Kevin Harvick Brings
Home Second-Place Finish in No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte
Carlo SS
Chevrolet, the winningest nameplate in NASCAR, continues
to lead the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series manufacturer‘s
standings with Kevin Harvick‘s second-place finish in
the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Harvick, the defending race winner, started 14th in the
43-car field set by the rule book provisions due to
inclement weather washing out Friday‘s qualifying for
the first short-track event of the season.
By lap 25, Harvick had moved his No. 29 GM Goodwrench
Monte Carlo SS to the top-10 and stayed a contender
throughout the 500-lap race on the high banked ½ mile
concrete track. By lap 200, he took the lead and picked
up five bonus points for leading laps in the event.
Kyle Busch, winner of the Sharpie Mini 300 for the
NASCAR Busch Series on Saturday, finished eighth after
starting in the 20th position. The finish moves him to
fifth place in the driver standings.
Harvick was just inches behind race-winner Kurt Busch
(Dodge) while Matt Kenseth (Ford), Carl Edwards (Ford)
and Bobby Labonte (Dodge) rounded out the top-five.
Series points leader and two-time 2006 winner Jimmie
Johnson, No. 48 Lowe‘s Monte Carlo, remains in the top
five in driver points despite suffering a cut tire on
the first lap of the race. Johnson was forced down pit
road and as a result, went two laps down to the leaders.
A mid-race incident put him deeper in the field as
Johnson‘s Chevrolet sustained severe suspension damage.
Johnson finished 30th and now ranks third in the driver
standings with 763 points, just 19 points behind new
leader Kenseth and a mere nine points out of second.
Other Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS drivers currently in the
top-10 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver standings are Dale
Earnhardt Jr. (sixth), Jeff Gordon (seventh) and Tony
Stewart (ninth) with 21 races remaining until the final
10 races of the Chase for the Championship.
The next event for Team Chevy Monte Carlo SS is the
DIRECT TV 500 on April 2, 2006 at Martinsville Speedway.
Manufacturer Standings (Unofficial following the Food
City 500)
1. Chevrolet - 34 points (2 wins)
2. Dodge - 32 points (2 wins)
3. Ford - 29 points (1 win)
Top 10 Driver Standings (Unofficial following the Food
City 500)
1. Matt Kenseth - 782 points
2. Kasey Kahne - 774 points
3. Jimmie Johnson - 763 points
4. Mark Martin - 750 points
5. Kyle Busch - 677 points
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 664 points
7. Jeff Gordon - 644 points
8. Casey Mears - 642 points
9. Tony Stewart - 601 points
10. Dale Jarrett - 593 points
Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 2nd
YOUR THOUGHTS ON TODAY'S RACE:
“Well, it is Bristol. Not much else to say. That is
about it. I am real proud of my GM Goodwrench guys all
day. We fought being tight there for a while. I got into
the back of the 17 there and got a little gap there
between the 2 and I, and I couldn‘t get back to him.
Good day for us, but I hate to see Kurt Busch win, but
what do I know.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY AT BRISTOL:
“It was a good day for us. We kind of got behind the
first four races this year and we just needed a solid
day here and not have anything else happen or go wrong.
So great day, Todd (Berrier, crew chief) made some great
adjustments on the car and just kept freeing the car up
all day. We never got it quite all the way out but we
were able to put ourself in position to give ourselves a
chance to win, just came up one spot short.”
YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END BETWEEN MATT
KENNSETH AND KURT BUSCH. IS THAT JUST SHORT TRACK
RACING?
“A couple more laps, I probably would have done the same
thing. It is just Bristol. It is just what you have to
do in the closing laps. I think if the roles had been
reversed, it probably would have happened the same way.
Just good short track racing and one guy wins and one
guy loses. So it ends up with one guy happy and then one
guy mad.”
YOU POKED FUN AT KURT BUSCH, DO YOU HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR
HIM AS A DRIVER?
“I wasn‘t poking anything, I met exactly what I said. I
am not going to take it out on the race cars when we are
on the track. If I have to, I will take it out on him.
He took a cheap shot at me last week on the race the car
and that isn‘t something that goes over well. I meant
every word and stand behind everything I said.”
WHEN YOU WERE RUNNING DOWN KURT, IF YOU HAD GOT TO HIM,
WOULD YOU HAVE MOVED HIM TO TAKE THE LEAD?
