Joliet, Ill. ? Kevin Harvick is ready to talk about something other than bad behavior and poor performances.

He comes to Chicagoland Speedway encouraged by his first career pole last week in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona and an 11th-place finish his best in four months. He also should feel confident as defending champion of the Tropicana 400, a race he won after leading 113 of 267 laps.

Kevin Harvick, left, talks with team owner Richard Childress after practice for the NASCAR Sirius Satellite Radio 400 last month at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. Last year's top Winston Cup rookie and Busch Series champion has been in seclusion and in the doldrums through much of this season, trying not to make waves and struggling just to be competitive.

Harvick had two victories in 2001 and was Rookie of the Year after taking over the Richard Childress Chevrolet following the death of Dale Earnhardt. Harvick was expected to challenge for the championship this year, but he’s finished no better than 10th and is 30th in the points race.

And the numbers don’t reflect just have badly things have gone. Harvick was criticized repeatedly by other drivers for his on-track tactics early this season, and was put on probation by NASCAR after tangling with Greg Biffle in a Busch series race in March.

A few weeks later, Harvick intentionally spun out Coy Gibbs during a Craftsman Truck series race. NASCAR fined him $35,000 for that and took the unprecedented step of suspending Harvick for a Winston Cup event.

Since then, he’s gone from frequently disruptive to nearly reclusive.

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

On Sunday, Harvick would like to be talking again from the winner’s circle explaining how he ended a 34-race losing streak. That could at least slow speculation that he’s about to lose one of the top rides in the sport.

Harvick said he not worried.

“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,” he said. “We’re just really taking it and putting it in our back pocket and moving forward.”

The 26-year-old Californian insists there has been at least one positive development this season. After his great start last year when he also won the Busch title Harvick says he has learned the identity of his real friends

“It hasn’t been a career year in the stat books on the race track, but it’s a career year for us personally,” he said. “To know who we need around us and who we don’t need around us. And that’s important in this sport.”

Harvick said that the team didn’t do anything different in the offseason, but noted several factors that probably contributed to the difficult first half.

He cited expansion from a two- to a three-car operation, and said information from the team’s Busch operation has not transferred as well as when he was driving both cars last season. Also contributing have been accidents that kept him from contending in some races.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios you can point at,” Harvick said. “Whether it is right or wrong, nobody knows. We got behind.

“The guys at RCR aren’t used to being behind. They’re used to being somewhere at least close to the front. They take that pretty personally. They’ve all stepped up. It’s a sign of good things to come and we’re looking forward to it.”