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| Harvick in Victory Lane at Martinsville - Photo: Kevin Carver |
Harvick Avoids Headaches to
Win the Goody's 250
July 24, 2006
Kevin Carver - SCR
Martinsville,VA-
Kevin Harvick hasn't been the man to beat when it comes to Martinsville, but in
the 2006 Busch Series....Harvick has been on top of his game. On Saturday afternoon, Harvick had enough experience and too
much car for Clint Bowyer as he held on to win the Goody's 250.
"Clint was good on the
restarts, but once we had four or five laps on our tires, we could distance ourselves a little bit because of the way I got
off the corners," commented Harvick after winning his fourth Busch Series race this season.
Although, the biggest
story of the day had to be the yellow hanky. In only 250 circuits, the caution flag flew 19 times for 87 laps and thus tied
the record for the most caution flags in a Martinsville Busch Series race. The first of those came out when Steven Wallace's
Jackson Roscoe Foundation Dodge spun in turn four on lap four. The wrecking didn't quite stop there as David Gilliand got
punted in turn one by Jon Wood on lap 163. Then at lap 177, Boris Said was booted in turn three by Burney Lamar and David
Green ended up plowing into Said.
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A 12-lap shootout to
the checkers came following a Todd Kluever spin. Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, along with Denny Hamlin were the top three at
the time. Even while dicing between each other, that is the way they would remain. As a last corner charge to the inside by
Bowyer came up short at the line and gave Harvick the 0.271 margin of victory. Reed Sorenson ended up a solid fourth and Johnny
Sauter rounded out the top five. The No. 10 RVs.com Ford driven by John Andretti ran seventh after starting 17th. Andretti
also helped himself out since they are looking for a sponsor to finish out the last seven races of the season with. "We have
a competitive team and as far as I am concerned it's the best buy in the garage right now," stated John.
Darrell Waltrip was having
a decent run at Martinsville
on Saturday, but Tim Sauter spun the 59-year-old Waltrip on lap 231. The spin in turn four negated a top 20 finish for Waltrip
who was making his last competitive start. A disappointed Waltrip did joke around after finishing all 250 laps in 28th place.
I am gonna stay over and test some tomorrow, so that I can try and get better for next time. Oh wait, there isn't going to
be a next time, anyways, it was fun," claimed Waltrip.
Denny Hamlin was the
only driver to miss qualifying Saturday as he left Pocono later than the rest who came to join their respective Busch teams.
Hamlin had to start last as the result of being late to the drivers meeting and qualifying. Still, he was up to eighth by
lap 80 and still ended up third by day's end. "At times I thought we were a third place car and at other times I felt that
we were the best car, but we just couldn't do anything with Harvick or Bowyer on those short runs," said Hamlin after collecting
his ninth top five of the year.
With Harvick's win in
Saturday's Busch race, he now leads the points standings in his No. 21 Coast Guard Chevy by an astounding 348 markers over
Carl Edwards. Harvick clearly stated after the Goody's 250 that the points race in the series was not over and that you can
lose points faster than you can gain them.
Questions, Comments;
Email Kevin
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2006 StockCar Review.
