Harvick isn’t so happy anymore

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — They called him “Happy Harvick” at the start of his NASCAR career, when success came so easy that Kevin Harvick had a seemingly perpetual smile.

It’s been quite some time since the nickname fit.

Harvick’s been rather unhappy of late and struggling through the worst slump of his career — a winless streak that dates back 90 points races, to the 2007 season-opening Daytona 500. It’s so bad that his name has been thrown into the rumor mill, with mounting speculation that he’s trying to get out of Richard Childress Racing.

He’s under contract to Childress through next season, as is sponsor Shell-Pennzoil, and the team owner felt the need last week to stress that both will be back with the No. 29 Chevrolet in 2010. Like the dreaded vote of confidence that generally precedes a firing, Childress’ sharply worded statement could very well mean Harvick is on the move.

Harvick is saying very little publicly, which only feeds the rumors. He’s smart, calculating and sometimes manipulative, and over the course of his career, he’s never held back when voicing his displeasure on a variety of topics.

Because nothing sets him off quite like poor performance, the whole world has been waiting for him to explode as he’s drifted out of contention for the Chase for the championship.

Instead, he’s said next to nothing, even biting his tongue when his Kevin Harvick Inc. team accidentally ran him out of gas during Saturday night’s Nationwide Series race in St. Louis. It relegated a potentially race-winning car — he led 105 of the 200 laps — to a 17th-place finish.

Harvick of old would have publicly blasted his team, and maybe even fired an employee or two. And on the Cup side, where he’s 25th in points and has led just nine laps all year, he’d be screaming bloody murder about the pathetic RCR performance this season.

He admitted last month at Sonoma that this has been his “worst year that I’ve ever had racing, period,” but declined to speculate on how to fix it.

He said any problems are companywide at RCR — and he’s right, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton are both off a tick this season, while Casey Mears has sputtered in his first year with the team — but directed any performance issues to Childress.

“It’s not my job to figure out what is wrong. You give all the input that you can back, and then it’s out of my department,” Harvick said. “Ask Richard what’s wrong. He’s the only one who can answer this.”

There was speculation Harvick could be headed to Stewart-Haas Racing as an expanded third entry, but that would require sponsorship, and Stewart has yet to sell off Ryan Newman’s current season. If Harvick is hoping to take Shell with him to a new home, the company will likely have a hard fight with Childress to move with a year left on its contract.