Kevin Harvick celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International Speedway Saturday night. Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
Call Kevin Harvick what you want, just don’t call him a lame-duck driver.
Driving in his final season for Richard Childress Racing, Harvick delivered RCR their eighth win in the season-opening non-points race reserved for the previous-year pole winners, holding off final-lap pass attempts by Tony Stewart and Greg Biffle, going high and low across the track to score his third victory in the season-opening non-points event.
Biffle held on for second, followed by Joey Logano, Stewart, and Matt Kenseth.
Harvick has now won three of the last five Sprint Unlimited events, and ties Stewart and Dale Jarrett for the most wins in the event.
It was a fitting way for Harvick to start the 2013 season, which will be his last for the team he started his career with. Word leaked out last November that he will be leaving RCR at the end of the season to join Stewart’s team.
“This is one for the lame ducks,” Harvick told his crew after the race. “Let’s see how many we can get.”
Harvick certainly made the final lap interesting after the race had settled into a ho-hum single-file parade for the last half of the event.
After a five-lap side-by-side duel with Kenseth at the start of the final 20-lap segment, Harvick looked to have the race in the bag until the final last half-lap, when Stewart made his move on the inside on the backstretch, but Harvick came down to block. Biffle tried his luck on the outside in turns three and four, only to have Harvick move up to take the line away and solidify the lead, holding on to beat Biffle by .149 seconds at the line.
“I was really kind of nervous about the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) and the No. 14 (Tony Stewart). I thought their cars were a little bit better than what we had,” said Harvick. “This one was for everybody sitting in the stands and at home. “It’s a good way to start off Speedweeks.”
The boost fan involvement in the Sprint Unlimited, fans were encouraged to vote on-line to determine the race format, starting lineup, type of pit stop following the first segment, and whether or not to eliminate any cars for the third and final segment.
Fans ultimately chose segments of 30, 25 and 20 laps, and to lineup the 19-car field by the order in which they won their pole awards to earn a spot in the Sprint Unlimited.
The fan vote gave 2012 Daytona 500 pole-winner Carl Edwards and Phoenix pole winner Mark Martin the front row, but following a crash in an earlier practice session that forced them both back-up cars, they dropped to the rear of the field for the start putting Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle at the head of the field.
Greg Biffle and Martin Truex, Jr. traded the lead for the first four laps before Matt Kenseth took over the top spot, followed by Marcos Ambrose and Tony Stewart.
On lap 15, Stewart tried to thread the needle around Ambrose to take over the second position, but ended up getting clipped by Ambrose’s Ford. Stewart got sideways but recovered and continued on, but behind him a chain-reaction crash collected nine cars, including Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and defending race winner Kyle Busch.
Racing resumed with Kenseth still out in front and Stewart still holding second with 11 laps to go, but on the white flag lap Stewart got a run on the outside with help from Harvick to take the lead and win the opening segment, followed by Kenseth, Harvick, Carl Edwards and Kahne.
Following the first segment, fan-voting called for a four-tire pit stop, and Stewart led the field to pit road. Harvick’s crew got him out first ahead of Stewart, followed by Kahne, putting them up front for the start of the second segment.
Under green, Harvick pulled out in front and led all but one laps of the 25-lap segment, followed by Biffle, Joey Logano, Stewart and Truex, Jr.
Fans voted for no eliminations for the final segment, and Harvick once again led the field to the green flag, immediately facing a challenge from Kenseth who came up alongside. After five laps, Kenseth couldn’t get any help passing Harvick and dropped back in line as Harvick began to pull away.
The field stayed single file coming to the white flag, where Harvick had to make himself three-wide to fend off Stewart and Biffle to grab the victory.
“I thought about sticking it in there and it just didn’t look like it was going to work to me,” said Biffle. “It looked like it would be sparks and parts flying. He shut the door on the top. That is what Kevin needed to do to win the race. I looked in the mirror and didn’t have anyone pushing me. I figured someone might give me a shove and I could try something else. ”
Harvick delivered RCR their eighth victory in the Sprint Unlimited – five with Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and three with the driver who replaced him – and reassured his team that he’s not planning on lying down in the last ride with them.
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“I think it’s just one of those deals where for us, it’s really not winning races; the politics and everything are one thing, but when we get to the race track it’s about sitting in this race car and making it as fast as it’ll go,” said Harvick. “Those guys, they don’t care about anything but winning and wanting to do good. So, we owe it to them and everybody at Budweiser and I guess we just had to take their name off the race to win it. So, it was an awesome day for us.”
Saturday night’s race marked the first competitive, on-track action for the new Generation 6, or Gen6, stock cars, but most drivers agreed that a 75-lap, 19-car race wasn’t enough to get a feel for what these new cars would do in a multi-pack, 200-lap race like the Daytona 500.
“Handling was a lot less of an issue for us than we had anticipated, so that kind of caught us a little off-guard with the practices,” said Harvick. “But we’ve just got to wait a week and see what the weather is like as the handling may, or may not, be more of an issue as we get into the (Daytona) 500.
“So, there is still a lot to be learned with a full pack of cars and we’ll kind of ease into that with the Duels and then onto the big race on Sunday.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
Sprint Unlimited – Feb. 16, 2013
1. (17) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 75, $205075.
2. (4) Greg Biffle, Ford, 75, $101325.
3. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 75, $61325.
4. (15) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 75, $52325.
5. (12) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 75, $51300.
6. (8) Aric Almirola, Ford, 75, $49900.
7. (3) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 75, $48550.
8. (16) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 75, $46525.
9. (6) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 75, $44525.
10. (14) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 75, $43025.
11. (10) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 75, $42525.
12. (1) Carl Edwards, Ford, 75, $42025.
13. (18) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 15, $41525.
14. (11) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 14, $40025.
15. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Accident, 14, $39525.
16. (13) Kyle Busch, Toyota, Accident, 14, $39025.
17. (7) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, Accident, 14, $36525.
18. (2) Mark Martin, Toyota, Accident, 14, $34525.
19. (19) Terry Labonte, Ford, Vibration, 2, $31499.
Race Statistics
Average Speed of Race Winner: 177.538 mph.
Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 03 Mins, 22 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.149 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 3 for 6 laps.
Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: 0; G. Biffle 1-2; M. Truex Jr. 3-4; M. Kenseth 5-29; T. Stewart 30-33; K. Harvick 34-42; T. Stewart 43; K. Harvick 44-61; M. Kenseth 62; K. Harvick 63-75.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): K. Harvick 3 times for 40 laps; M. Kenseth 2 times for 26 laps; T. Stewart 2 times for 5 laps; G. Biffle 1 time for 2 laps; M. Truex Jr. 1 time for 2 laps.
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