The regular season of the cup is approaching, and so are the quirky race weeks created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This weekend will see the last of three scheduled Cup doubleheaders at Dover International Speedway. The series holds races on the 1-mile track Saturday and Sunday afternoons (4 pm ET on NBCSN).
The two doubleheads that preceded it, held at Pocono Raceway and Michigan International Speedway, are the show of Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, as they finished first and second in three of the four races.
After Hamlin beat Harvick in the first Pocono race, the sequence flipped the next day. Earlier this month at Michigan, Harvick soared over the weekend, but he beat Hamlin in Race No. 2 by just 0.093 seconds.
They go into action this weekend with Harvick and Hamlin leading the series with six and five wins respectively.
More: Denny Hamlin beats Kevin Harvick of no. 1 in the power rankings.
And through 23 races there has been no trace of mudslinging between the two teams. That’s how Chris Gabehart, Hamlin’s second year crew chief, prefers.
“I think the fun part is about what we’re happy to do at two great organizations like Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas (Racing),” Gabehart said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “Tradin ‘Paint.” “We can compete at the highest level of sport with the best resources, and people are the biggest resource. That the best people at the very peak of stock car racing. So if you are lucky enough to reach that level as crew members, engineers, drivers, then you are very grateful for that, I know I am.
‘When you do that, you appreciate just how hard it was to get there and then you admire the same situation and then the ones you are dealing with, and you realize just how hard they worked to get there as well. At that point, you’ve both been so happy and achieved so much that it’s really more about the competition itself and appreciating each team’s ability to push the other higher.
‘And I know that’s how (Harvick crew chief) Rodney (Childers) and I look at it. To say that we do not compete fiercely … is certainly not true in terms of the level of competition. I mean, we are fierce competitors. But you know, when we shake hands after that, it just comes from a real understanding of just how happy we are to do what we do at this level. “
Childers had nothing but praise for Gabehart and his team after Harvick’s victory in the second race in Michigan. Afterwards, Childers met with Gabehart to give him a message of congratulations.
“Obviously, both drivers do a great job,” Childers said that night. ‘Everyone brings great cars to the racetrack. It’s been a fun little battle all year.
“To have a relationship from the past with Chris from the (go) kart days and things, we have always been good, we respect each other a lot. … They’re a bunch of classy guys. We try to just keep it fun and keep each other motivated, by pushing as hard as we can. ”
In their first two years together, Gabehart and Hamlin led the competition. Following Hamlin’s winless 2018 season, they have claimed an 11-point lead together. That’s one more victory than Harvick and Childers.
Through 23 races this season, Hamlin has placed first or second in 10 of them (43.5% of the time).
Gabehart credits Hamlin’s leadership in allowing an atmosphere that made him a winning team.
“So much of life is about timing and whether you are ready for a moment or situation as a driver or crew chief or just in your personal life, right?” Gabehart told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. ‘I think of Denny and the transitions he has gone through in the last years of his career, and then you know, some of his personal life, and I did the same from a crew member’s perspective in the Xfinity Series and then here and I think we all meshed at the same time, and we both had the same goals and ambitions and we were ready for each other, I think it’s the best way to say it. “
Gabehart said he was’ proud ‘and’ grateful ‘of Hamlin’s’ willingness’ to let a rookie crew chief in’ and make this race team as I saw fit without second guessing me or asking me, or the type control set me up that he could have as a veteran, as a successful veteran in this sport. He did nothing of the sort and it was that level of confidence that the foundation could really be built and is the reason where we are today. Denny, I think, would tell you that I have established myself as the leader of this racing team, but it was his leadership in the beginning that made it all possible. ‘
This weekend, Hamlin gets two attempts to earn his first cup win at the ‘Monster Mile.’ He has five top five in 28 starts there, including a result in second place in the 2018 playoff race.
Introducing Dover, Gabehart said the doubleheaders so far “have actually been pretty fun.”
‘I love the doubleheader aspect from a competitive point of view, because I can not tell you how many times we all left a racetrack and said,’ Man, if I could just run this race and we do this or we do that, that car would be where it should be and we could run so much better. ‘Well, now you get your chance, exactly, because it’s exactly the same day one day later and you’ve run a race, you have all the data, you know where you’re missing. Can you turn around and make it a better day? ”
