This is Kevin Harvick's time of year.
Harvick and his Stewart-Haas Racing team have a strong recent history of rising to the pressure, of stepping up when there is more on the line.
Just take this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Harvick, fresh off digging himself out of a first-Chase race hole by winning the second race, went out and won pole position for Saturday night's Bank of America 500. He notably won the Cup championship series in 2014 and finished as runner-up last season. This Chase format just seems to suit him.
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It was Harvick's first pole position since Sept. 20, 2015, at Chicagoland Speedway.
After qualifying, Harvick said that he believes this was working out to be his best overall weekend to date — which might be a source of concern for other drivers.
As Harvick looked at his starting spot, he found a quick advantage in it — he's ahead of the other 11 Chase drivers from the green flag.
"Any time you can eliminate track position, that's definitely a bonus for us," he said. "This hasn't really been our strongest day all year, qualifying day, in general has not been very good for us. So, to see the speed that the car immediately had today and really through all three rounds … We've struggled to hit all three rounds this year and (Thursday night) it was just spot-on every time on the racetrack."
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Thursday's qualifying turned out to be the last time the Cup drivers will be on the track before Saturday's race, scheduled to start shortly after 7 p.m. ET. Rain washed out all on-track activities on Friday and pushed the Xfinity race to Sunday morning.
So how critical does that make Thursday's sessions?
Harvick said that he and his team "learned a lot" in practice, opting to be in a racing setup for most of it. He sees that as one of his team's strengths, anyway, shifting things learned earlier in the weekend to race mode.
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Still, the lack of practice time does cause teams to adjust quickly.
"It is definitely going to be punching a lot of numbers and going through a lot of things that we did because that's really what we focused on today, was race trim," Harvick said.
Now his focus turns to winning. Drivers are a bit more eager to win one of the first two races — at Charlotte and Kansas — in this segment as the third is at Talladega. On that restrictor-plate track anything can happen, and often does. Known for its multi-car crashes the race is not one in which drivers want to be trying to outpoint the competition in order to preserve a berth in the next round.
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Drivers are acutely aware of the possibilities that Talladega brings — and intent on avoiding letting that race be the decider on whether one makes the Round of 8 in the Chase.
What would a win at Charlotte, or Kansas, mean to a driver and team?
"It would be a lot easier on my blood pressure, I know that for sure," Harvick said. "Everybody has the same goal to try to win one of these two races to eliminate that possibility. But really, any of these races can jump up and bite you at really any particular time just because of the fact that you just never know.
"Obviously Talladega has the most things out of your control. So if you can get to Victory Lane it's a huge benefit in this first round in the next two weeks."