Harvick on short end of battle with Rudd

By Tim Hipps, Special to Turner Sports Interactive
September 10, 2001
10:57 AM EDT (1457 GMT)

RICHMOND, Va. -- Buoyed by a pair of second-place finishes this weekend at Richmond International Raceway, Rookie of the Year leader Kevin Harvick has moved into eighth place in the NASCAR Winston Cup points standings.

Kevin Harvick has three runner-up finishes in 2001.

Harvick, who was paired with the Tasmanian Devil in Saturday night's Looney Tunes running of the Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400, drove to a second-place finish just two nights after finishing runner-up to Jack Sprague in the Kroger 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.

Harvick bumped eventual winner Ricky Rudd with 17 laps remaining Saturday night and moved into first place as the sixth different leader of the 400-lap chase.

Monte Carlo 400 Results  Rusty leads 276 laps  Gordon finishes 36th  The Championship 2001  Race Notebook  Video: Gordon hits wall  Video: Victory Lane  Video: Final laps  Looney Tunes!  Richmond Int. Raceway  Rudd die-cast: $44.99  Rudd wins at RIR

"Ricky had a better car," Harvick admitted. "I misjudged there off Turn 2 and kind of clipped him a little bit -- I kind of got into him. I didn't mean to get into him that hard. I actually didn't mean to get into him at all. I got him pretty out of shape."

Rudd was intent on running down Harvick, whose car got loose in the homestretch with 13 laps left. And Harvick knew what had went down was bound to come around. With six laps left, Rudd passed Harvick on the low side and held him off for the victory.

"I knew his car was a little bit better," Harvick said. "I knew it [contact] was coming. He just did what he had to do. It looked to me, from the mirror, like he just nudged his front bumper into my back bumper. You know, he was just doing what he had to do to win.

"It was a great night for the Goodwrench car. We just came up a little bit short. We did everything we could do. We pumped the tires up there and the end -- pumped them up a little bit too much."

All in all, Harvick said he simply was trying to find his breakthrough way to Victory Lane in Richmond.

"It got a bit physical out there at the end," he said. "Coming off the corner there I got into the back of Ricky. And he gave a little bit of it back. But that's just short-track racing. I don't know what I have to do to win a race here at Richmond. We always run really good.

"But that's all it is: short-track racing. Sometimes we run into each other a little bit. We're all grown men. We all know how to go out there and have a race. He gave it. I gave it. It's all part of it.

"It was a pretty fun night for everybody, I think."