Kevin Harvick overcomes multiple pit road problems, several wrecks, to go ahead and grab the win at the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kevin of course was driving his own KHI #33 machine.
February 2010
Harvick Wins, Despite Bad Pit Stops
on
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
LAS VEGAS — The best car in the Sam’s Town 300 finally got to the front — just in time to win the race.
Frustrated by slow stops on pit road and a variety of different tire strategies on the part of his competitors, Harvick passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 25 laps left in Saturday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and pulled away to beat Hamlin by 1.361 seconds.
The victory was Harvick’s first of the season and the 35th of his career, second best all-time in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.
Carl Edwards ran third, polesitter Brad Keselowski fourth and Brian Vickers fifth. Trevor Bayne, Justin Allgaier, Paul Menard, Greg Biffle and Steve Wallace completed the top 10. Danica Patrick fell out of the race after a crash on Lap 83 and finished 36th in her final NASCAR race before returning full-time to the IndyCar Series.
Fortunately for Harvick, his No. 33 Chevrolet had enough muscle to overcome what crew chief Ernie Cope termed the team’s “worst day ever” on pit road. Harvick lost spots on every exchange of pit stops.
“The car was really fast,” said Harvick, who led a race-high 82 laps, most of them early in the race before getting burned by the lackluster work in the pits. “We’ve definitely got some work to do on pit road, but, fortunately, the car was fast enough.
“I get mad, and they (the crew) know how I am and what I expect of them. … But you can only gripe about it so long, and then you have to go back and drive the car.”
Kyle Busch led 43 laps and was chasing Harvick and Hamlin during the final 25-lap green-flag run before contact with the wall in Turn 2 slowed his progress and dropped him to 16th at the finish. Busch, however, had the strongest car at the midpoint of the 200-lap race and led Vickers by 3.537 seconds when NASCAR yellow-flagged the race for the fourth time on Lap 104 because of a light rain shower.
That caution came 21 laps after Patrick’s No. 7 Chevrolet slammed into the outside wall, thanks to contact from Michael McDowell’s Dodge. Patrick, who pitted for fuel on Lap 17 and ran as high as third during a cycle of green-flag stops, had returned to the track with fresh tires and was closing quickly on McDowell, who was logging laps after blowing a tire and hitting the wall on Lap 16.
As Patrick ducked to the inside to make the pass, McDowell turned down and took away her line.
“Holy (expletive)! He (expletive) turned down,” Patrick fumed on the radio right after the wreck. “He’s got a broken rear bumper, and he’s (expletive) trying to race!”
McDowell took full responsibility for the incident, which relegated Patrick to a 36th-place finish in her final Nationwide race before her scheduled return to the series at New Hampshire in June.
“It was completely 100-percent my fault,” McDowell said. “The closing rate was so much, there just wasn’t much time to make a decision.”
Note: Edwards retained the series points lead by 41 over second-place Keselowski, 48 over Vickers in third and 56 over Allgaier in fourth.
Brad Keselowski blisters field, with record pole
on
1 22 Brad Keselowski
2 33 Kevin Harvick
3 60 Carl Edwards
4 20 Denny Hamlin
5 18 Kyle Busch
6 98 Paul Menard
7 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #
8 11 Brian Scott #
9 27 Greg Biffle
10 32 Brian Vickers
11 16 Colin Braun #
12 88 Kelly Bires
13 12 Justin Allgaier
14 21 John Wes Townley
15 66 Steve Wallace
16 1 James Buescher #
17 96 Dennis Setzer
18 99 Trevor Bayne
19 70 Shelby Howard
20 09 Scott Riggs
21 42 Parker Kligerman #
22 87 Joe Nemechek
23 15 Michael Annett
24 56 Kevin Lepage
25 05 Willie Allen
26 62 Brendan Gaughan
27 07 Danny Efland
28 40 Mike Bliss
29 31 Stanton Barrett
30 90 Danny O’Quinn Jr.
31 38 Jason Leffler
32 43 Scott Lagasse Jr.
33 81 Michael McDowell
34 01 Mike Wallace
35 10 Chad Blount
36 24 Eric McClure
37 7 Danica Patrick
38 28 Kenny Wallace
39 61 Josh Wise
40 34 Tony Raines
41 23 Robert Richardson Jr.
42 26 Brian Keselowski
43 49 Mark Green
Kurt Busch nabs hometown pole
on
Hometown driver Kurt Busch grabs his first pole at Las Vegas setting a track record to boot.
1 2 Kurt Busch
2 24 Jeff Gordon
3 39 Ryan Newman
4 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
5 18 Kyle Busch
6 20 Joey Logano
7 16 Greg Biffle
8 5 Mark Martin
9 14 Tony Stewart
10 42 Juan Pablo Montoya
11 17 Matt Kenseth
12 99 Carl Edwards
13 33 Clint Bowyer
14 77 Sam Hornish Jr.
15 87 Joe Nemechek
16 12 Brad Keselowski
17 00 David Reutimann
18 6 David Ragan
19 9 Kasey Kahne
20 48 Jimmie Johnson
21 13 Max Papis
22 31 Jeff Burton
23 82 Scott Speed
24 1 Jamie McMurray
25 34 Travis Kvapil
26 98 Paul Menard
27 11 Denny Hamlin
28 78 Regan Smith
29 71 Bobby Labonte
30 36 Mike Bliss
31 83 Brian Vickers
32 47 Marcos Ambrose
33 55 Michael McDowell
34 29 Kevin Harvick
35 56 Martin Truex Jr.
36 66 Dave Blaney
37 19 Elliott Sadler
38 38 David Gilliland
39 37 Kevin Conway #
40 43 A J Allmendinger
41 26 Boris Said
42 7 Robby Gordon
43 09 Aric Almirola
Video: Take a Virtual Lap around Las Vegas Motor Speedway
onStrap on your helmet and HANS device, and grab the wheel of a 4300 pound stock car, and take a lap around Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Putting you in the drivers seat just ahead of the full race weekend at one of NASCAR’s most popular race tracks.
The Final Lap Weekly 