Still chasing championship berth, Kevin Harvick hits Phoenix just in time

It’s basically now or never for Kevin Harvick’s championship dreams in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Cam-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, the final race of the Round of 8.

Harvick is in seventh place, 18 points behind the transfer position. But he has an edge over everyone else just because he’s been dominating the one-mile flat track since he first stepped into a stock car.

Harvick has won a track-record eight times, including six of his past eight starts, at Phoenix. One of those was a similar situation in 2014 when he had to win to advance, which carried him to his first Sprint Cup title a week later.

He’s so good on this track that, coupled with his desperate situation, the Westgate sports book posted him as the 6-5 favorite, the lowest odds ever offered on a driver to win in Las Vegas history.

He will start from the sixth position, and while several other drivers practiced better than he did Saturday, his resume carries some serious clout, as does the chassis he’s using this weekend.

Harvick is using the same car that won the past two March races at Phoenix and the September race at New Hampshire, a similar flat one-mile layout to Phoenix. This chassis also has been second three times in the past two seasons. The car alone will give the team confidence.

BEST LONG SHOT

Betting other drivers than Harvick at Phoenix has been a losing proposition, but it’s not a bad idea to invest a few dollars on pole sitter Alex Bowman at 100-1.

He’s never won a Cup race, but he’s substituting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 and had the best 10-consecutive lap average during the final practice. The No. 88 won this race last season.

Micah Roberts, a former sports book director, has been been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1994. Follow @MicahRoberts7 on Twitter.