LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Following a rain delay at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Rheem team overcame pit road mishaps to lead the most laps and win the Nationwide Series Sam’s Town 300 for their first victory of the season. The win marks Harvick’s second win at the track and his 35th-career Nationwide Series victory.
" The race started great and ended great, but the middle wasn’t so good on pit road. "— Kevin Harvick
“We had a good car from the time we unloaded,” said Harvick in victory lane following the Sam’s Town 300. “We didn’t make any major changes in practice; we just tweaked the car to make it better in race trim. The race started great and ended great, but the middle wasn’t so good on pit road. We had a fast car from the start of the weekend and the restarts seemed to be one of our strong points during the race. The guys stuck with it and fortunately, we were able to get the victory. Very excited to finally got Rheem their first win.”
Starting the 200-lap event from the second position, Harvick quickly took the lead on lap one and began to pull away from the field. Following several early cautions, Harvick pulled out to a two-second lead by lap 37 when he began to lap cars on the 1.5-mile track.
With the race continuing under green-flag conditions, Harvick made his first scheduled stop of the day on lap 58 taking four fresh tires with an air-pressure adjustment and fuel. After a slow stop on pit road and the field cycled through pit stops, Harvick was scored in the fourth position on lap 76 with a tight-handling car.
On lap 84, the caution flag waved again for an on-track incident and the team made the call to come down pit road for four tires, an air-pressure and track-bar adjustment, fuel and to add tape to the front of the car. Unfortunately, another slow stop on pit road cost the Rheem team valuable positions and Harvick restarted the race on lap 92 from the ninth position.
Beginning to pick cars off one-by-one to work his way back to the front, Harvick radioed crew chief Ernie Cope that the last round of changes helped and that the car was pretty good, but could still use a little more adjustments.
As the temperatures dropped and rain moved back into the area, NASCAR was forced to wave the caution flag on lap 104 for weather. With just a few rain drops, the race was able to restart on lap 108 with Harvick eighth. The caution waved again on lap 117 for an on-track incident and Harvick entered pit road from the fifth position. With a good stop for right-side tires, fuel and a track-bar adjustment, Harvick restarted the race from the fifth position on lap 122.
Looking to return to the lead, Harvick moved into third on lap 134. The caution flag was again waved on lap 145 and the No. 33 team made their final scheduled stop of the day for four tires, a track-bar adjustment, fuel and to add more tape to the front of the car. Harvick restarted the race on lap 150 from the sixth spot.
Racing hard for position, Harvick was able to move back into the third spot on lap 170. Avoiding late-race wrecks, Harvick moved to second on lap 175 and by lap 176, Harvick had reclaimed the lead. Pulling away from the field, Harvick led the final laps of the Sam’s Town 300 to score his first victory of the 2010 season and his 35th-career Nationwide Series victory.
Denny Hamlin finished second behind Harvick followed by Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.
STATS RECAP
February 27, 2010
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sam’s Town 300
Race: 3 of 35
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Started: 2nd
Finished: 1st
Owner’s Point Standings: 8th (+6 spots, 91 points out of 1st)
Race length: 200 laps/300 miles
Banking: 20-degrees in the turns
9-degrees on the frontstretch
9-degrees on the backstretch
Track layout: 1.5 miles
Shape: D-shaped Oval
Number of Laps Led: Two Times for 82 Laps
Number of Race Cautions: 8 for 39 Laps
First Practice: 18th (30.573 seconds; 176.626 mph)
Final Practice: 8th (29.925 seconds; 180.451 mph)
Qualifying: 2nd (29.185 seconds; 185.027 mph)
Next on the Nationwide Series Schedule:
Date: March 20, 2010
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway
Event Name: Scott’s Turf Builder 300
Driver: Kevin Harvick
Sponsor: Rheem
Broadcast Time: 2:00 p.m., ET on ESPN2 and 2:00 p.m., ET on PRN Radio
