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Kevin Harvick Wins Sprint Unlimited
espn.go.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kevin Harvick thought he could win the debut
race of NASCAR's new Gen-6 car, and he had a solid reason for his
confidence.
"Nobody in the whole field had any clue what was going to happen," he
said, "so we felt like we had a good chance."
Harvick dominated Saturday night's exhibition Sprint Unlimited, winning
the kickoff to Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway for the
third time in five years.
Harvick ties Tony Stewart and Dale Jarrett as three-time winners of the
event, while the late Dale Earnhardt holds the record with six wins.
But no one has a firm grasp on what the season-opening Daytona 500 will
look like in NASCAR's brand new car. The non-points race only had 19
cars at the start, and the field was whittled down to 12 after an early
accident.
The Daytona 500 will start with a full 43-car field in much warmer
conditions.
"It's going to be a pack, absolutely," Harvick said. "I don't think
there's going to be too many chances. You'll see some cars break away.
I think if you turn on a 2000 race, one of those races, it's going to
be very similar."
Second-place finisher Greg Biffle agreed the Daytona 500 should have a
throwback feel.
"I heard some guys talk about old-school racing, and it is a little bit
like that," he said. "The thing about it is that when you get 43 cars
out there, it is going to be a ton different. Then the bottom lane is
going to work. There will be a middle. With more cars out there I think
it will be better."
Fans hope so after Saturday night, which was somewhat uneventful
because of a nine-car accident just 15 laps into the race. It turned
the final two segments into something resembling a parade until a late
push to catch Harvick.
Harvick threw a block on Biffle and Stewart, Joey Logano couldn't get
to the leaders and Matt Kenseth, who might have had the strongest car,
faded late as Harvick rolled to the win. He led 40 of the 75 laps.
"I'm glad we got Speedweeks started off the right way," he said.
The race was split into three segments and fans got to vote on the
format. The result was 30 laps, 25 laps and then a 20-lap sprint to the
finish.
But several big names were knocked out a mere 15 laps into the race.
Stewart was running second when he cut across the front of Marcos
Ambrose, making slight contact that turned Stewart sideways and
required a save to keep from crashing. Traffic stacked up behind him,
triggering a chain-reaction, nine-car crash that wiped out seven cars.
Taken out were defending race winner Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin from
Joe Gibbs Racing, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson from Hendrick
Motorsports, Mark Martin and Kurt Busch.
"I didn't see much. I was just cruising along and I saw sparks in front
of me -- I knew that wasn't good," Johnson said.
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