Carl Edwards is doing it and has been for several seasons. Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard are doing it. Mike Bliss and Michael McDowell have expressed interest in wanting to do it if sponsorship deals come through that would enable them to do it. Will Kevin Harvick do it again? Do what? Compete full-time in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series.
Back in 2001, Kevin Harvick began the season with sites set on competing for the Nationwide (then Busch) Series championship. With the death of Dale Earnhardt in that year's season-opening Daytona 500, Richard Childress Racing hit the fast forward button on Harvick's NASCAR career. Harvick, not willing to give up on his goal that year of winning the Nationwide/Busch Series title, embarked on a season of full-time double-duty.
Harvick's first stint at double-duty paid off. Not only did he claim the championship he set out after, he also finished ninth in the Sprint (at that time Winston) Cup season-ending driver points standings, despite starting his season in that series a race late (he began his Cup career in the second race of the season) and claimed series rookie of the year honors.
That 2001 season of Harvick's set a precedent of sorts in NASCAR. Before then, it was unheard of for a driver to attempt to compete in both series full-time in the same year. In the years since, drivers including the aforementioned ones, have made the effort pretty commonplace.
Harvick is a two-time Nationwide Series champion, also claiming a series title in 2006 while, again, running both Nationwide and Cup full-time schedules. Lately, the Bakersfield, Calif., native has been focusing his attention on his Sprint Cup driving duties with Richard Childress Racing and as owner of Kevin Harvick Inc., fielding entries in both the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series.
Early into the 2010 season, Harvick is hinting at another full-time double-duty season, hoping to bring a driver title to KHI (his two Nationwide championships were with RCR). He hasn't committed to running the Nationwide Series full-time just yet, though. He has said that he'll run all the Nationwide Series events through May, then evaluate his chances based on his performance up to that point.
So far, only two races into the 2010 campaign, Nationwide Series results for Harvick as a driver have been somewhat of a mixed bag. He started off the season with a third-place showing at Daytona, but a rare KHI engine failure resulted in a DNF for Harvick a week later at Auto Club Speedway. Because of the DNF, Harvick now sits 14th in the points standings, but there are several races to go for a bounce back before his self-imposed decision date.
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