Kevin Harvick was going to be happy with a second-place finish, at Daytona, behind teammate Clint Bowyer, only an overtime restart changed all that.
Clint Bowyer, looking for his first win of the year had the field covered, only a crash seconds before the white flag was waved and the field was lined up for a double-file restart. “And really coming to the white I thought it was going to be the 33 (Bowyer) first and us second, and then the caution came out and we could see the white flag. I was content about that. I knew those guys needed a good day, and I knew you never know what's going to happen on the last lap with people pushing and shoving from the back. But on the last restart, once the 24 (Jeff Gordon) pulled out and slowed those outside two lines down, that was pretty much the end of it,” said Harvick who beat Kasey Kahne and Gordon in the rain-delayed race which went six laps into overtime. Explaining late-race restarts Harvick continued “it was every man for himself at that point, just for the fact with the double file restarts and the way that it all shook out. At that point you just hope that your line goes faster than the other line, and fortunately tonight we were in the right line on the bottom. And it wound up working out.” Kevin Harvick had started from the pole due to qualifying being rained out, and a shower before the start forced a 93-minute delay before the green flag was waved. The early half of the race was relatively trouble-free. After the 100-lap mark Juan Pablo Montoya turned a strong –running Kyle Busch into the wall which signaled things to come. A 19-car crash on lap 148 caused a nearly 20-minute red flag stoppage after Jeff Burton and Kurt Busch, two contenders for the win, bounced off one another.
Clint Bowyer seemed to have the car to win and his teammate, Harvick was going to help him. Only that final caution came out and changed the game plan. Jeff Gordon said “at that point it was just about the restart, and got a good restart, was pushing Clint, and I don't know what happened. It just seemed like he was riding the brakes, and we weren't going anywhere. So I went to pass him, and that kind of just messed up our momentum to really have a shot at winning, so we're pretty happy to finish third. Kasey Kahne’s explanation was “but I was just pushing the 29 (Harvick). That was my only choice. I just did that, and I never had a chance to pass the 29, so I just kept pushing.” Jeff Gordon added “I'm just happy to survive one of these restrictor plate races.” This was the last race on the 30-year-old asphalt. Track officials announced that it would be repaved following the two-and-a-half hour red flag in February for a pot hole. Dale Earnhardt Jr, winner of Friday night’s Nationwide race finished fourth "We were terrible all night," he said. "We were real lucky." Same old Daytona,” Kevin Harvick said, ”cars moving around and bouncing around, and handling came into play, and you saw a lot of passing and shuffling, and then there at the end we had the big wreck and we were fortunate to be in front of it.”
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