Harvick insists penalty was unjust

Kevin Harvick remained adamant that the pitlane speeding penalty he received at a crucial time during Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup decider at Homestead was undeserved.

The Richard Childress driver grabbed the lead of the race during the seventh caution of the day, following an impressive stop after he had entered pit road in second place behind Michael Waltrip Racing's Martin Truex Jr.

Just as Harvick crossed the finish line first, grabbing five bonus points in the process, officials notified his team that the Californian had gone over the 49.9 mph absolute speed limit. Not only he was dropped to the tail end of the lead-lap cars, but also denied the bonus points for leading.

"I don't think that penalty will ever settle in my stomach," said Harvick. "When you read me off my pit road times of 49.6 [mph], 49.4, 50.8 and then 49.6; and there's only a handful people that get to see them, I won't ever settle for that.

"I don't know how you can be speeding when you're on the bumper in front of you if the other guy is not speeding. So that's about it."

While charging back through the field Harvick clashed with Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch, who had a couple of exchanges with him earlier in the day, hitting the RCR driver's rear bumper on an early restart and racing him aggressively for position a couple of times.

Twenty-three laps from the end, Harvick arrived on Busch's rear bumper, making contact with him at the exit of Turn 4 and sending the #18 Toyota spinning towards the inside wall.

"He raced me like a clown all day," said Harvick about Busch. "Three-wide, on the back bumper, running into me, and I just had enough."

The incident caused the final caution of the day, at which time title rival Denny Hamlin was a lap down following the final stops under green-flag conditions. That put the JGR driver all but out of contention for a top finish, boosting Jimmie Johnson's title hopes.

Harvick was still proud in the end about his overall performance this year, specially after a poor 2009 where RCR drivers failed to make it to the season play-off. He hopes his team can now consistently challenge for titles in the next few years, building on the foundations laid down this season.

"I remember where we sat when I left this race last year," said Harvick. "You always want to win but I'm not going to sit here and be disappointed. We raced as hard as we could race this year, with everybody putting up every piece of effort that they had, week in and week out, and I know what it feels like to run like we did last year.

"So I'm more excited about looking to be consistent and racing this way. I'm not going to look back. This is going to make us stronger. We have got a good race team that's going to stick around for a while, and I'm just happy to be a part of it right now."

Harvick's third place in the drivers' standings is his best finish in the championship following 10 full seasons in the Sprint Cup.

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Harvick: Team-mates could decide title

Kevin Harvick believes team-mates could play a decisive role in the NASCAR Cup title decider at Homestead on Sunday.

The Richard Childress Racing driver is 46 points behind Chase leader Denny Hamlin heading into the last race of the season, which means he has to count on his rivals' results in order to win his maiden Cup title.

Harvick believes his only real chance to beat the other two challengers is to take victory in Sunday's race and expect both Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson to make mistakes.

"I think the only way you can control your destiny is to go out and win the race," said Harvick. "Those guys have a lot of scenarios; our scenario is very simple - you go out and win the race and they [Johnson] have to have a fourth and a [Hamlin] seventh, and that's the best-case scenario. So, for us, it's simple.

"We don't have any pressure on us. We go and race as hard as we can. For us, it's going to come down to those guys making a mistake. We've got to out-run both of them, so for us it's all very simple - we just let it all hang out and see where it all falls in the end and see where the mistakes crop up this week."

The two-time Nationwide champion believes his RCR team-mates can do a lot to help his chances of winning the title on Sunday, even if a possible move may be controversial.

He says he will do whatever he needs in order to win, even if that leaves some people unhappy.

"There's a lot your team-mates can do to help you," said Harvick. "I think if it's winning a race, it's one thing. But for the company, a car winning the championship is the best thing that you could have. Half the fans will tell you it's not right, the other half will call you stupid. You do what's right for your organisation.

"We'll do whatever we have to do to win the championship. And if it winds up hurting somebody's feelings, so be it."

Harvick's RCR team-mate Clint Bowyer joked about possibly helping him if faced with that scenario: "If he wants to negotiate a deal, and he is running fourth and I need to let him around to win a championship, maybe we could talk."

NASCAR's Brian France said the sanctioning body may look at any particular situation where team orders come into play, although he expects the title battle to unfold between the three challengers themselves.

