RICHMOND, Va. -- Todd Berrier, crew chief for Kevin Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup Series, wishes he could turn back the clock and change everything that happened in the blink of an eye during a pit stop on Lap 253 of Sunday's race at Richmond International Raceway.

But he knows he can't. So he said he will live with Harvick's decent seventh-place finish.

Lap-by-Lap

Jimmie Johnson passed Kyle Busch on a restart on Lap 382 to win the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond Int'l Raceway.

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"Under the circumstances, it could have been a whole lot worse," Berrier said. "You'll take top-10s every week. But you don't get opportunities to win races all that often -- and when you [throw] them away, that's hard to take."

Harvick was leading the race when the sixth caution flag of the afternoon flew because NASCAR officials thought J.J. Yeley had hit the wall. As Harvick attempted to exit his pit box, he ran into the No. 6 Ford of rookie driver David Ragan, turning Ragan and doing some heavy damage to the right front of his own machine. (watch video)

"We just didn't communicate well and wound up getting tore up there," Harvick said.

Berrier added: "We were leaving the pits and we were outside the 2 [car of Kurt Busch]. We were leading at the time and the 2 was running second. We were pitted with the 2 ahead of us. We had to stop a little short, so when we were pulling out of pits the 2 was right beside us and the 6 was on the outside of us and he just kind of turned in and we ended up hitting his left rear and spinning him around.

"It happened so fast. Several things could have happened: we could have just stopped and followed the 2 out; the 6 could have checked up a little and just let us go. But it is what it is, and there's nothing we can do about it now."

Harvick was hot about the accident. But after the race, he still wasn't sure exactly why it had happened.

"I really don't know. Maybe I should have seen him and Todd should have seen him," Harvick said. "It's just one of those things where it happened all at once. It was unfortunate, but the Reese's Chevrolet was strong."

It was strong enough for Harvick to lead a total of 105 laps before the accident. Only Jeff Gordon, who led 114 and ultimately finished fourth, led more laps on the day -- as race winner Jimmie Johnson led the same number as Harvick.

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]."