beach, Fla. —  Jimmie Johnson isn’t the only guy everybody else is chasing at Daytona.

You can label Kevin Harvick a Sprint Cup champion, too, since he’s the guy to beat in Saturday night’s Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.

Harvick is going for his third consecutive victory in the Shootout.

Saturday night’s race also marks NASCAR’s official competitive opening of the new racing surface at Daytona and a new fueling system that features a bulkier configuration of the new gas cans.

“I think there’s questions there how fast the fuel goes in and what you do for strategy and things like that,” Harvick said, “but obviously we’re not going to approach the Bud Shootout just because Budweiser is our sponsor.

“We’re gonna come here and try to win the race and know that there’s no points on the line and do everything we can to win. Nothing has changed there.”

Third in the Chase for the Sprint Cup last season, Harvick will try to become the first to win the Shootout three consecutive times.

He’ll certainly have plenty of emotional motivation. For the first time since Dale Earnhardt’s death a decade ago, the Richard Childress Race team will be fielding a black car, with Harvick driving the No. 29 Budweiser Chevy. In addition, commemorative No. 3 decals will be placed on all eight of the Childress race cars.

But Saturday night is the night for Harvick. He has competed in six previous Budweiser Shootsouts and has come away with two victories, four top fives and five top-10 finishes.

“The speedway races were very productive for us last year,” Harvick said. “I feel like the effort that we’re putting in this year is as good as it’s ever been. So, you just go down there and you play the game. You play the chess game and you see how it all shakes out in the end. The Shootout’s been good to us the last couple of years, so hopefully we’ll make it three.”

Of course there is a much bigger picture in mind. Harvick was within sniffing distance of Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson going into the season-finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last season but couldn’t make up any ground.

“When you look at everything and where we are, racing for the championship is really what it’s all about,” Harvick said. “We want to win a championship trophy. Coming so close last year, I think we learned a lot, from the mind-set, to the expectation level that you need to set for yourself, to the preparation that goes into everything for those last 10 weeks.

“It’s very important to be able to maintain that level of competitiveness throughout those last 10 weeks. We know what that feels like now, and we’ve done that better than we ever have before. We just have to keep doing the things that we’re doing.”