Last week during the pre-race driver's meeting at Phoenix, officials warned team-mates to let the battle play out on the track and not interfere with it.

"If [team orders] somehow altered an event, that would be a problem, and we would react to that," said France. "My sense is that the good part about this sport is, it's every man for himself at the end of the day, and the bad part of it sometimes is it's every man for himself.

"We'll look at that. I can tell you that all three teams in this championship don't give team orders by their own admission, and if that somehow were to come around, we would look at it. But I don't anticipate that. I think you're going to see them settle it individually, and that's the way it should be."

Harvick's team-mate Jeff Burton topped the final practice session of the weekend ahead of Sunday's race, where Hamlin was fastest of the title contenders.

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Crew chief says Johnson under-rated

Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus believes his driver still does not get the credit he deserves, following a record-setting fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title.

Knaus was once again full of praise for Johnson after the reigning champion drove to a second-place finish at Homestead, beating rivals Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick in the points battle by the narrowest margin of any of his title triumphs.

In all his previous championship seasons Johnson had arrived at the last race of the year leading the points, while this time he had to get into attack mode in the season finale in order to beat his rivals and keep his title streak alive.

Johnson's crew chief expects that following yet another demonstration of superiority, his driver will finally get the praise he deserves, as Knaus thinks Johnson is not rated highly enough for his outstanding achievements behind the wheel.

"It's a lot of fun and well deserved because there's a lot of hard work that went into [winning the title] and I think it's definitely going to give Jimmie some of the praise that he needs for the type of driver that he is - a fantastic driver who really has not got the praise that he deserves," said Knaus.

"I just think - and no disrespect to any of our elders or whatever you want to call them - the guys that raced back in the day, the Earnhardts, the Waltrips, the Pearsons, the guys like that; you hear a lot of what they say about the tenacity of those drivers and how aggressive they were and how they could do things with the race car that nobody else could do.

"I think if you really sat back and looked at what this guy can do with a race car, you would be pretty impressed. He's been in some pretty precarious situations and driven through them. He's put his nose in places that other people would not do and not be able to pull off.

"If you look at three-wide racing today and having the brains to go David Pearson style to back out and say, 'I can back off now, and live to race another lap and get those two spots back', [compared] to where other people go in there and bomb it in there and crash and beat off somebody else... I don't think he gets that.

"As a friend and as a team-mate, I want to make sure that he gets what he deserves."

Two weeks ago at Texas Knaus made the tough decision to replace his pit-crew with the one from Jeff Gordon's team as the race was unfolding at the Fort Worth track. Gordon was out of the race after crashing into the wall following contact with Richard Childress' Jeff Burton and while Johnson's pit-crew struggled with mistakes on almost every stop, Gordon's was available for a swap that remained in place all the way to the season finale.

Johnson's pitstops improved immediately after the swap took place and although there were a couple of hiccups during Sunday's race at Homestead the seven-man crew were instrumental in helping boost Johnson's title hopes.

However, Knaus underlined that even if the crew change added to their strengths, it was not the determining factor in clinching a fifth consecutive Cup title. Knaus pointed out how tough it was for him and his team to suddenly sever part of the group that had been part of their success up until then.

"It's all a tough decision when you have to make decisions for your team and it's going to involve the emotions and the feelings of your team members, guys that you eat, sleep and breathe with, every single day when you're on the road, when you practice in the gym and at work, it's a tough decision," Knaus said.

"You know, this is a tough sport. It really is. I want to stress we did not win this championship because we switched pit crews. That's not why we won this championship. We won this championship because we are a great team. Those guys, they were struggling. And it's no different than any other professional sport.

"If you have a running back that's got butter fingers and he's dropping the ball, he's going to walk around camp all day holding a football until he gets figured out how to do it and he's going to get benched for a while. Same with a pitcher or whatever it may be, and these guys are professional athletes.

"It's not fun making decisions like that. One day it's going to happen to me. One day Rick [Hendrick] is going to sit me down and say, 'man, sorry buddy, you don't have it anymore'. And I'll be like, 'jerk'... But it's going to happen. Let's be honest. And same thing is going to happen to him. It happens and it's just it's sad that it happened the way that it did."

