Harvick tames Chicagoland again

JIM UTTER, jutter@charlotteobserver.com

Saturday, Jul. 14, 2007

• Slideshow | Chicagoland 300
• Race Results | Chicagoland 300

JOLIET, Ill. – Chicago is clearly Kevin Harvick’s kind of town.

Harvick used a late-race pass of Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton and ran away to a dominating victory in Saturday’s USG Durock 300 at Chicagoland Speedway, holding off Matt Kenseth by 1.244 seconds.

The win is Harvick’s second Busch Series win at the 1.5-mile track in suburban Chicago – his other came in 2005. He also won the Nextel Cup Series’ first two races at the track, which opened in 2001.

“When they first built this place, Todd Berrier and all those guys came up here and tested. From that day forward, we’ve always run well here,” said Harvick, who has three wins in 15 starts this year.

Harvick moved into position for victory when several of the lead lap cars elected to pit under caution the race’s final caution, among them Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards who had some of the strongest cars.

Burton inherited the lead and Harvick restarted second on the restart on Lap 171 of 200. Harvick passed him for the lead in Turns 1 and 2 three laps later.

“We struggled a little bit when we first got here. We really had to change a lot of things on the car. We turned it upside down and made things happen,” Harvick said. “We had a really good car in the second half of the race.”

Burton finished third, Clint Bowyer was fourth and Busch finished fifth. Edwards, the series points leader, had to pit under green late in the race for a loose wheel, and finished 20th.

Burton spent much of the race dealing with a problem with the air hoses that provide air conditioning and suffered through sweltering heat in his car.

“We didn’t have the car right there at the end. I thought we had a car that could win the race and I think we needed to be a little more aggressive on our changes. That’s as much my fault as it is anybody else’s,” he said.

Busch seemed unsure why his team had him pit on the last caution. Asked after the race why his team pit, Busch said: “I have no idea, ask Alan Gustafson (crew chief).”

After pitting, Busch restarted eighth and gained three positions in 29 laps. “I had to drive harder than I should have, but that’s part of racing I guess,” Busch said. “Hopefully, it was a good show for the fans.”

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