Harvick shines once again at Chicago
By SceneDaily Staff
Sunday, July 13, 2008
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JOLIET, Ill. – This is why Kevin Harvick likes Chicagoland Speedway.
Back at the track where he posted back-to-back wins in 2001 and 2002, and has finished outside the top 10 just twice in eight starts, Harvick netted his best result in more than two months Saturday night with a third-place finish in the LifeLock.com 400.
The outcome gave the Richard Childress Racing driver his first top-five since placing second at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 16.
“We've kind of struggled for last few weeks with good cars and just haven't quite finished where we've run all night, and tonight we finally got everything to go in the same direction, the right direction, and you know, finish it out,” Harvick said. “It was a good night. I’m proud of all my guys. We built new cars the last couple of weeks and [are] building all new cars going forward. So they have worked really hard to get these cars done and, you know, the engine shop's been really making up some ground.
"So hopefully we can gain some momentum and keep everything headed in the right direction these next few weeks heading into the Chase [For The NASCAR Sprint Cup].
Speaking of the Chase, Harvick’s finish did much to boost his chances of making the championship-determining field with just seven races to go before NASCAR’s playoff.
The finish vaulted Harvick four positions to ninth in the standings, leaving him just 10 points behind seventh-place Greg Biffle.
Harvick meanwhile has a 52-point cushion back to his teammate Clint Bowyer, who fell to 13th.
Despite his gains, Harvick wanted another win at Chicago. He was in contention for the victory at the end after moving steadily forward from his 13th-place starting spot to ultimately watch Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson battle door-to-door for the win on a restart with two laps to go.
“We don't ever give up until it's over,” Harvick said. “In those situations, it's very easy to kind of, you know, get loose underneath somebody or something happens, so you just go as hard as you can. And I really thought, yeah, we had a shot. We were just a touch off of those two guys for most of the night and kept ourselves in position. I felt like we were better than everybody behind us.”
But after his recent struggles just to contend for wins, Harvick wasn't complaining about finishing third.
“It was a good night for us [and an] exciting finish,” he said. “[I] felt like the series came off [with] probably the most exciting race that we've had with this [new] car last week. It was fun to be a part of and probably fun to watch and another exciting finish.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Kevin Harvick
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