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Sunday, July 15
Harvick wins Chicagoland's first
Associated Press
JOLIET, Ill. -- Kevin Harvick, the youngster who replaced
superstar Dale Earnhardt after the Intimidator was killed in the
season-opener, raced off with the inaugural Tropicana 400 and some
vindication Sunday at the new Chicagoland Speedway.
The 25-year-old Harvick, elevated to a full-time ride in Winston
Cup a year ahead of schedule after Earnhardt's death in the Daytona
500, was praised to the skies for his emotional victory in Atlanta
three races after taking over the car.
|  | | Jarrett, 88, moved into a tie with Jeff Gordon atop the Winston Cup points standings. |
But this one meant more to Harvick and the rest of his Richard
Childress Racing team.
After celebrating for the sellout crowd of 85,000 with some
doughnuts and a long, smoky burnout in front of the grandstand,
Harvick scrambled from his white No. 29 Chevrolet and began to
celebrate with team owner Childress and his crew.
"This means a lot," Harvick said. "When you're stuck on your
first win, everybody says `He's a flash in the pan.' Well, here's
our second win now."
This one came in the 18th race of the year and Harvick's 17th
and kept him solidly in the top 10 in the season standings.
Harvick, who also is running a full Busch Series schedule and is
leading the points in that series, ran strong throughout Sunday's
267-lap race on the new 1½-mile, D-shaped tri-oval. He took the
lead for good on lap 242, passing Mark Martin just as pole-winner
Todd Bodine spun for the second time in the race, bringing out a
caution flag.
Typically, the racing groove on the new track was narrow and
cars that ventured off that area often paid a price. There were
nine caution flags and two drivers were injured.
Mike Skinner, Harvick's teammate, cut a tire and slammed into the wall at close to 180 mph. He was knocked unconscious for a few
moments, but was awake and alert when removed from the car.
Skinner, who also crashed Friday in practice, was limping and
was helped to the ambulance by two safety workers. He was
transported by ambulance to a hospital.
"He's awake and alert but he is a little sore around the
shoulders and neck," Childress said.
Later in the race, Jerry Nadeau, who led several times and
appeared to have a good shot at his second win, lost an oil line
and Roy "Buckshot" Jones slid through the oil and hit the wall
hard.
Jones was examined for pain in his left knee and took fluids for
dehydration on the hot, humid afternoon. He was later released from
the track's infield medical center.
The final caution flag flew on lap 258 when Tony Stewart slowed and was tapped from behind by Sterling Marlin. Stewart, who had been running eighth, spun and hit the wall. He was not injured, but
the caution bunched the field for a restart five laps from the end
and gave runner-up Robert Pressley one last shot at Harvick.
Pressley tried to psyche out the rookie leader, driving
right up on his rear bumper several times before the green flag
came out for the start of lap 263.
"Me and Kevin's never race together," Pressley said. "I
wanted to just shake him up a little bit and maybe make him run a
little wide in turn one. I thought if I could get my nose under
him, I might be able to get by him. I just wanted to rattle his
cage."
The kid didn't fluster, though he did call the experience
"nerve-racking."
"I knew we had the car to win it and I just tried to keep it
smooth and not do anything stupid," Harvick said.
It was no contest, with Pressley more concerned about keeping
Ricky Rudd behind him than pushing Harvick, who won by 0.649
seconds -- about five car-lengths -- over Pressley's Ford. Rudd was
third, followed by Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Spencer, Martin,
Matt Kenseth and rookie Kurt Busch, all in Fords. Marlin and Bill Elliott were ninth and 10th in Dodges, while last week's winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was next in another Chevy.
Jeff Gordon, who came into the race with a 48-point lead over Jarrett in the season standings, overcame a 28th-place start to
become a contender until a late-race engine problem relegated him
to 17th, the last car on the lead lap.
With the season at the halfway point, Jarrett moved into a tie
with Gordon for the points lead, with Rudd just 18 points behind. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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