Trouble In Lap 23 Melee At The Glen

Kevin Harvick and the Shell-Pennzoil team did not have the day they were hoping for during Monday's running of the Heluva Good! at the Glen in the season's second road course event. A lap-23 incident took the Shell-Pennzoil driver out of contention after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. With heavy damage to the No. 29 RCR Chevy, Harvick ended up in the garage for lengthy repairs. On lap 40 he returned to the track scoring a 35th-place finish.

After heavy thunderstorms forced NASCAR officials to postpone Sunday's schedule race to Monday, the 43-car field took the green flag under bright blue skies. Starting in the 21st position, Harvick settled in for 90-laps of racing excitement around the super-fast 2.45-mile road course and remained quiet in the opening stages of the event.

Gaining one position to take over the 20th spot, the Shell-Pennzoil driver began to close in on the 19th-place car before Crew chief Gil Martin radioed to his driver asking how the car was handling. Harvick reported that he was a little tight in the center of the corners and loose off.

It was on lap 18 that the first caution flag of the day waved with Harvick coming to the pit lane on lap 20. After an 18.4 second pit stop, the two-time Nationwide Series champion returned to the track for the restart on lap 21.

It was only a couple of laps later that another car spun in the inner loop collecting the No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet causing major damage to the left front of the car. With the damage, the Bakersfield, California native drove to the garage as the Shell-Pennzoil team went to work for what was going to be lengthy repairs.

After multiple laps Harvick returned to the track on lap 44 to try to gain as many positions as possible. The Shell-Pennzoil driver was able to pick off several spots by passing several cars that were involved in a big wreck on lap 63. Harvick crossed the start-finish line taking the checkered flag in the 35th position, 22 laps down to the race winner.

"From what I can see the driver of the No. 12 just ran out of talent," commented Harvick on the incident that took him out of contention. "He drove through the crash and spun out and just crashed. That is just part of where we were in the field. The car was good. The guys did a great job with our Shell-Pennzoil Chevy. Just got caught up in somebody else's mess."

All though Harvick had a rough weekend, he was able to maintain his 22nd-place position in the point standings with 22 of 36 events in the books.

Tony Stewart won the Heluva Good! at the Glen with Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards finishing second and third. Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five.

Next up for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Live Coverage of racing action will begin on Sunday, August 16, 2009 at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on ESPN along with radio coverage on MRN/Sirius-XM Satellite Radio at 1:15 p.m. (ET).