DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- If this was truly the conclusion to Kevin Harvick's rookie year, being that he has now raced the one race he did not last year, it did not meet the standards the 26-year-old set while winning two events and rookie of the year honors last season.

But even so, he thinks he might have come out successfully in his first 500.

	Kevin Harvick's (No. 29) day ended after a fiery crash on lap 149.

Harvick wrecked on lap 149 and finished 36th Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. It was the worst finish of the five drivers who raced in the Daytona 500 for the first time this year.

"I'm not used to being the worst," he said afterward. "But, as disappointing as it is, it's just one race."

Harvick raced a good race for the most part. In fact, he led the first three laps of the event and was as high as second just before his wreck. But the wreck was just that -- his, as in fault.

True to his dirty-knuckle, don't-give-an-inch style, Harvick refused to give up a spot to Jeff Gordon. So it was on lap 149 Gordon made a move to the inside of Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet and the kid veered down to block it.

He clipped the front of Gordon's car in the process, sending himself flailing at the wall in Turn 1. He crashed off the wall and slid down the banking directly into the flow of traffic. Eighteen cars were collected in the accident.

"I'm not sorry," he said. "That's racing. If I give up that position, I would have fell all the way to the back of the line and then I got to race up to the front, again. I'm not going to give up a spot like that."

Perhaps, despite his lowly finish, Harvick did accomplish something, after all.

"He's the same kid he was last year," said Todd Bodine, who was swept up in the wreck. "He hasn't changed and he won't. That's fine if he wants to be a tough racer, but he's got to be smart, too."

In Harvick's mind, even if he wrecked and finished outside the top 25, he was being smart.

"I'm not deliberately trying to show people I'm tough, but I'm not trying to budge or bend to their requests, either," Harvick said. "You're not going to change the way I drive. I think people are realizing that, now."

But the price to prove that was precious points.

"It's a long season," he said. "The Daytona 500 is a huge race and that's why we tried to win it, but these points count the same as the rest. There's a lot of racing still left."

Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing crew will pack up and prepare a car for next weekend's race at Rockingham, N.C., now. Harvick will put this race behind him and forget about the fact that Harvick still has not COMPLETED the race he never raced in 2001.

But he won't forget why. He won't forget why he stood his ground on lap 149.

"It's me," he said. "Get used to it."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.