Harvick Wins His First NASCAR Daytona 500

NASCAR Opens Season at Daytona 500

Harvick Wins His First NASCAR Daytona 500 By Brad Gerhart

Kevin Harvick makes a pitstop on his way to his first Daytona 500 win!

Credit: CIA Stock Photo

NASCAR could not ask for a much better start to its season than the 49th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

The race produced a extemely entertaining 200 laps, and one of the most thrilling race finishes in the speedway's history. Kevin Harvick waited patiently and had the courage to come from behind to win his very first Daytona 500 at the age of 31.

Heading to the finish line, the No. 01 of Mark Martin was defenseless against the blazing speeds of Harvick???‚¬?„?s No. 29 car - Harvick also won the Busch Series race on Saturday.

???‚¬?“Just Daytona 500, it's hard to believe,???‚¬ Harvick said. ???‚¬?“I knew I was going to be the bad guy there at the end with Mark leading. But we just held the pedal down and hoped for the best.???‚¬

And the best happened. Harvick crossed the finish line in first place.

But it wasn't easy.

Mark Martin had received a series of great pushes from Kyle Busch over numerous laps as the race headed to its conclusion.

But when Martin needed Busch the most, Busch got caught up in a last-lap accident, which ultimately left Martin a sitting duck for Harvick.

???‚¬?“I felt confident,???‚¬ said Martin about his chances of winning the race. ???‚¬?“Kyle Busch's car was really fast and I thought he was going to be trapped on the inside, he was going to have nowhere to go and have no option but to push me. His car was fast. And we both had Hendrick power, and I still thought we were going to be all right. But then I didn't realize that he was in the wreck.???‚¬

Some questioned and thought perhaps NASCAR should of thrown the caution flag out, since there were numerous cars involved in the last-lap accident. It may of been unsafe for the drivers to race to the end with cars turned every which way. But Martin did not want to make a big deal about the issue.

???‚¬?“Nobody wants to hear a grown man cry, all right? That's what it is. And I'm not going to cry about it. This is what it is, and that's it. That's the end,???‚¬ he said. ???‚¬?“Their decision, they made the decision, and that's what we're going to live with.???‚¬

Chevrolet showed its power as the engine manufacturer swept the top-four finishes (Harvick, Martin, Jeff Burton and Mike Wallace).

Although Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart led the most laps; Busch led 95, to Stewart???‚¬?„?s 35 the two finished on the opposite end of the charts, Busch 41st, Stewart 43rd. The two came in contact with just under 50 laps left. The damage was significant enough to eliminate all hopes of a Daytona 500 victory.

"I???‚¬?„?m still disappointed but we got a lot to be proud of. We had an awesome Speedweeks,???‚¬ said Stewart. ???‚¬?“We had two of the three days go absolutely perfect so this is the only one that didn???‚¬?„?t go right. ???‚¬?“I???‚¬?„?d be lying if I said I wasn???‚¬?„?t disappointed right now but if when we look back a week or two from now, to win two races this week is a pretty strong week.???‚¬

In his first Daytona 500, Juan Pablo Montoya ran clean, but towards the back of the pack for the majority of the night. Montoya???‚¬?„?s car ran very tight throughout the race and he also had gearbox issues in the pits. ???‚¬?“Once we started running good we got to the pits and my crew chief told me to go to reverse,???‚¬ said Montoya. ???‚¬?“When I went to get out of gear and it got stuck between two gears and it broke half the gearbox.???‚¬ But as the race drew to a close, the open-wheel superstar made up ground, onward to a top-20 position (19th).

Three former Series champions did not start the season off on the right foot. Matt Kenseth found himself in contention for the win until he was involved in the last-lap incident. The contact cost Kenseth dearly as he fell all the way back to 27th.

Jeff Gordon fought with his Chevy all race long, the team could not put the 24 car into contention, but Gordon stuck it out and ended the day in 10th. Last year???‚¬?„?s champion and Daytona 500 winner, Jimmie Johnson crashed on lap 173 and finished well back in 39th, like his Hendrick teammate, Gordon, Johnson struggled to find speed and consistency.

???‚¬?“I just didn???‚¬?„?t make it to the finish, unfortunately. We had a problem with the car being really tight,???‚¬ said Johnson. ???‚¬?“We finally got it turning a little bit better. That caution came out and we were starting to make up some ground and get up close to the top 10 and unfortunately had a crash.???‚¬

One 500 mile race is in the books for the 2007 season and another one is on its way this weekend as the stars of NASCAR travel to Fontana, California in what should be another interesting battle.

Several former champions found themselves toward the wrong part of the charts after Sundays race and look to rebound to get out of the red. Whereas many of the young drivers did not allow Daytona to intimidate them and hope for similar results at Fontana.

Brad Gerhart

bgerhart@paddocktalk.com

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