Author: Jay Pennell
Date: May 4, 2015
TALLADEGA, ALA. — Defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick was able to score an eighth-place finish in Sunday's GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, but it certainly was not without adversity and he said could not have happened without the help of his pit crew.
Starting 24th, Harvick was able to race to the lead by Lap 20, his only lap led on the day.
Running mid-pack on Lap 48, Harvick suffered damage to the nose of his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet when Trevor Bayne's car broke loose off Turn 2 to trigger a 15-car wreck.
Harvick nearly had the wreck cleared, but hit Greg Biffle's No. 16 Ford as it slid back up across the track.
Once the red 11-minute, 32-second red flag was lifted, the crew led by crew chief Rodney Childers went to work making repairs to the nose of the car. The team was able to keep Harvick on the lead lap and somehow was able to make the repairs so the aerodynamics of the car was not hurt.
Harvick subsequently raced his way back into the top five and remained a factor at the front of the pack.
Running fourth when he took the white flag signaling one lap to go in the race, Harvick was shuffled back when Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Ryan Blaney had a run to the outside through Turns 1 and 2. Losing another spot to Ryan Newman heading into Turn 3, Harvick fell back to eighth but still earned his ninth top-10 finish of the year.
He credited the repairs made by his crew on pit road for salvaging the day, which he admitted could have been worse -- and might have been better if it had worked out differently on the final lap.
"They did a good job of fixing it and it really didn't slow the car down any," Harvick said. "We had to make some handling adjustments, but all in all I wanted to make something happen there at the end and it just didn't work out."
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