JOLIET, Ill. -- Kevin Harvick's sophomore season has not been kind to him. Last year's Winston Cup Rookie of the Year and Busch champion has gone from a fantastic freshman campaign to an absolutely horrible second season -- and there's still 19 races left.

The California native, who was called upon to fill the shoes of the late Dale Earnhardt last season, has suffered through about as much bad luck as a driver can experience in 2002.

	Kevin Harvick has been a model citizen since being suspended by NASCAR.

He's been crashed into and knocked out of races. He's suffered mechanical problems that have hindered his performance, if not forced him out of events.

Harvick was placed on probation early in the season for a confrontation with Greg Biffle during a Busch race in March. Less than a month later, he was given an unprecedented one-race suspension for a tangle with Coy Gibbs in a Craftsman Truck race at Martinsville, Va. He was also fined $35,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of the season for that incident. Harvick's scorecard in 2002 shows 11 finishes of 25th or lower, including a streak of eight straight after his run-in at Martinsville.

"There's a lot of fair-weather people that were around us, around our group and all of a sudden things go bad and it's just amazing how people don't come around anymore," said Harvick, who is 30th in the standings. "I think myself, even Richard (Childress, team owner), have learned a lot from the situation.

"It hasn't been a career year in the stat books on the racetrack, but it's a career year for us personally, to know who we need around us and who we don't need around us. And that's important in this sport."

But after all the darkness that has surrounded him since the season-opening Daytona 500, Harvick's future may be evolving into a more optimistic light. While not earth-shattering, he enters Sunday's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway with a moderate amount of momentum. He's finished 14th and 11th in his last two starts, and also won the pole last week -- his first in Winston Cup competition.

"There's a lot of different scenarios you can point at (for his struggles this season)," Harvick said. "Whether it is right or wrong, nobody knows.

The driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet could take yet another step toward turning around a dismal season Sunday if he can successfully defend his victory from last year's inaugural event at the suburban Chicago track. Harvick dominated last year's 267-lap race, leading 113 laps around the 1½-mile banked oval. But on the flip side, he's gone winless since then, a span of 34 starts.

Despite all the bad times he's endured, there have also been some bright spots for Harvick this year. He finished third at Darlington, S.C., one of the toughest tracks on the circuit, as well as 10th at Bristol, Tenn.

Since his suspension in April, Harvick has been nothing short of a model driver, his on-track performance notwithstanding. He's had no run-ins on or off the track, he's kept his cool and patiently bided his time.

"The last couple of months I had to just sit back and not say anything about anything, just avoided everything that was going on, and just concentrate on our race teams and our people and really making sure everybody understood where everybody was coming from," Harvick said.

Recent reports of upheaval in the Richard Childress Racing camp -- including rumors of hostility between Harvick and Childress, as well as reports that Harvick may be released at the end of this season -- have been denied both by Childress, who is said to be in negotiations with Harvick on a multi-year extension, as well as Harvick.

"We're getting ready to extend our deal with Richard," Harvick said. "Never once have Richard and I been angry with each other. Everything is really stable and really solid, and we're all in this together.

"Richard and myself and all the guys have just kind of been sitting back and laughing about everything that's been written and going on, and we're just really taking it and putting it in our back pocket and moving forward. ... We're going to climb the mountain and get back to the top of it."

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