Harvick's luck comes up short at Fontana

FONTANA, Calif. -- It was barely a pinhole, described as about the size of the point on a Sharpie pen, in Kevin Harvick's left-front tire that cost him a possible victory in Sunday's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway.

With six laps remaining, Harvick was reeling in leader Matt Kenseth, no more than a few car-lengths behind, when the caution came out for David Reutimann's hard crash in Turn 2. NASCAR officials then ordered the red flag, allowing for cleanup of the track before the final green flag.

The cars were parked behind the accident site. Unfortunately for Harvick, there must have been a tiny piece of debris still out there somewhere.

"I don't know what I hit," Harvick said. "I didn't noticeably hit anything. It's just one of those deals."

In fact, he didn't notice anything amiss until "the frame rail started dragging the ground."

As the Daytona 500 winner dove onto pit road for replacement left-side rubber, Kenseth and the rest of the field took the green flag. And what seemed like a certain battle to the checkered ended with a 17th-place finish, nearly 34 seconds behind the winning car.

Still, Harvick wasn't that unhappy -- since California has been one of his more difficult tracks. Plus, despite dropping more than a dozen spots in the final four laps, he's still fourth in the standings, 28 points behind leader Mark Martin.

"We had a great run," Harvick said. "This is one of our worst places and to run like that and have some bad luck is something you can't control. We'll roll with it.

"This and Atlanta is our worst place. If we can contend for a win, we're doing pretty good."

Did he think he could have passed Kenseth if not for the flat tire? Harvick led only three laps but was in the top 10 for 205 of the 250 laps.

"We were going to beat him, but woulda, shoulda, coulda," Harvick said. "The thing was really good. It's a little disappointing, but man, what a good job the team did.

"The car was a lot of fun to drive [Sunday] and to come to California where we've struggled so much and to have a chance to win ...

"We just had some bad luck, so there's nothing you can do about that."