Kevin Harvick and the No. 29 Budweiser team closed out the 2013 season with a 10th-place finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday evening. The Richard Childress Racing driver started the 267-lap affair from the sixth position and battled a tight-handling Chevrolet during the early stages of the race. Crew chief Gil Martin directed Harvick to pit road on laps 13, 25 and 69 for tires, fuel and chassis adjustments to combat the handling issues his driver was fighting. The California native continued to struggle with an ill-handling red and white machine, influencing the team to make an unscheduled four-tire pit stop under green-flag conditions on lap 116. After falling as far back as the 29th in the running order and going one lap down to the leader, Harvick persevered and raced his way back onto the lead lap and into the top 15 just past the halfway mark. The team continued to work on the handling of the Budweiser Chevrolet throughout the remainder of the event, allowing Harvick to cross the finish line 10th in his final race for RCR. Harvick ended the season third in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on the strength of four wins, one pole award, nine top-five and 21 top-10 finishes.
KEVIN HARVICK QUOTE:
"We just weren't very good today and couldn't get the car to turn like we needed to. We had one set of tires that gave us some real troubles for whatever reason, but just like always these guys on our Budweiser Chevy kept after it. We were able to salvage something out of the night. Obviously, it's not what we wanted, but we came back and were way better at the end than what we were in the beginning. It's what we've done all year and I'm just proud of everybody and thank them for everything that they have done."