Johnson and Knaus are arguably the most successful driver-crew chief paring in the modern era of NASCAR, having worked together at Hendrick Motorsports since Johnson's first full season in the Cup series back in 2002.

They have achieved 51 victories plus five Cup titles together and only former crew chief Dale Inman and his driver Richard Petty better their joint statistics, having won seven titles and 198 races together.

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Patrick claims best NASCAR result

Danica Patrick claimed her best NASCAR Nationwide Series finish of the year on Saturday night in the final race of the season at Homestead.

The IndyCar regular led her first laps and managed to finish on the lead lap in what turned out to be an incident-filled event. She finished 19th - her first top-20 result - in her 13th outing in NASCAR's second-tier series.

At the same track where she finished the IndyCar series in style with a second place nearly a month ago, Patrick claimed her best qualifying result of the season earlier in the day.

Though once the green flag waved she struggled with balance and started dropping down the order. By the time the first caution waved on lap 12 of 200, she was already down in 14th place, and then pitting for new tyres and adjustments so dropped further down.

However, when the second caution was displayed only a few laps later and many drivers elected to pit, Patrick stayed on the track and grabbed the lead for the first time. It didn't last long though, as she had a poor restart in which she dropped all the way to 16th place when she crossed the line again, following contact with a rival while trying to get settled.

"Oh god I looked like a rookie, didn't I?" said Patrick about her restart. "I got into [Turns] 1 and 2 and got a little loose in the middle. I was then on the back straight and I was finally starting to settle in at least from the pace with everyone, I get hit on the left rear and I'm veering towards the inside wall. That put me back a little further. That was a little messy but it was good to lead some laps I guess."

After that, Patrick raced in the midfield - picking up a few places in the final laps after dropping outside of the top 20. In the end, she was just edged by rookie Brian Scott to 18th place, claiming her best result of the year as one of 27 drivers to finish on the lead lap.

She believes she can take a lot of positives from her final race of the season as she gets ready to continue with her NASCAR apprenticeship in 2011.

"There's a lot of positives to take from the weekend," said Patrick. "The qualifying, staying on the lead lap - if I can even say it with a straight face - having my best result of the year, so there's a lot of good stuff and that's what I have to think about for next year and I need to try and improve on that."

Patrick is expected to take part in at least the same number of NASCAR events in 2011 as she did this season, alternating with her IndyCar duties.

Kyle Busch won the Nationwide finale, clinching the owners' title for Joe Gibbs Racing and taking his 13th series win of the year, also his 24th NASCAR victory of 2010.

Brad Keselowski was officially crowned champion, having clinched the drivers' title two weeks ago at Texas - giving Roger Penske his maiden NASCAR championship.

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Johnson claims fifth NASCAR title

Jimmie Johnson clinched a record-stretching fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup title with a second-place finish behind Carl Edwards in the season finale at Homestead.

Johnson had entered the decider trailing Denny Hamlin in the points, but a tough race for the Joe Gibbs Toyota driver saw Hamlin tangle with Greg Biffle early on and then pit with a deflating tyre. He could only finish 14th.

Kevin Harvick also had a shot at beating Johnson to the title, but his third place was not sufficient as Johnson - despite further pitstop problems - wrapped up another title.

Full report to follow...

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Johnson targets Homestead win

Jimmie Johnson expects nothing short of a win next Sunday at Homestead in order to beat Denny Hamlin to what would be his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup series title.

The reigning champion heads into the season-finale not leading the points for the first time since 2006 and carrying a 15-point deficit to Chase leader Denny Hamlin, who has won eight races this year to Johnson's six.

Kevin Harvick also heads in with a good championship chance on Sunday as he trails Hamlin by only 46 points.

Despite being at a disadvantage mathematically, Johnson says he feels comfortable about his current position and claims to be the most relaxed he has been for the past few years not having to defend the lead in the standings as the title decider unfolds.

"For us, we've got nothing to lose, this guy [Denny Hamlin] does," said Johnson during Thursday's press conference at Miami. "It's a much different perspective for us. I've been here in the past with even a big points lead and have been concerned about dropping the ball.

"When you're defending, your mind starts to think about the what ifs. When you're chasing it's more about what do I need to do.

