Runnerup Kevin Harvick leads strong performance at Indy for Richard Childress Racing

By Jay Pfeifer

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Kevin Harvick led a strong performance by RCR with his second-place finish at Indy.

LaDon George
NASCAR Illustrated

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INDIANAPOLIS - Runnerup Kevin Harvick had the top Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the Brickyard 400, but his RCR teammates weren’t far behind.

All three RCR drivers finished in the top six at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Clint Bowyer in fourth and Jeff Burton placing sixth.

A gutsy call by crew chief Gil Martin put Harvick’s No. 29 in contention for the

win.

During a pit stop on lap 139, Martin chose to take two tires instead of four. The call put Harvick in third place behind Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart and right in the middle of a pack of six cars that employed the same strategy.

On the restart, Harvick shot to the front, passing both Stewart and McMurray and leading for five laps.

“When I got the two right-side tires and took off, got a good restart, got by Jamie, we were just driving away,” Harvick said.

But when Juan Pablo Montoya and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked and brought out the final caution flag on lap 147, Harvick lost precious momentum.

“I was real excited on that first go because I thought we were better than [McMurray],” crew chief Gil Martin said. “But once we got a cycle on the tires, his tires kept going and we got too tight.”

Though the leaders stayed out, Harvick couldn’t hold off McMurray on the lap-149 restart.

“He took off and I didn't,” Harvick said. “I guess we didn't need the last caution. I just think the sticker right-side tires carried us through on that first restart. Once we got that one cycle on them, I just got way too tight.”

McMurray beat Harvick on the restart and never surrendered the lead. Harvick did, however, hold off third-place finisher Greg Biffle, solidifying his lead in the point standings. He left the Brickyard with a 184-point advantage over second-place Jeff Gordon, an 81-point increase.

“[We] took a chance to try to win the race,” Harvick, the winner of the 2003

Brickyard 400, said. “All but capitalized on it and came up one short.”

Harvick recorded the best finish but RCR was strong from the beginning with each car starting in the top 10 and running with the leaders for most of the race.

Even though the trophy wasn't going back to the team's Welcome, N.C.,

headquarters, Scott Miller, competition director for RCR, was pleased with

the team's overall performance.

"There’s no way you can come away from a day like that across the board with

being disappointed,” he said. “When you put yourself in a position to win and you can’t

capitalize on it, it’s a little bit disheartening. I know it was a little bit for Kevin. We got a little tight there and he couldn’t maintain that.

"From a points perspective and a company perspective, we’re going away from

here really happy."