News and Media Releases
Harvick Wins Bud Shootout
09/02/2009
Race/Date: Budweiser Shootout – Sat., Feb. 7, 2009 Location: Daytona International Raceway- Daytona Beach, Fla. Start Position: 27th Finish Position: 1st
Kevin Harvick seems to have a knack for creating dramatic finishes at Daytona International Speedway.
For the first time since his thrilling win over Mark Martin in the 2007 Daytona 500, Harvick put his No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet Impala SS back in Victory Lane at DIS, pulling off a last-lap pass on Jamie McMurray to win the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night.
The victory was Harvick’s first Bud Shootout win and marked his first trip to the winner’s circle in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event since the Sprint All-Star race in May 2007—a string of 71 races.
The 75-lap race featured a record number of cautions, lead changes, and leaders as the Sprint Cup drivers took to the track for the first time since the 2008 season finale and put on a wild show for the fans.
To many it might have appeared that Harvick held back during the early stages of the race, saving his equipment for the final dash to the finish line. In fact, Harvick’s Richard Childress Racing crew had their work cut out—even keeping their driver in contention.
Early in the event, Harvick was forced into the outside retaining wall, knocking in the fenders on the right side of his car and forcing him to drop out of the draft. His team took advantage of the 10-minute break between the race’s first and second segments to repair the damage and give Harvick a shot at the victory.
Not long after the 50-lap second segment got underway, Harvick found himself behind a car that slowed dramatically, forcing him to back off and again lose touch with the frontrunners. A caution flag erased the margin, allowing Harvick to catch up to the rest of the field.
On lap 64, Harvick narrowly avoided a crash that collected four cars, but flat-spotted his tires while trying to avoid the incident. His Shell-Pennzoil Chevy also suffered slight damage from contact with another car. He came to pit road for new tires and returned to the race in 12th position for the lap 69 restart.
When the caution flag flew again five laps later for another accident, Harvick found himself in fifth position as he prepared for what would be a green/white/checkered flag finish.
Harvick jockeyed for position following the final restart. Heading down the backstretch for the final time, he managed to slide through a narrow opening between McMurray and the outside retaining wall.
As Harvick completed the pass, chaos erupted behind him. Several cars made contact, setting off a chain reaction crash that left a number of entries damaged and brought out the caution flag as Harvick crossed the finish line.
The finish was reminiscent of Harvick’s Daytona 500 win, in which he came from the back of the field and edged out the competition just as a last-lap accident pulled out the checkered flag.
The victory is RCR’s sixth win in the Bud Shootout, and its first since Dale Earnhardt won the event in 1995.
Harvick’s RCR teammates, Casey Mears and Jeff Burton, were both collected in accidents at different times during the race and finished 15th and 24th, respectively.
Next weekend, the Sprint Cup Series has its first points race of the 2009 season with the 51st running of the “Great American Race,” the Daytona 500.
The Daytona 500 will air live on FOX on Sun., Feb. 15, beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The first points-paying race of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season can also be heard live on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio.
The Gatorade Duel at the Daytona 150-mile qualifying races will take the green flag on Thurs., Feb. 13 at 2 p.m. EST, and will be broadcast live on SPEED, MRN and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. The Twin 150s will re-air on SPEED that night at 9 p.m. EST.
Kevin Harvick Quotes:
“I told them on the way over (to the media center), they ought to cancel testing every year if you want to see a race like that. That was a lot of built up race car drivers that were really looking for something to hang out on the edge. I think everybody got a good show tonight.
“I told them earlier, ‘I guess if we're going to win, we have to make it dramatic.’ This is the way my whole career has been. We always seem to get there in the nick of time. Hey, that's part of it. We were able to pull it off. I don't know.
“I think there's just a lot of ingredients that go into having a good race tonight. I think it was not being at the race track for all that time. I think everybody really wanted to go out and see what they had and push as hard as they could because there wasn't anything on the line. I think we just got a lot better handle on the race cars from where we were last year at this time … but it's just a lot of ingredients that go into it.
I think a great positive came out of tonight. I think the fans are going to be pumped up. I know the drivers are pumped up to do whatever we can. (I’m) just excited to be a part of the sport right now.”