Category: Post-Race Reports
05/15/10
DOVER, Del. (May 16, 2010) — Earning his eighth top-10 finish of the season, Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 team started the Heluva Good! 200 at the famous ‘Monster Mile’ of Dover (Del.) International Speedway from the 10th spot and finished solidly in the sixth position.
“The guys did a great job today on pit road and we were able to get a good finish with our Ollie’s Bargain Outlet Chevrolet,” said Harvick. “Dover hasn’t been one of my better tracks, but we kept at it today, making adjustments and making the car better. We missed it a little on the first stop, but after that we continued to make the car better and it showed with our finish. It was a good day for the team.”
Taking to the one-mile concrete oval for 200 miles, Harvick quickly moved from his 10th-place starting position to the seventh spot by lap three. Settling into the eighth spot with a loose-handling car, Harvick was able to make his first stop of the race on lap 34 under caution for four tires, fuel and an air-pressure adjustment to help with the handling. With a solid stop by the No. 33 team, Harvick restarted the race on lap 38 from the sixth position.
Slipping a few positions, Harvick was back in the eighth spot on lap 50 when he radioed crew chief Ernie Cope that the handling of the car was worse than before the round of changes. With the car ‘terrible loose,’ Cope made the call to bring Harvick back down pit road on lap 80 under caution. Pitting from the 10th spot, Harvick took on four tires with an air-pressure adjustment, fuel and a track-bar adjustment. Again, following a fast stop by the team, Harvick gained positions on pit road and restarted the race from the eighth spot on lap 86.
Moving up to seventh, Harvick said the car was better following the previous round of adjustments. With the caution waving again on lap 104, Harvick came back to pit road for four tires, fuel and another round of adjustments. Unfortunately, most of the leaders stayed on track causing Harvick to be mired in traffic on the restart. The race would return to green-flag conditions on lap 109 with Harvick in the 14th position.
With four fresh tires, Harvick began to pick his way through traffic and moved back in to the top 10 on lap 146. Five laps later, the caution was waved on lap 151 with Harvick in the 10th spot. Making his final stop of the 200-lap race, Harvick came to pit road for four tires, fuel and a final round of adjustments on lap 153. Harvick gained one spot to restart the race on lap 156 from the ninth position.
Gaining two spots following the restart, Harvick was scored in the seventh position on lap 192 when the caution flag waved for a single-car incident. Restarting the race on lap 198, a multi-car accident on the same lap would force NASCAR to red flag the race and move the Heluva Good! 200 into overtime with a green-white-checkered finish. Following the clean up, the race restarted on lap 203. Maintaining his position, Harvick crossed the finish line in the sixth spot to earn his 10th top-eight finish (out of 11 starts) of the season.
Kyle Busch earned his fourth win of the season followed by Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, Reed Sorenson and Jason Leffler.
STATS RECAP
May 15, 2010
Dover International Speedway
Heluva Good! 200
Race: 11 of 35
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Started: 10th
Finished: 6th
Owner’s Point Standings: 4th (+/- 0 spots, 64 points out of 1st)
Driver’s Point Standings: 3rd (+/- 0 spots, 64 points out of 1st)
Race length: 200 laps/200 miles
Banking: 24-degrees in turns
9-degrees on straight-a-ways
Track layout: 1.0-mile
Shape: Oval
Number of Race Cautions: 6 for 25 Laps
Red Flag: One Time for 11 minutes and 43 seconds
Final Practice: 17th (23.755 seconds; 151.547 mph)
Qualifying: 10th (23.287 seconds; 154.593 mph)
Next on the Nationwide Series Schedule:
Date: May 29, 2010
Track: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway
Event Name: TECH-NET Auto Service 300
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Sponsor: Miracle Whip
Broadcast Time: 2:00 p.m., ET on ABC and 2:00 p.m., ET on MRN Radio