When will bleeding stop for Kevin Harvick?
Just how bad are things going to get for Kevin Harvick?
Once regarded as one of NASCAR's top drivers, the former Daytona 500 champion is in a deep hole just one race from the official halfway point of the 2009 Sprint Cup season.
Besides being buried 27th in points and boasting no prayer of a rally into NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup, Harvick is also in the midst of his longest winless streak as a Cup driver.
It was 89 races ago, in the 2007 Daytona 500, when Harvick last visited victory lane in a points-paying Cup race. But even last season, when the Bakersfield, Calif., native was shut out of the winner's circle, he still made the Chase.
So the natural question is how a driver of Harvick's achievements can fall from Chase contender to field filler in half a season? Clearly, team owner Richard Childress' swap of the crews on Harvick's No. 29 car and teammate Casey Mears' No. 07 isn't working.
In the seven races since Gil Martin replaced Todd Berrier as Harvick's crew chief earlier this year, Harvick has posted nary a top-10 and fallen even deeper in the standings.
Mears, who is now paired with Berrier, has actually been solid if unspectacular over that same stretch, having scored a pair of ninth-place finishes and an 11th.
So just what is ailing Harvick?
While it might be easy to point the finger at Martin, we shouldn’t forget that Martin is the crew chief who guided RCR's Clint Bowyer into the Chase the last two seasons.
He is clearly no slouch.
But neither is Harvick, an 11-time Cup race winner.
So here's just one theory on Harvick's struggles: His driving duties at RCR have taken a backseat to his role as co-owner of Kevin Harvick Inc., which fields Nationwide and Truck teams.
If this is the case - perhaps Harvick should consider if he wants to continue driving or put all his efforts into his ownership role at KHI.
That way, his commitment – successful or not – can’t be questioned.
But whether Harvick's involvement at KHI or something altogether different is the main source of his woes, the question still remains: When will the bleeding stop?
