Kevin Harvick is still lapping the Sprint Cup field
Kevin Harvick has started the Sprint Cup season with tailpipes blazing, finishing second at Daytona Beach and Atlanta before scoring back-to-back wins at Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Perhaps the most amazing statistic of a season already heavy with them for Harvick is this — he has led an astonishing 43 percent of the laps raced to date as teams prepare for this weekend's visit to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
Considering Harvick failed to lead a lap in his second-place run in the Daytona 500 opener, his lap totals gain even more shine. He led 116 at Atlanta, 142 at Las Vegas and 224 Sunday at Phoenix.
Even though 43 cars are in each starting lineup and, in theory, at least 20 have a decent shot at running out front, one driver is only a few laps short of leading half the laps raced.
It's been largely a dilemma for every driver not named Harvick.
"All you can do is push as hard as you can so when they slip, you're there to capitalize," said Cole Pearn, crew chief for Martin Truex Jr., who has finished in the top 10 in all four races but has been among those in Harvick's wake.
The alarming thing for those in pursuit of Harvick is that this is nothing new. The stark reality of last season, when Harvick won the Sprint Cup championship with a last-race victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway, is that he could have won 12 races instead of five and made the season so one-sided it would have bordered on the ridiculous.
Consider these races from Harvick's 2014 season:
--Kansas Speedway (119 lap led)
--Charlotte Motor Speedway (100)
--Bristol Motor Speedway (75)
--Atlanta Motor Speedway (195)
--Chicagoland Speedway (79)
--New Hampshire Motor Speedway (104)
--Dover International Speedway (223)
Most notable about those races for Harvick is that he didn't win any of them. Yet his car was solid. Because of a pit-road miscue here and there, a strategic failure or a mechanical gremlin, Harvick missed victory lane at those venues.
Now he appears almost unstoppable.
It seems to be the continuation of a theme, yet one refined from the "almosts" of 2014.
Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree
PHOTOS: Behind the wheel with Kevin Harvick