(Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
To say that 2009 has been a struggle for Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil team would be a severe understatement.
Winless since the '07 Daytona 500, Harvick currently has an average finish on the year of 22nd, two DNFs and currently sits 23rd in the points standings.
The good news? This week, the NASCAR Sprint cup Series races into Richmond, a track Harvick is very good at.
“All the flat tracks have been out strong point through the years. As we go to the flatter race tracks during this point in the season, it's always something we look forward to. I grew up (racing) at Phoenix on the flat tracks.
Most everything we raced out there was pretty flat and kind of worn out, so that's the kind of technique I grew up racing with. That's just something we've put a lot of effort into and we've always been kind of good at it.”
Between his Nationwide and Cup career, Harvick has 36 starts, five win, 16 top fives and 25 top 10s.
The racing got off to an early start when Happy took 11th in Tony Stewart's fifth annual Prelude to the Dream on Wednesday night.
It was an even busier weekend for Harvick once he reached Richmond International Raceway, with a long all-in-one Nationwide Series practice, followed by Sprint Cup practice and qualifying for both events.
Harvick finished practice and Happy Hour 18th and 19th on the speed chart, respectively, and qualified later that day for the Cup race in the 19th position.
“I think our Jimmy John's Chevrolet was pretty good,” Harvick told Andy Petree during Nationwide Series practice. “The hard thing to tell is the tires fall off so much we don't want to dial ourself out to a tire that's fallin' off.”
Unhappy with his qualifying lap, Harvick took the green flag for the Virginia 529 College Savings 250. But don't think he let that stop him--by the lap nine restart Harvick was up to 14th and continued to work his way through the field.
By lap 19, Harvick had ended heated side by side battles with David Reutimann and Jason Leffler, and passed 10th place car Brendan Gaughan to enter the top ten.
The No. 33 Jimmy John's Chevrolet was eighth when the second caution of the night came out on lap 41, when the leaders came down pit road a lap later. Harvick was complaining to his crew about needing more forward bite. A slow stop by the team sent the owner driver back five spots, and he restarted 13th.
10 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete