Kevin Harvick finds cure for his illness in wild Budweiser Shootout victory
Kevin Harvick's team makes a late pit stop. // Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Illustrated
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Kevin Harvick found the best medicine for a bout with a flu bug and a disappointing 2009 season when he returned to Daytona International Speedway.
A visit to the winners’ circle.
Harvick became just the fourth driver to win back-to-back Budweiser Shootout titles when he passed Greg Biffle during a green-white-checkered finish in Saturday night’s event at DIS. It was the Richard Childress Racing driver’s first win since capturing the exhibition event in 2009.
“They want to kick me out already and get sick again,” Harvick joked following his victory. The 34-year-old was forced to stay home on Thursday due to illness, while teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton worked the bugs out of his No. 29 Chevrolet. Bowyer was involved in a multicar crash during practice, and as a result, the team had to unload its backup car for the Shootout.
“It’s a lot of fun to win,” Harvick said. “I know we started the last year the same way. Tonight we led a bunch of laps, ran at the front all night. To go out and have that car start cold, never have a lap on the race track, to have it run like it ran, says a lot for the preparation of the team. It’s a lot about the details.”
Kasey Kahne (Richard Petty Motorsports Ford), Jamie McMurray (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet), Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) and Denny Hamlin (JGR) rounded out the top five after a crash on the 75th lap sidelined Biffle, Roush Fenway teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards, as well as several others.
Harvick led five times for 21 laps, and pocketed $202.357 for the victory. But it looked as if the cards might not fall his way late in the race, when a caution sent the bulk of the field to pit road and set up the green-white-checkered finish.
Harvick brought the field to pit road, but Biffle and Kahne stayed out to inherit the top two spots. When the race resumed, Harvick was fourth.
He was fortunate, he said, that Biffle chose the outside line for the final restart, a move that allowed him to get alongside the leader in Turn 1, then slow enough to allow Kasey Kahne to give him the necessary shove down the backstretch.
“I was hoping that my line would get there before his line,” Harvick said. “I knew if we would get to Turn 3, I was going to be in better shape because I had tires and he didn’t.
“I wanted to maintain side‑by‑side with Biffle because I thought that I had an advantage over him once we got to the next corner.”
The decision to pit for tires was an easy one, he said.
“I saw more [cars] lined up on the yellow line than stayed up on the race track,” he said. “I said, ‘Screw it, we’re going to come in.’”
Told by crew chief Gil Martin that it had to be a two-tire stop only, Harvick agreed, and said, “That wound up being the right call for sure.”
“Really the 1 [of McMurray] is the only car that got up in front of us in the pits. That’s really what won us the race, because Biffle chose the high line. We were able to get going.”
“You know, it’s Daytona. You got to have some sort of tires after you’ve run them that long. And I think I knew that the 14 [of Tony Stewart] was going to come. I knew that the 24 [of Jeff Gordon] was going to have tires. You know, those guys all race.
“When you run that long, they know these race tracks, like we do, that you have to have some sort of tires. No matter if you’re coming to two laps or 10 laps, you’re going to have to have some sort of tires.”
Biffle, who led twice for five laps, said it was a flat right rear tire that caused his Ford to slip in the third turn.
Despite NASCAR’s “hands-off” policy regarding bump-drafting at the 2.5-mile track, the race was relatively calm until the end. Once the field shuffled through the final round of pit stops, the action picked up.
“You would think more [cars] would stay out,” Kahne said of the decision to not pit. “The whole field came in. I was definitely nervous. My car handled good on the bottom. I needed to stay in front of cars. When we got one lap to go, who knows what was going to happen? It would have been pretty wild.
“But, you know, we made it. It worked out well for us. I think it was good, pretty exciting. I liked the way the cars handled tonight.”
As did Harvick. Nothing helps pick up one’s spirits, it seems, like a trip to victory lane.
“I was sick Thursday,” he said. “It was a short sickness. I felt really good when I woke up this morning. Felt good at the second half of the day yesterday. Didn’t have a whole lot of time in the race car. That was probably the only part that concerned me the most.”
As it turned out, his worries were unnecessary.
