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Let us consider the case, not to mention the plight, of one Kevin Harvick, a man for whom Phoenix International Raceway is decidedly different.

The world isn’t Harvick’s oyster. Phoenix is.

Harvick, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion and last year's runner-up, has won six of the last eight races at PIR, a track that is as different from the one in New Hampshire as a flat mile can be. For instance, it's in the desert, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway is in the anti-desert. Phoenix has an inexplicable crook on the wrong side of the track.

The eight-time career winner in Avondale (Ariz.) has won once in Loudon (N.H.).

Harvick has won 29.6 percent of all his Cup races at PIR. He has won 4.7 percent of all his Cup races everywhere else. He takes to the Desert Mile as reptiles to rodents. He is a regular Gila Monster out there.

By a margin of eight inches or so, Harvick won Phoenix's “spring race” -- this one was the Good Sam 500, which isn't 500 miles but 312, and is really a winter race -- for the third year in a row.

Even Good Sam, whoever or whatever he is, should be willing to make it the Good Kevin 500 next year. It’s only fair, and it would be good publicity.

Yet, out of the last 22 times that Harvick has led the most laps in a race, only seven times has he won.

This isn't disparagement. It's fact. I can't understand it. Harvick is no shrinking violet. He is a tough, smart driver, and it was never more evident than on Sunday while he was defending the lead on worn tires against Carl Edwards' fresher Toyota. The two drivers traded licks, not enough to wreck but enough to rattle. Harvick's bump blunted Edwards' momentum at just the right time, and it was enough to hang on.

How come, so many other times, he doesn't hang on? Beats me. Whatever the reason it, it doesn't apply to Phoenix. By hook or crook, Harvick wins.

As my daddy used to say, “Damndest thing ever I seen.”