HARVICK ON HIS OWN TRACK.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK MOTOR SPORTS

Kevin Harvick is hoping the new-car smell his NASCAR Nextel Cup team has lasts for a while.

Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Richard Childress Racing, has new sponsors, new engines and a renewed presence in the garage.

Shell and Pennzoil are on board. GM Goodwrench, which Harvick inherited after taking over the car from the late Dale Earnhardt, is gone.

Chevrolet is unveiling a new engine for its NASCAR teams. And Harvick, shut out of the Chase in 2005, was a contender to win the Chase until the last race last year.

``The new sponsor with Shell, Pennzoil for me is good,'' said Harvick, a driver from Bakersfield. ``You know, it kind of gets you out from underneath that shadow of everything that we had, you know, with Dale.''

Harvick wants to create his own identity, and had trouble escaping the legacy of Earnhardt. Even though the number on his car changed from 3 to 29, the paint schemes and the lofty expectations didn't.

``It's hard for me to kind of beat down somebody else's path when you're used to beating your own path,'' Harvick said. ``It's a good start for me with a company that's behind me 100 percent, and not that Goodwrench wasn't, but it's just so much in the past that everything had to do with.''

Harvick won five races and finished fourth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Chase for the Championship last year. It was quite a turnaround compared with the year before when Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing teammates all missed the Chase.

Missing the Chase again is something he doesn't want to repeat.

``Well, you don't want to stink again,'' Harvick said. ``We didn't stink in the past. We were just mediocre, and I think everybody got a taste of success and everybody wants to keep elevating that to the next level.''

Christmas down under: Kasey Kahne spent Christmas in Australia. Even though he returned to one of his first loves, racing Sprint cars, he said he doesn't want to be out of the country over Christmas again.

``That was the first time I had been out of the country and the first time I had missed Christmas,'' said Kahne, driver of the No. 9 Dodge Charger for Evernham Motorsports. ``I thought it would be a good idea, you know, just to go and do something different over the holidays. And once I was there, I realized I was wrong. It was not the right thing to do. From now on if I go to Australia or anywhere else, I'll go maybe on the 26th instead of the 20th and stay at home for Christmas.''

Talk of expanding the Chase field from 10to 12 drivers is circulating around Daytona. Kahne said he would welcome seeing the field expand, especially after what he had to endure last year to get into the Chase.

``Personally, I think, going into the Chase this year, I was the guy on the edge going into Richmond, going into California,'' said Kahne, who finished eighth in the Chase last year and won the California Speedway race in September to help secure his spot. ``It was as much pressure in those final five races to go into the Chase as much as I've ever had just to be able to make it, and that's a big part of the season to that point was those five races.''

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(1) Kevin Harvick looks on in the garage during NASCAR testing Monday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

(2) Kevin Harvick drives the No. 29 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Shell and Pennzoil are now sponsors for Harvick, Goodwrench is gone.

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

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