"So it's been a much more relaxed week for me, even though I'm 15 points behind from what I've experienced before. All the joking aside, it's just about performing and we need to go out and have a great day. And even then, I have to assume he's going to have a great day and so does Kevin. A great day may not get it done."

For the past few years Johnson has had to contend for the title in a two way fight, many times against one of his Hendrick Motorsports team-mates.

This year despite a third driver being in close contention, he says it's still simple for him as he aims to put it all on the line in order to add a fifth title to his tally.

"It's still pretty simple because, yes second is better than third, but I'd rather put it all on the line and risk second to take a shot a winning the championship," said Johnson. "Second or third, it is what it is. We're only going to fall so far.

"There's so much money for being second than third, but I'm so willing to take the risk of first. It's still really looking forward. I'm not really paying attention to what's behind."

Despite being crowned at Homestead for the past four years, the Florida track is the only one among those currently in the play-off where Johnson has yet to win at for the first time, a fifth place last year being his best finish at the track since 2006.

The Californian claims that having to defend his lead in the past has led to him focussing more on qualifying set ups to start with and then on having a comfortable car for the race, even if not necessarily the fastest one.

He plans to have a different approach this weekend, as he vows close the season with his first Homestead win.

"For us before there was a lot of pressure for qualifying to help us get to the front and hopefully not be in harms way," said Johnson. "In race practice we just looked for a comfortable car to drive in years past. This year we can't have that luxury. We need a car that's fast, that's going to run up front... We have to do everything right and then hope that [Hamlin] has a third place day. It's hard to hit those two marks."

Even if Johnson wins Sunday's season-finale, he would need to lead the most laps or Hamlin not to lead at all or finish third or worse in order to overcome the 15-point deficit to the Joe Gibbs racer in the driver standings.

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Hamlin hopes title race down to speed

Denny Hamlin hopes Sunday's Sprint Cup series season-finale doesn't turn into a fuel-saving race to victory and the title, following last week's event at Phoenix.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver currently leads the Chase by 15 points over reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, heading into the title showdown at Homestead this weekend.

Hamlin's margin to the Hendrick driver though could have been a lot healthier had his dominance transpired in the final results of last week's event at Phoenix, where he led nearly two thirds of the distance before fuel efficiency came into play and cost him a bundle of points.

Hamlin wound up finishing only 12th last week and lost out to Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick, who both closed the gap on him in the driver standings as a consequence.

The 30-year-old hopes next Sunday's finale allows performance and speed to be the deciding factors rather than fuel economy tactics, as he cherishes his first real shot at NASCAR's top trophy.

"Realistically we'll probably have the worst fuel mileage of these other two guys [Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick] but we'll have to take the speed," said Hamlin. "Hopefuly things work out for us and if they don't, we'll work on our whole program next year.

"I'm in a good situation because if we go out there and do what we've done all year and perform, then it's up to them to go out there and better us. We don't have to beat one of these guys by a certain ammount of positions. We have to just stay ahead and that's it. That's not going to be an easy fit, we know that, but we have the speed to do that."

Last year Hamlin took victory in the season-finale at Homestead, which means he has won nine out of the last 36 points races, a quarter of the events held over the past 12 months in the Sprint Cup series.

He believes his record at the mile-and-a-half track, shows he's got what it takes to defend his position in the standings and claim his first Sprint Cup title on Sunday.

Hamlin has three top-five finishes in five starts at Homestead, finishing down in 33rd place on his first race at the track, while two years ago he was only 13th at the finish-line as Carl Edwards won by saving enough fuel in the last stint, just as he did last week at Phoenix.

"I think for us, it's about going out and performing like we have every Homestead race I've ever ran," said Hamlin. "The two bad finishes I do have is my very first start at Homestead in 2005. I got caught up in someone else's wreck.

"The other was a fuel mileage race. Every other time we've been in the top three.

"I actually remember just about every year Kevin [Harvick] is right there with us at the end of the race. So I know he runs well there. So for me, just go out there and pretend that I got to win the race. That's all there is.

"I'm in a good spot knowing that I just have - I can control my own destiny and not have to worry about anything else. If we win the race, it's a moot point."

Hamlin may become the first driver to win a Sprint Cup title for a foreign manufacturer, as Toyota has still to win a championship at NASCAR's top level, having won already both in the Trucks and Nationwide series.

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