“All of our cars were really equal there at the end and
the 17 faded there toward the end of the run. Then I had
a little gap. I had to make up there at the end. I just
needed a couple more laps to get to him.”
WAS THE KENNSETH/BUSCH INCIDENT JUST PART OF YOU HAVE TO
GO AT BRISTOL?
“Yes, you just got to go. You know you are coming down
to the closing laps at Bristol. You do what you have to
do to get all you can at the end. I think Kurt knew if
he didn‘t go, we were going to be right on his bumper.
So he took advantage of it. He got by him and gave
himself a little gap there. That was the gap he needed
to stay out front.”
YOU DON‘T LOOK HAPPY FOR FINISHING SECOND, IS IT BECAUSE
YOU FINISHED SECOND TO BUSCH?
“It is just one of those things, we have finished second
two days in the row. This is a place where we feel like
we should come to win. I am not disappointed, just ready
to go home to be honest with you. But finishing second
here is a great day here for us on both sides,
especially today. It is a great points day over here in
the Cup car going into Martinsville. If we can get a
good run there, we can rebound a little bit further, not
disappointed, just bored and ready to go.”
Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg‘s Monte Carlo SS - Finished
8th “It was a great run for us. It was just a solid
effort by the whole Kellogg‘s Monte Carlo SS team. They
did a great job for me. We had a car that was tight,
loose, tight, loose. We kind of fought all day to find a
good balance for it. There at the end with about 60
(laps) to go, we were able to make up some spots and got
an eight place finish out of it so that‘s pretty good.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 11th ”(We were) struggling. We were tight all
day. We got a couple of bad breaks there at the end with
track position. (I) had to drive hard all day. It was
real frustrating. We know we were a little bit, we were
a lot better than that here in Bristol especially.”
Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 12th ABOUT YOUR DAY AT BRISTOL:
“I am really disappointed. We had an awesome car all
day. I felt like I ran the most patient race I have ever
run at Bristol. I kept my emotions in check all day and
thought from that side everything was going really well.
We had a great car all day. That second to the last set
of tires we put on made us really free and we dropped
back to fifth. Then we came in put tires on under the
caution and the last set of tires, we were tight. I
couldn‘t turn it through the center at all. It is hard
when everybody gets their cars right at the end of the
race and you become a little bit off, it is hard to hold
those guys back. So we just tried to race smart there
and bring our car home in one piece.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR PATIENCE WITH THE MARTIN TRUEX JR.
INCIDENT LATE IN THE RACE:
“I was following him, and when he went over the bump I
don‘t know if his car got loose or what or if I just got
a good run. I mean I got in the back of him but they
said he had had a problem with the 24. I don‘t care if
he wants to settle it, but settle it in the bus lot
later on. We are running for a top-five finish there at
the end and he is holding both of us up. It is part of
Bristol racing. I mean it is just part of what goes
around.”
Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 14th “It was a good day for us. The FedEx was
really good. We just got caught behind there a lap down
early. It took the entire race to get back up. We showed
we were able to run with the top four when we were a lap
down there. We got it back for a good top 15.”
Sterling Marlin, No. 14 Waste Management Monte Carlo SS
- Finished 17th ““Because we had to start so far back,
we had a big hill to climb today. But we got out there,
worked on the Waste Management Chevrolet and kept
getting better and better. My spotter did a great job
and we were able to avoid the wrecks and keep our
fenders on.”
“The main thing that we did tonight was survive until
the checkered flag. A 17th-place finish isn‘t too bad,
but it‘s not where this Waste Management team wants to
be. It‘s a start in the right direction though, so we‘ll
take it and go from here.”
Scott Wimmer, No. 4 AERO Exhaust Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 19th
“We learned quite a bit today. We came through a lot in
the Aero Exhaust Chevy and got our lap back there at the
end which was real important and ran all 500 miles. I
think it was a big boost to this team to get a top-20
finish. We let one of those slip away at Atlanta last
week. We‘re real excited - it was a good points day for
us. We just lost something with the car, had a brake
problem or something like that and we could just never
get the car right after that. We ran strong all day and
stayed out of trouble . I don‘t think we made anybody
too mad and we will go on to Martinsville now.”
Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Finished
21st
WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END WITH MATT KENNSETH?
“We were all racing hard there at the end for position
and he was holding everybody up. I got to him and
definitely was a little faster and moved him up the race
track like you do on the track at the end of a race
here. We went down into one and he decided to wreck me
instead. It is pretty disappointing. We had a great car.
