Harvick loses chance for win after pit-road mishaps (cont'd)

Even after the accident, plus a pair of pit-road penalties assessed in the aftermath as he hustled back in and out of the pits during the caution to get his car repaired [one for pitting before pit road was officially open and one for excessive speed on pit road], Harvick still managed to fight his way back to the respectable seventh-place finish. He gained one spot in driver points in the process, moving up to eighth.

But it could have been better. Harvick knew it, and so did Berrier.

That was the thought gnawing at them afterward.

"If you had told us before hand that we were going to come to Richmond and run 12 laps, give you 10th place and we'll all go home, we would all take that because chances are 1-in-43 that whatever can happen," Berrier said. "But when you have a car that good, and you know that if you stay on top of everything you can win the race, it does [tick] you off to give away that opportunity."

Berrier said that if he had it to do over, he would have practiced more patience in trying to get Harvick out of the pits.

"We were leading the race. It would have been a little smarter to come out second or third and let the 6 go," he said. "But it all happened so fast. Once it's over, we can all sit here and say, 'Yeah, well, I could have prevented it. I could have done this different or that different.' But when it was going on, if I would have thought anything was wrong, I would have prevented it. Everything happened so fast.

"It's the luck of the draw, too. We pick pits where we pick 'em. We qualified 27th. If we had qualified 26th, or even 30th, we would have been in a different pit and it never would have happened. But the stars line up how they line up, and there's nothing you can do about it after the fact."

Harvick said what they must do is get their team communications improved so that it never happens again.

"I hope so. I mean, you know, we don't need to throw away any more good cars like that," Harvick said. "We've got to get it straight."

Berrier managed a weak smile and said that maybe his pit crew was just a little too good on that particular stop.

"Our guys had great stops [Sunday]," he said. "It's like I told them, 'That would have been a great time for a 20-second pit stop right there.' I would have much rather have been mad because we had a terrible pit stop. But it is what it is. Everybody did their job to the best of their abilities, and our best just wasn't good enough [Sunday]."