When he won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in early August, Kevin Harvick boldly predicted he could still catch Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth.

It didn't matter that Kenseth led Harvick by 529 points at the time, with 15 races left to go. As far as Harvick was concerned, the championship chase was still wide open.

Fast-forward two months and Harvick's prediction isn't looking so bad. He's cut Kenseth's lead after Indy in half, going from a 529-point deficit to its current 259-point spread with six races to go.

In just the last two races alone, Harvick and the No. 29 Chevrolet have gained 177 points on Kenseth and the No. 17 Ford. At the same time, Harvick has finished strong in the last two events, while Kenseth has suffered his two worst finishes of the season, snapping what had been an uncanny consistency in the first 28 races.

And now it comes down to this: the final six races on the schedule, a may-the-best-man-win scenario, starting with Saturday night's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The script couldn't be any simpler: the hungry Harvick hoping to cut even deeper into Kenseth's shrinking lead, and Kenseth trying desperately to remain cool, calm, collected and in control of the points lead, just as he has done for the past 27 weeks.

People laughed two months ago when Harvick said he could still catch Kenseth, providing he got the right breaks and Kenseth got the wrong breaks. Suddenly, people aren't laughing anymore. Harvick has the potential and momentum to steal the championship away from Kenseth.

What's more, for all those naysayers who think Harvick still has no chance of catching Kenseth, Harvick would vociferously beg to differ -- and he'd have history on his side.

For it was 11 seasons ago, in 1992, that Winston Cup witnessed the greatest comeback it has ever seen. Alan Kulwicki was 278 points behind points leader Bill Elliott with six races to go.

While others saw a mountain too high to climb, Kulwicki saw a molehill that just needed a little strategy and luck to hop over … and that's exactly what he did. Methodically and confidently, Kulwicki kept chipping away at Elliott's lead until he did what many said couldn't be done: he overtook Elliott in the final race of the season (at Atlanta), winning the title by a mere 10 points, the closest championship-winning margin ever in Cup history.

Harvick finds himself in nearly the identical position, with a big coincidence thrown in. It was Kenseth who cheered Kulwicki on 11 years ago, rooting for the underdog from their mutual home state of Wisconsin. Now, rather than Kulwicki being the hunter, it's Kenseth who finds himself as the hunted … and Harvick stalking ever so closer.

"Alan Kulwicki won when he was 278 points down with six races left and we're 259 (down), so we're still going on the chance that it could happen," Harvick said. "We're digging, and Matt's having some bad luck. If we keep knocking the lead off 80 or 100 points at a time, we're going to be in good shape in a couple of weeks. Right now, we're just going out and doing everything we can every week.

"It's kind of neat for this whole team to be in a position to think we have a shot at the championship. There's definitely some electricity and some excitement. There's a little extra effort in everything."

Yet with all the confidence he's brimming with, Harvick is also a realist. He knows the onus is still on him to overtake Kenseth. The championship isn't so much Kenseth's to lose, it's Harvick's to win by working work tremendously hard in these final half-dozen races.

"We're still a fair amount (of points) back and he's still going to have to have some problems for us to get right back into it," Harvick said. "For the most part, we just have to keep doing what we've been doing, run up front and lead laps. We can't control what he does, that's the main thing."

At the same time, Harvick has to temper his enthusiasm and continue to do what he's done since Indianapolis: drive smart, drive hard and drive with focus. One significant bobble along the way in the final six races could all but seal any hopes he has of overtaking Kenseth.

"I think you have to pay attention to what he's doing," Harvick said. "You want to outrun him really bad every week right now so you pay more attention to him than you do everybody else. Anytime you can do that, you are going to gain ground on him -- whether he's running 30th and you are running 15th -- you're still gaining the points you need to be gaining.

"Matt and those guys have been consistent all year and done what they've needed to do. There's a reason that they have that points lead: It's because they've run so good all year. So, we just have to wait and see how they react to everything, and if we can keep our string of things going like they've been going through the middle part of the year."

Harvick's climb to second-place in the standings and his ascension to the one lone obstacle between Kenseth and the championship actually began before Indianapolis. It was late June, on the road course at Infineon Raceway, in Harvick's native California, that he finished third in the Dodge/Save Mart 350.

In the 15 races since then, Harvick recorded eight top-five finishes (including his win at Indy), and three other top-10 showings, and has jumped from 11th in the standings heading into Infineon to his current spot right on Kenseth's bumper. In the same time frame, Kenseth has recorded just three top-five finishes and six other top-10 showings.

"This sport goes in chunks of momentum and you can get that monkey on your back and never get rid of it, or you can get it on there and kick it right off and go right back to where you were," Harvick said. "The main thing is knowing that those guys (Kenseth's team) have had the year they've had, and they've earned the right to have the lead that they have. I think that's what's good about our points system. It rewards the most consistent driver throughout the year."

Even though he's only in his third full season in Winston Cup, Harvick is used to being a long shot … and succeeding, as well. When he was tabbed by team owner Richard Childress to replace the irreplaceable Dale Earnhardt after Earnhardt was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500, Harvick stepped up to the plate in a way unlike any rookie had done before.

He won his first Cup race in only his third start after taking over for Earnhardt, he went on to win Rookie of the Year going away the same season, he won the Busch Series championship while competing in 70-plus events (Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Trucks) in the season. While he struggled last season as a sophomore Cup competitor, he has bounced back tremendously.

That's why if anyone can still catch Kenseth, it's Harvick.

"It's not over," Harvick said. "It's a long shot (to win the title), but we've been a long shot before and overcome the odds and done things they said we couldn't do. If they think it's over, just tell them to quit showing up and we'll keep racing."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com.