I am sorry that happened. I like racing with Matt, I
certainly didn‘t enjoy racing with him today. I showed
him my displeasure. I get fired up too. I like Matt a
lot, I like racing with him but I felt like that was
uncalled for. We will keep racing hard against him in
the future. ”
Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS - Finished
28th
“Not a great finish, but a great effort. We struggled in
practice yesterday and I was concerned. But the crew put
in a whole new set-up for the start of the race and the
Army Chevy was bad to the bone. One of the best cars I
have ever driven. It was incredible, I mean incredible
on how good the car drove. Dale Jr. and somebody got
together and shot up in front of me and I got into the
back of them (on Lap 118). My brakes locked up and the
impact crunched the nose in. The car never drove the
same after that. It was a pretty frustrating deal to
have a car drive that good and then all of sudden get
wounded. For a while we had an easy top-10 car.”
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe‘s Monte Carlo SS - Finished
30th “Man, before we hit the start of the race we had a
flat tire. It was just a tough day for us.”
ON THE TIRE ISSUES WITH VARIOUS DRIVERS AT THE BEGINNING
OF THE RACE:
“Yeah, everybody had some problems at the beginning. We
were going to recover from that OK and I thought I was
clear off of turn two but Matt (Kenseth) evidently still
had his nose tied in there and came across and hit the
wall and just didn‘t have a good day.
Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe‘s Monte Carlo
SS Note: Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe‘s Monte Carlo
SS made incidental contact on lap one that forced him to
come down pit road to replace a cut tire, putting him
two laps down. Hard contact with the wall on lap 125
substantially damaged the No. 48 Lowe‘s Monte Carlo SS.
Crew members made as many repairs as possible during
repeated trips down pit road under the subsequent
caution laps.
ON THE CAR:
“Jimmie‘s car is pretty bad. During that last pit stop,
we got up under there to check out the whole suspension
to make sure nothing was going to fall off and it is
pretty bent up under there.”
“We‘re just going to do what we can to gain a few more
spots out there. These guys keep wrecking and having
their difficulties which will give us a few more spots
and then we move on to Martinsville.”
ON KEEPING HIS DRIVER‘S SPIRITS UP:
“Jimmie is OK. That kind of stuff happens at these race
tracks. It‘s a tough race track. It‘s tough racing even
if everything is going well for you. We‘ll do OK. Jimmie
will be fine and we‘ll go to Martinsville and go after
them there.”
Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS -
Finished 34th “We struggled a little bit but we kept
working and kept making something out of it. It was
going to be OK but we just had a big wreck in front of
us. The 6 couldn‘t do anything. He got in the back of
us. He got us straight. There‘s nothing he could have
done. That messed us up. That‘s why we can‘t get to a
spring race here without getting involved in a wreck.
We‘ll keep digging. I hate when we finish that far back
but there‘s not a whole lot we can do about it.”
Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC Monte Carlo SS - Finished
37th Note: Vickers was involved in a multi-car wreck on
lap 188 making contact that forced him behind the pit
wall for repairs.
“I don‘t know what happened. Somebody up in front of me
had a problem and we checked up then we had no where to
go. It is frustrating. We had a good car. We were
running top-15 pretty much all race. We stayed out but a
lot of guys behind us pitted and got by us there with
fresh tires but we were on our way back up to the front.
It is just unfortunate for everyone on this GMAC Monte
Carlo SS team.”
Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Monte
Carlo SS - Finished 38th
Note: On lap 437 Truex was involved in a single-car
incident making hard contact with the wall. The damage
was sustained on the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Track Monte
Carlo SS and forced his withdrawl for the remainder of
the race. He was examined and released from the infield
car center.
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I got spun out.”
WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND JEFF GORDON? “He spun me
out.”
DO YOU KNOW WHY?
“No, I‘m not really sure. We just had a rough day. We
were just about ready to get our lap back. We got our
car running pretty decent. We ran a lap or two and we
were the first car a lap down up there on the bottom.
What did we run - two laps? Then we just got spun out.
It was unfortunate. I don‘t know what happened the
second time. I guess we got spun out again.”
ON DRIVERS SAYING JEFF GORDON HAS BEEN DRIVING OVERLY
AGGRESSIVE TODAY:
“I‘m not driving his car. All I know is he spun me out.”
