Kevin Harvick’s Michigan win rooted in Nashville weekend

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Crew chief Rodney Childers admits this has been a challenging season learning the new car.

He told NBC Sports in late June how the new car is a “learning curve every weekend for me. I knew how to do that stuff year after year after year with the old car and the old tech procedures and all that kind of stuff.

“With this car, I don’t feel comfortable with any of that.”

He made those comments before the series raced at Nashville Superspeedway. That was the most recent time the Cup Series had a 50-minute practice session instead of the abbreviated sessions held at most tracks. 

Kevin Harvick was 29th of 36 cars on the speed chart in practice at Nashville. But that practice proved to be a breakthrough session.

“What turned our corner, I felt like, was having 50 minutes of practice at Nashville,” Childers said Sunday after Harvick won at Michigan to snap a 65-race winless streak. “We unloaded. We were absolutely horrible, and we changed everything on the car to start the race. We qualified up front and ran up front all night, and we’ve done that ever since.

‘So having 50 minutes of practice, being able to change stuff after (practice), it has changed our season. Every week we learn, and hopefully we’re getting that a little bit better. … We just have to keep pushing and try to run with those guys and we have. If we can do that in the playoffs and be consistent and get through a round or two, we can make some noise.”

Harvick went on to finish 10th at Nashville. He’s had three other top 10s in the six races since that weekend.

That’s a sign that Harvick is getting more comfortable with the car. He admits he’s looking forward to returning to tracks a second time this season. Michigan marked the eighth track in