Harvick OnLine: Post-Race Report: Perseverance Leads Harvick To Top-20 Finish At Darlington

Perseverance Leads Harvick and the Shell-Pennzoil team to Top-20 Finish at Darlington

Race/Date: Dodge Avenger 500/May 13, 2007
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway
Start Position: Ninth
Finish Position: 17th
Points Position: Eighth

Driving the same car which he raced to a seventh-place finish last weekend at Richmond International Raceway, Kevin Harvick knew the Shell-Pennzoil team had a good shot at a strong weekend at Darlington Raceway. What the team didn’t count on was spending the majority of the Dodge Avenger 500 climbing back from losing two laps because of an untimely caution flag.

The 17th-place finish was strong enough to keep Harvick in the eighth position in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, 171 points outside of the top five.

The No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet lapped the 1.366-mile oval in 30.038 seconds (163.713 mph) during Friday afternoon’s qualifying session to line up ninth for the 500-mile event.

Saturday’s continuous showers led to the cancellation of all on-track activities and the start of the 367-lap event was pushed back to Sunday afternoon.

Teamwork was the key to the 17th-place finish as the handling on the Shell-Pennzoil Chevy was not quite to Harvick’s liking throughout the event. Harvick battled the issues of not turning well enough in the center of the corner and not having enough rear grip in order to get in the gas off the corners from the beginning to the end of the race.

With each pit stop, crew chief Todd Berrier called for air pressure and chassis adjustments that never really seemed to help the handling issues on the bright yellow and red machine.

With a little over 130 laps remaining, Harvick was about to lose a lap to the leaders. Berrier decided to take a gamble and bring Harvick down pit road early for a scheduled green-flag pit stop. Unfortunately, a caution flag waved just five laps later and the 11-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series winner found himself two laps down.

The bad luck didn’t stop there. On lap 303, “Happy” Harvick ran over a piece of debris which caused his left-rear tire to go flat. When the tire blew, it also caused minor damage to the left-rear quarter panel. The 31-year-old driver hit pit road several times during the ensuing caution to repair the damage.

Still racing two laps down, Harvick and the Shell-Pennzoil team didn’t give up. Instead, the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet could be found up front running with the leaders attempting to regain the lost laps. With less then 60 laps remaining, the team knew they would have to have some quick cautions to climb back.

Harvick moved back into the top 25 by lap 339 and a caution flag flew on lap 343.

Berrier summoned Harvick to pit road for a routine four-tire pit stop. “Happy” was the first car on the inside row for the restart on lap 348. The 2007 Daytona 500 winner soared passed the leaders and a quick caution flag flew on lap 350. Harvick was finally back on the lead lap and moved into the 23rd position.

Harvick wasn’t’ satisfied there and again fought to pick up all the spots he could before the end of the event, finishing in the 17th position.

Jeff Gordon won his third race of the season followed by Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards.

Harvick’s Richard Childress Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton finished ninth and 10th, respectively.

On Wednesday, the Shell-Pennzoil over-the-wall crew will participate in the third annual Pit Crew Challenge. The event will be held at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena and will begin at 7 p.m.

Next up for Harvick and the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil team is the NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge live from Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The event will be telecast live on SPEED, Saturday, May 19 beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the All-Star race will be televised live on SPEED Friday, at 6 p.m. EDT and broadcast on PRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.

KEVIN HARVICK - NO. 29 SHELL CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO SS –

“We had some handling issues and lost a few laps during the race. We also couldn’t catch a break today. Sooner or later it will work out for us. It was a good effort for the Shell-Pennzoil team to fight back from being two laps down. The team never gave up and I really appreciated it.”