Strange but great way for Harvick to start '10 season

Kevin Harvick fell so ill last week he admitted he may have been delusional at times.

But even at Harvick's sickest he is smart enough to know his victory in Saturday's Bud Shootout at Daytona does little or nothing to guarantee success in the 2010 running of the Daytona 500, or the long Cup season that stretches beyond Sunday's Great American Race.

Two-in-a-row

Kevin Harvick became the fourth driver in Budweiser Shootout history to win consecutive races.

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The last driver to win both the Bud Shootout -- well, back then it was still called the Busch Clash -- and the season-opening Daytona 500 was Jeff Gordon in 1997. Heck, Harvick won the Bud Shootout in 2009, too, and it hardly served as the springboard he had hoped it would for the remainder of the season.

Harvick did go on to nearly win the subsequent Daytona 500, finishing second in the rain-shortened event to Matt Kenseth. But pretty much the rest of the season was a struggle. He fell all the way to 27th in points by mid-June, and needed a late-season surge just to get back up to 19th by season's end -- missing the 12-driver cutoff to the Chase by a long Talladega lap, or three.

He also failed to win a Cup points race for the second year in a row. His winless streak in points events now sits at a whopping 107 races, dating back to the 2007 Daytona 500.

Still feels good

But still, with all the turmoil that has surrounded Harvick lately in terms of having his future at Richard Childress Racing up in the air beyond this season, he had to admit winning Saturday's non-points event for the second consecutive year felt pretty darn good. Hey, it certainly beat the alternative -- which for a while late last week might have included Harvick lingering in bed with flu-like symptoms while someone else drove his No. 29 RCR-powered Chevrolet. (Continued)