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Sunday, May 27
Harvick grabs runner-up finish
By Bill Frederickson
ESPN.com
CONCORD, N.C. -- Kevin Harvick had never run 600 miles before. But you couldn't tell that from his runner-up finish in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The youthful rookie, who picked up his first win earlier this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, had no problem dealing with the circuit's longest race of the year.
|  | | Kevin Harvick, who won earlier this year at Atlanta, finished second in his first Coca-Cola 600. |
"I'm not tired, to tell you the truth," said Harvick, who also participated in Saturday's 300-mile Busch Series event at LMS. "Heck, I haven't even broke a sweat yet."
Harvick started the race sixth, but quickly backpeddled through the field with an ill-handling ride. The Bakersfield, Calif., native said his team was not exactly sure what they wanted in a setup for Sunday's race.
"We made some educated guesses, and almost got down a lap there during the race," Harvick said. "But we fought back and kept going and kept digging and the race track came to us."
Teams constantly search for the right combination to get around the 1.5-mile tri-oval as fast as they can. What makes that task more difficult is the fact the race is started under the sun, and ends under the lights.
"The biggest thing is that our car started out extremely loose and Richard (Childress, team owner) kept preaching to me to hang in there," Harvick said. "He kept saying that everything would come around. As soon as the sun went behind the grandstands, the car came around."
Once Harvick's Monte Carlo "came around," he quickly made his way through the field. In fact, the circuit's Rookie of the Year points leader said he thought he even had a chance to catch eventual race winner Jeff Burton.
"We got a little bit tight there at the end and everything just turned into give and take," Harvick said. "One lap we'd be faster and one lap he'd be faster. I was kind of hoping for a caution so we'd get another restart. But that's the way it goes."
A restart might not have helped Harvick. By the end of the race, Tony Stewart was turning in impressive lap times and trying to make his way past Harvick into second.
"He had the fastest car," said Harvick, who currently sits 11th in the Winston Cup standings. "He never got close enough to really challenge us, he just kind of ran out of laps. He definitely had a faster car than we did. He just ran out of laps and finished third."
Harvick was happy to post another strong finish. He says his team has put good cars on the track, but have suffered a little bad luck in recent weeks.
"We had a good chance to win Bristol," Harvick said. "We were real good at California. We've been running real good, we just haven't had everything come together to get the finishes. But it's been a good day." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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