You can definitely say Kevin Harvick has a flair for the dramatic.

He has 15 career Sprint Cup Series wins, and by my count, seven of those had especially thrilling finishes, including three of the past five coming down to last-lap passes. One of the two Harvick won with a pass with a very boring two laps to go. He must've gotten bored with all that extra time up front.

But dating back to his very first career win -- where Harvick beat Jeff Gordon to the line by six thousandths of a second, which is basically the distance of space between paragraphs, depending on your font size -- he's made winning by a razor-thin margin a trademark.

So let's take a moment to appreciate what Harvick has done (pause for effect). He's now won 15 career Cup races, something only 48 other drivers have done, with a pair of Nationwide Series titles and a Cup rookie of the year award.

He had that pesky 115-race winless streak immediately following his 2007 Daytona 500 win. Since then, however, he's won four of 31 races.

And while the chatter was there for a bit that he could only win on restrictor-plate tracks, his past two wins have been on 2-mile ovals.

There's more, after the catchy title.

Save The Best For Last

Harvick led only the most important lap at California, the final one. All the others are simply overrated, just ask Kyle Busch (more on that later).

Going back to the start of the 2007 season, there have only been five drivers who have led only the final lap of a Cup Series event, and Harvick was the first to do it in nearly two years.

Trivia break: Who is the only driver to make his first career lap led the final lap of a race?

He Loves Drama

Over the past two Sprint Cup seasons, there's been a trio of races decided by a last-lap pass. Kevin Harvick has been involved in every one of them.

Last year, he passed Jamie McMurray coming to the checkered flag to win at Talladega. Then in the fall Talladega race, teammate Clint Bowyer was a nose in front of Harvick when the final caution came out.

It's just like "NASCAR Now" producer Jeff Ross said: Call him Kyra Sedgwick, because he's the closer.

Trivia break: When was the last time we had five different winners in the first five races?

The Other Side

Of course, where there's a dramatic, out-of-nowhere win, there's usually a heartbreaking loss as well.

For that, I point not to Jimmie Johnson, who was on the downside of that last-lap pass, but Kyle Busch, who led 151 of 200 laps but had to settle for third.

That's tied for the fourth-most laps ever led in a Cup race at California, and I need not remind you that this year's race had 50 fewer than those of California races past.

It's the second-most for a driver who didn't win. Greg Biffle led 168 in 2006, but finished 42nd after losing an engine.

Trivia break: Who holds the record for most laps led in a California race?

Trivia Break Answers

1) Brad Keselowski's 2009 win at Talladega came via his first career lap led.
2) That was 2005, when 15 different drivers visited Victory Lane.
3) Johnson led 228 in his 2008 California win.