Harvick earns five Daytona contingency awards

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A dominating performance in Saturday's Coke Zero 400 earned Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing team its second win of the season, and five contingency awards at Daytona International Speedway.

Adding to the victory, Harvick, crew chief Gil Martin and the No. 29 team also picked up the DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race, Goodyear Gatorback Fastest Lap of the Race, MAHLE Clevite Engine Builder of the Race, Sunoco Diamond Performance, and WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race awards.

The awards are part of the NASCAR Prize Money and Decal Program, also referred to as the contingency program, which provides teams prize money and weekly awards based on performance in several categories.

Harvick, who started the race on the pole, dodged the late-race on-track fireworks and held off Kasey Kahne on a green-white-checkered finish to capture the July Fourth weekend Daytona race victory. The win marked the eighth time the Daytona summer race has been won from the pole.

In a race that set a new event record with 18 different leaders, Harvick led the most laps (28) during the 166-lap event picking up the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race award. Upon turning the fastest lap while leading the race (193.353 mph on lap 2), Harvick captured the Goodyear Gatorback Fastest Lap of Race award. He also picked up his second Sunoco Diamond Performance award of 2010 as the highest finishing eligible driver plus the NASCAR Sprint Cup Leader Bonus for winning the race while also leading the points standings.

Harvick, who had a race-high Driver Rating of 122.8, was proud to have captured the final race on the 2.5-mile Daytona track's current pavement which is in the process of undergoing its first asphalt facelift since 1978.

"I think this racetrack is obviously the most historic racetrack that we race on, and I think if that asphalt could talk, you can go back and look at all the stories," said Harvick post-race. "It's just such a neat deal to be able to win the last race on that particular asphalt. Any time you can win, though, whether it's new asphalt or old asphalt, it's always going to be the baddest place to win, and that's Daytona."

With a powerful engine under the hood of the No. 29 Chevrolet, Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines was awarded the MAHLE Clevite Engine Builder of the Race honor based on qualifying and finishing position. Crew chief Gil Martin also racked up his fourth DIRECTV Crew Chief of the Race award this year for best qualifying and race effort based on finishing times during the weekend.

"It was awesome to see all of our engines running up front at Daytona," said Danny Lawrence, trackside manager of ECR Engines. "We have a great group at ECR, and we are very proud our engines have won each of the restrictor plate races this year so far."

Harvick's win, the 13th of his career, marks Richard Childress Racing's 91st Cup Series victory and fifth at Daytona.

"I'm just proud of everybody at RCR for all the hard work they did to get these cars going," said team owner Richard Childress. "ECR engines were running great. Kevin is becoming one of these guys that wins the restrictor plate races. He's kind of like Dale Sr. -- you knew he was going to be a factor in it. To have all three RCR cars up there leading the race, racing with each other, it was really cool to watch."

Heading into Saturday night's LifeLock.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, Harvick maintains a 212-point lead in the Cup Series point standings, while RCR teammates Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer sit eighth and 14th respectively.

For a complete list of Daytona contingency winners, click here.