Sprint Unlimited 2013 Results: Kevin Harvick's Victory Sets Up Dominant Season

Kevin Harvick dominated the competition in the opening race of the Sprint Unlimited 2013 series, and his victory sets him up beautifully for a tremendous final season with Richard Childress Racing.

Harvick and his crew weren't satisfied with the victory, as the AP reports:

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Kevin Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing team sent a message to the garage following their dominating win in the first race of the 2013 season. The team has 38 final races together and plans to get everything out of each one of them...Harvick is determined to show this won't be a lame duck season.

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Harvick is set to move to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, but it's clear he isn't taking his final season with Richard Childress Racing for granted.

He led for 40 of the 75 total laps on Saturday against the rest of the field of this event's winners and pole-position winners, proving that he's ready to take the Generation-6 race car to the next level. It was also Harvick's third time winning this event.

This race was the perfect debut of the new vehicle, and it was an ideal format for such an introduction, as it afforded the drivers a chance to test it out without too much of a risk for a big crash.

Unfortunately, boys will be boys, and there was a bit of a pileup when  Tony Stewart clipped Marcus Ambrose on Lap 15, forcing officials to use the caution flag and forcing six drivers out of the race.

Harvick will now get set to take on a loaded field at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 24. He's a past champion at Daytona, winning the event in 2007. 

If the past three years are any indication, Harvick and his crew are set up for another great run in 2013. He's won nine events now since the beginning of the 2010 season, and during that time, Harvick has placed in the top five a whopping 31 times (including Saturday's win). 

This team is just getting started, though, as 2013 will be a banner year for Harvick and Richard Childress Racing. 

Results and Times

*All times and positions courtesy of Fox Sports

**Times listed are for the cars’ final lap times

Finish	Car No.	Driver	Time	Laps
1	29	Kevin Harvick	46.149	75
2	16	Greg Biffle	46.115	75
3	22	Joey Logano	46.042	75
4	14	Tony Stewart	46.332	75
5	20	Matt Kenseth	45.964.	75
6	43	Aric Almirola	46.279	75
7	5	Kasey Kahne	46.207	75
8	99	Carl Edwards	46.36	75
9	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	45.745	75
10	56	Martin Truex Jr.	45.481	75
11	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	46.807	75
12	9	Marcos Ambrose	68.071	75
13	78	Kurt Busch	UNK	17
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	45.215	15
15	11	Denny Hamlin	45.043	15
16	18	Kyle Busch	45.069	15
17	24	Jeff Gordon	45.078	15
18	55	Mark Martin	45.332	15
19	32	Terry Labonte	45.862	3

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