Kevin Harvick is closing in on his first Chase appearance. Credit: Autostock

Harvick avoids disaster, continues momentum

Finishes 11th at Bristol despite flat tire; strengthens Chase hold

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Bristol Motor Speedway can have a cripplingly adverse effect on a driver's hopes for the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Just ask Mark Martin about it after Saturday night's Sharpie 500.

And Bristol destroyed Kurt Busch's hopes, officially, of getting into the Chase.

Sharpie 500 Official Results Pos. Driver Start Make 1. M. Kenseth 4 Ford 2. Ky. Busch 19 Chevy 3. D. Earnhardt Jr. 40 Chevy 4. S. Riggs 23 Dodge 5. J. Gordon 13 Chevy 6. D. Hamlin 6 Chevy 7. C. Edwards 39 Ford 8. R. Newman 21 Dodge 9. J. Burton 2 Chevy 10. J. Johnson 18 Chevy • Complete Results, click here • Official Standings, click here Victory LaneMatt Kenseth celebrates his Sharpie 500 victory at Bristol! Top FinishersBusch, Dale Jr, and Gordon talk about their race at Bristol Final lapsMatt Kenseth drives away from the field down the stretch Flying WheelJ.J Yeley involved in spin and Clint Bowyer loses front wheel Tire downKevin Harvick's front right tire goes down Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

But Bristol may giveth as well as taketh away, and Kevin Harvick's run is proof of that. Harvick is more than likely headed for his first Chase because he, crew chief Todd Berrier and their Richard Childress Racing team turned a potential sub-30 finish into an 11th-place showing.

Harvick came into the night third in the points, 78 ahead of fourth-place Martin and 216 points clear of 11th-place Kasey Kahne, who finished 12th.

Martin experienced a variety of ill-fortune and fell six spots to 10th, 90 points clear of Kahne, so Harvick knows how lucky he was that a flat tire that caused him to bounce off the wall at Lap 203 didn't cause any more damage, or worse, put him out.

"Oh yeah, yeah -- definitely," Harvick said through a weary smile Saturday night. "Any time you can replace a 35th or 40th [-place finish] with an 11th, that's huge and that's [bad finishes] just what you've got to avoid right now.

"I think we're about 230 points ahead of 11th and there are two races left [before the cutoff to the Chase], so I'm feeling OK about it."

That's a good thing, because after the abrupt contact, the inner "crush panels" on Harvick's Monte Carlo were rearranged, subjecting him to all manner of heat and fumes on a night in Bristol's confined bowl that was sultry and stifling at best.

"I feel the worst that I've ever felt here, after a race," Harvick said when he emerged from a 15-minute rest in his hauler's lounge spent with a couple pints of Gatorade. "With all the crush panels knocked out, it was pretty hot in [the car]."

The ambient temperature had nothing on the spirits of Harvick and his team, though -- both during and after the race.

"We ended up coming away with something," Berrier said. "We ended up having a wreck and knocking the toe out, and knocking the rear end over -- and man, he just hustled the thing all night long, to keep the thing up in there, so I'm pretty proud of him for not giving up, and [finishing so well]."

Harvick had been in the top 10, in fact, mostly in the top five, for the first 200 laps of 500. That was a significant accomplishment at a place where neither a driver nor a team can affect a lot of the crazy occurrences inherent to Bristol.

And that was what Harvick, who's got a dominant 500-plus point lead in the Busch standings, was second Friday night in the Busch race and who swept both Cup and Busch races at Bristol in spring 2005; was thinking when his right front tire abruptly lost air pressure.

"Just don't hit hard -- so we can at least make a night of it," Harvick described his thoughts as he slid toward the outside wall, with little more than half of the race left to salvage anything.

"It blew going into the corner, so we were able to drag a lot of the speed out of it," Harvick said. "We got slowed down quite a bit and we didn't knock the steering out of it -- it just knocked the rear end over.

"We got two quick cautions and the guys made some good adjustments, and we got it back to where it was competitive."

Harvick grappled his way back into the top 15 and he took the last restart in 12th, right behind the only man who realistically can still get into the Chase from outside the current top 10 -- Kahne.

Before the race ended, Harvick had passed Kahne to get 11th.

"The car was just really tight getting into the corner and through the center," Harvick said. "We just kept loosening it up and trying to get it to where we could run, you know, 15th to eighth.

"We did that and we were able to salvage a decent night out of it."

It's not much of a stretch to consider Saturday night's effort and its resultant finish as the material of which a championship contender is built.

"Oh, absolutely," Harvick said. "Nobody gave up.

"If we can get rid of our bad luck before we get to the Chase, that's what it's going to take to win a championship, so anytime you can have trouble and finish 11th -- and everybody's upbeat about it -- that's a good night."