Morton Buildings and its new partnership with NASCAR kingpin Kevin Harvick turned out to be a smashing success in 2014. Harvick, who drove with Morton as his primary sponsor in a pair of NASCAR Nationwide Series races earlier this season, won the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 16 to secure the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
After advancing to the final four of NASCAR’s Chase Grid playoff format prior to the Nov. 16 season finale, Harvick needed to finish ahead of rivals Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman on Sunday to claim the 2014 crown.
Harvick left no doubt, leading 54 laps overall and edging runner-up Newman in a dramatic sprint to the finish to earn a victory that gave the 38-year-old his first series title since joining the circuit in 2001.
“You know, I think as you go back in time and you just really think about everything that's led up to this point, this is what we race for,” Harvick said at kevinharvick.com. “You show up to race for the Sprint Cup championship trophy, and to be able to come here in our first year with Gene (Haas) and Tony (Stewart) and Rodney (Childers) and all these guys on the team, you really have been able to experience something that you don't get to experience very often.”
Harvick has finished 10th or better in the final Sprint Cup series standings in each of the last five seasons and 10 times overall since his rookie 2001 campaign.
Harvick drove twice in front of a nationally televised audience earlier this year on the NASCAR Nationwide Series with Morton Buildings as the primary sponsor of his No. 5 Chevrolet.
He started and finished fourth in the Lilly Diabetes 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26 and later earned a runner-up finish as part of the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 4. Harvick finished 79th overall on the Nationwide Series despite running in only 15 of the series’ 33 races.
Morton is slated to partner with Harvick and NASCAR again in 2015. It’s a union Morton Buildings is proud to be a part of.
"If you want to win the championship, you're going to have to figure out how to win races," Harvick told the Associated Press. "In the end, that's what it came down to, was winning the race to win the championship. It all worked out."
