East-West Notes: Harvick to run in Sunday's race

NEWTON, Iowa -- Kevin Harvick is going to run Sunday's NASCAR Grand National race at Iowa Speedway. But with the Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge in Charlotte on Saturday night, Harvick needed somebody to shake down the car when the Grand National teams practiced earlier in the day.

Who better than the driver who put Kevin Harvick Inc. in Victory Lane on Friday night (watch video)?

Ron Hornaday picked up his 30th career Craftsman Truck Series win at Charlotte and then flew to the Midwest track to prep Harvick's brand new Grand National car.

"We do it all the time," Hornaday said. "You get the car close. You're changing everything and you have good notes so when he gets in it he knows what to try. When Kevin gets in it [Sunday] he will have an hour of practice, so he'll be alright."

Sunday's Featherlite Coaches 200 will be only the second combination race in Grand National Division history, with the Busch East and West Series running together. The first was Friday night at Elko (Minn.) Speedway, won by Busch East driver Sean Caisse.

Hornaday was only able to get out for the final four minutes of practice Saturday and ran five laps, clocking in at 43rd fastest. But Hornaday isn't concerned.

"You're only as good as your equipment, and we've got good equipment," Hornaday said. "We run a coil bind setup and there is only one way to do it, and if you do it right, it's fast.

"Even if we don't get any practice today, Kevin will be here tomorrow and he will be just as happy with it. These guys are probably the best in the business and Kevin, when he builds, he does things right. So he built the best he could and he brought this here to go racing."

Hornaday, who plans to stick around for Sunday's historic event, has extensive experience with the West Series. His best year was 1994 when he finished second in points.

Homecoming

Chase Austin's rookie season hit a bump Friday when he failed to qualify for the Elko event. However, the 17-year-old Rusty Wallace Inc. development driver was upbeat when he got to Iowa -- the track Rusty Wallace helped design.

"I really look at Elko as a positive," Austin said. "It makes me hungrier for today."

Austin, who tested a Busch Series car at Iowa, was eighth fastest in practice.

"I knew coming here, we had a good base setup," Austin said. "We still have a lot of changes to make for tomorrow. We still have a lot of time to pick up."

Logano Tops Speed Charts

Joey Logano was fastest in the one-hour practice Saturday with a lap of 23.957 seconds. Caisse was second at 23.972, followed by Eric Holmes at 24.111. Peyton Sellers was fourth at 24.233.

Ryan Foster, a development driver for Richard Childress Racing, was the top West Series driver at fifth in 24.242.

Logano was penalized in Friday's race for contact that spun Sellers. He made his way back up to the front in the final 10 laps when he and Brian Ickler spun battling for second. Logano, who won the first two Grand National Division races he entered, said he just has to put that whole race behind him.

Logano also said there's still room for improvement in Sunday's car, despite his quick time.

"It's not where it needs to be," Logano said. "It's tight at tight."

Sellers, for his part, was holding his breath after spinning Friday. The former NASCAR Whelen All-American Series champion only brought one car to the Midwest for the two races. Miraculously, nobody hit Sellers and he stayed off the wall.

"I just stayed in the throttle," Sellers said, "and tried to spin it out of the way."

He cautiously made his way back up the field to finish sixth -- and then was fourth fastest in Saturday's practice.

"We just threw some spring on it, put a new side skirt on it, took some camber out and here we are," Sellers said.

News and notes

Jeffrey Earnhardt is looking to rebound from a rough race Friday, where he finished 24th. He likes what he sees from Iowa.

"This place is super sweet," Earnhardt said. "They've gone all out to make this a super race track. I think they've done a really good job of doing it."

Earnhardt tested earlier in the month at one-mile New Hampshire International Speedway, but said his experience at Nashville in the GM Development program actually helped prepare him for what to expect at the .875-mile Iowa Speedway. Earnhardt was sixth fastest in practice.

Caisse, Earnhardt's teammate at Andy Santerre Motorsports, is running the same spec motor that he won the pole with last year at the Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl.

"Speed-wise, we're close," Caisse said. "We just need to get a little more comfortable."

Entering the two-races-in-three-days marathon, Caisse's game-plan was to get what he could at Elko and then go for the win at Iowa. Caisse wound up winning at Elko. He insists that won't change his thinking.

"We've got the same mentality -- points racing," Caisse said. "If we've got the car to win here, we'll be there for it."

Scott Lynch, the 2003 West Series champion, will attempt to make his second start of the season. Lynch, who is running a limited schedule, won the series opener at Kyle, Texas on March 31. Like Harvick, he is not eligible for the past champions provisional because he did not run in a West Series race in 2006.

• Also: Caisse saves best for last, posts victory in Minn. 150
• Also: Caisse claims pole for Minnesota 150
• Also: Kobyluck looks for reversal of fortunes
• Also: Grand National gears up for East-West clashes