Break of the Race: Kevin Harvick

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- After struggling in four of the season's first five races, finishing near the back of the pack, Kevin Harvick was ready for a good run in Sunday's Food City 500.

He began the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway with a new crew chief, Todd Berrier. His former crew chief, Gil Martin, is now his team manager, and despite all the previous week's personnel switches, Harvick's early afternoon performance appeared promising.

	Kevin Harvick

His day ended promisingly enough, too, with a seventh-place finish. But what happened in between was more than a bit disappointing.

"We had a car capable of winning if circumstances fell a little different," Harvick said.

Those circumstances began with a 27th-place start. Rather than force things at Bristol's unforgiving half-mile, Harvick picked his way through the field early, sitting 13th by lap 125. He skirted all the incidents that led to five cautions in the first 100 laps and even led for 15 laps -- laps 202-216.

But during an unusually long green-flag run, Harvick felt tires going away, gas being guzzled, and, like most of the other leaders, he found himself hoping for quick relief.

"Who would've thought we would have run a hundred-or-something laps there without a caution?" Harvick said.

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After the day's 13th of 17 cautions ended on lap 262, the 14th yellow flag didn't fly again until lap 391. That's 129 without pause, and Harvick finally had to pit for tires and fuel on lap 327. He was second at the time, behind then-leader Jimmy Spencer, and the tiny track, combined with race speeds -- an average of 15 seconds per lap -- quickly put him two laps down.

Harvick exited his pit in 27th place again, and he had another mountain to climb.

"The reason we stayed out was because we didn't want to take a chance of having to come back through the field," Harvick said of his and Berrier's calculations. "We were hoping for a caution to come out before we had to pit, but we didn't get it. That's just unfortunate circumstances."

Harvick wasn't the only driver who experienced the misfortune. Spencer, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Bill Elliott were among the top 10 at the time, but they all fell at least a lap down during the green-flag marathon. Spencer, who led 139 laps, said he told crew chief Tommy Baldwin "I'm not pitting until she runs out [of gas], and it ran out, and it cost us two laps."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. also ran out of gas. None of the group rebounded to get back on the lead lap, but Johnson finished eighth, Gordon finished ninth, Spencer finished 12th, Earnhardt finished 16th and Elliott finished 18th.

Earnhardt called it "the longest green-flag run in history at Bristol, I guess."

"I've had fast race cars and been leading and everything else and come out of here with a whole lot less," said Gordon, who led a race-high 174 laps.

Harvick, who finished as the first car off the lead lap, did have some consolation. He won Saturday's Busch series event, the Channellock 250. Sunday's Cup finish marked his best effort since a fourth-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, and it also boosted him seven spots in the point standings. He sits 11th overall.

"We played our cards and came up a little bit short," Harvick said. "But it was a good day for the GM Goodwrench Chevy."