Harvick hopeful of Phoenix rebound

Harvick had an impressive start to his season, taking victory in the Daytona 500. Since then, however, he has only managed one top-ten result, facing technical and handling problems in Martinsville and Texas in the last two races.

"Phoenix has been good to us over the years," said Harvick, who sits currently 14th in the driver points. "We won both Cup races there last year. We also won a Busch race last year and finished second in the other.

"Phoenix is one of those places I grew up racing on and have a long history there. I have been fortunate to have had a lot of success there and look forward to going back and hopefully turning some of this bad luck (this season) into good luck.

"Phoenix is always a fun race track. There are always at least two lanes, and sometimes even more, to pass. I always seem to do well at Phoenix so I'm excited to see what we can do with the Shell-Pennzoil Chevy this weekend."

Despite his past success at Phoenix, next weekend's race could prove to be rather different for Harvick's team as they will race at the one-mile oval with the Car of Tomorrow for the first time.

Some teams are pessimistic about how the new car will perform at Phoenix given its higher weight and lesser downforce, but the Richard Childress driver is not worried about it as his team has already tested the car there.

"It will be a lot different set-up wise than Martinsville and Bristol. Jeff (Burton) went out there to do the tyre test, and he said it drove better there than the car he raced there last year.

"I think people are making a bigger deal of it than they have to. Obviously, we will have some kinks to work out, but I think it is the responsibility of the drivers and the teams to make the cars better and, in the end, it is safety first."

In the two previous Car of Tomorrow races, Harvick ran solidly in the top five. He got fourth place at Bristol and was running well at Martinsville until he came into fuel pressure problems and a fire on the right side of his car.