Harvick Shows Way In Daytona Win Again

Daytona Beach, FL, United States (AHN) - It took a more than 90-minute delayed start by rain and one last, dramatic show, including a huge accident and a white-knuckle finish, but the Coke Zero 400 got in Saturday night with Kevin Harvick coming away with the win at Daytona International Speedway.

Harvick, a former Daytona 500 winner, emerged from the mayhem -- 37 caution laps and one red-flag period -- and survived a final green-white-checker finish in edging Kasey Kahne for the win.

"Obviously it was a good night. Same old Daytona, cars moving around and bouncing around, and handling came into play, and you saw a lot of passing and shuffling, and then there at the end we had the big wreck and we were fortunate to be in front of it. And really coming to the white I thought it was going to be the 33 first and us second, and then the caution came out and we could see the white flag. I was content about that,'' said Harvick. "I knew those guys needed a good day, and I knew you never know what's going to happen on the last lap with people pushing and shoving from the back. But on the last restart, once the 24 pulled out and slowed those outside two lines down, that was pretty much the end of it.''

Jeff Gordon and his No. 24 finished third and was followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton, giving Richard Childress Racing two cars among the top-five finishers.

The overtime was set up by a three-car accident involving Kurt Busch, Elliott Sadler and Sam Hornish Jr., all of whom led the race at some point.

"Carl (Edwards) turned right after the start-finish line and completely destroyed our car. We've seen him turn right before and destroy a Penske car at Atlanta with my teammate Brad Keselowski. It's what it is. We could have limped home in seventh and not damaged like that. That was unnecessary,'' said Busch. "It gets tough at the end of these races. They're more like a crap shoot. You never know when your number is going to get pulled.''

An estimated 115,000 jammed the main grandstand and infield to watch was the last race on 32-year-old pavement, which will begin being replaced on Monday and is scheduled to conclude Jan. 1, 2011.

The "big one" accident happened on Lap 149 when there was a sheet-metal crushing, chain-reaction accident between Turns 3 and 4.

Nineteen cars were involved, with so much damage that NASCAR officials stopped the race for 19 minutes, 34 seconds to clean up the mess. Among the victims was Jimmie Johnson, who started on the outside pole position.

""I got caught up in things," Johnson said. "We made it 387 miles of not having the 'big one.' You could sense it. You could feel it building and sure enough it happened."

Mark Martin drove halfway down pit road with his No. 5 Chevrolet on fire. The car was almost completely engulfed in flames. When the veteran came to a stop, he bailed out of the car as emergency crews smothered the car. He was not injured.

"The fire was outside, not inside," Martin said. "Disappointment to wreck as hard as we worked on this car. I wish we hadn't been in that wreck."

Edward Lewis - AHN Sports Reporter Article © AHN - All Rights Reserved