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Harvick wins in Chicagoland
Pete McCole
July 15, 2001

Nascar Rookie of the Year candidate Kevin Harvick scored his second career Winston Cup victory on Sunday, winning the inaugural Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. 

Harvick, who took over the Goodwrench Chevrolet after Dale Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500, also won at Atlanta in March. 

Harvick dominated much of the race, leading 5 times for 113 laps. Harvick was greatly helped by a late caution flag with 40 laps to go after Jeff Burton cut a tire. The yellow flag allowed Harvick to make a quick gas and go pit stop, giving him enough fuel to finish the race. 

On the ensuing restart, Harvick started seventh behind race leader Mark Martin. Just eight laps later, Harvick was able to move up on the outside and pass Mark Martin for the lead. 

The last caution of the day flew on lap 10 after Tony Stewart spun and hit the wall, setting up a five-lap shootout between second place Robert Pressley and Harvick for the win. But Pressley's car was no match for Harvick's, who seemed to be the only one that could ride the outside groove all day. 

Harvick took the victory, beating Pressley by 0.649 seconds. 

"These guys did a heck of a job in the pits, they had a great strategy," Harvick said. "The last restart with under 10 to go is pretty nerve-racking. This was awesome. 

"This year is all about Dale Earnhardt and winning races for him. This win means a lot. When you are stuck on your first win, everybody says he's a flash in the pan. This should prove that we are for real. I like this place, it reminds me a lot of Texas. I like these 1 1/2-mile tracks." 

Pressley's second palce finish was his career best finish, his previous best had been a third place finish at Texas in 1998. 

"We were real close today," said Pressley. "We've had some good race cars the last couple of years but never could finish the day. As long as we can stay out there and run, we'll get us a win or some more top fives. This deal is tougher than anyone else can imagine." 

Pressley got more of a challenge for second place, attempting to hold off Ricky Rudd who moved up quickly on the restart. 

"What made the difference for us is we elected to put on four tires," Rudd said. "For our car, we started to get the tires dialed in at the end and that was the key for us getting third rather than 11th or 12th." 

Ricky Rudd finished third, followed by Robert Yates teammate Dale Jarrett in fourth. Jimmy Spencer, who qualified on the outside pole, finished fifth. 

Spencer, along with Mark Martin and Johnny Benson, traded the lead through the first half of the race. 

Spencer's teammate, Todd Bodine, who sat on the pole for Sunday's race, lead the field for the first 6 laps, but quickly gave up the lead to Ricky Rudd. Tire problems forced the team to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 48, putting them a lap down. Bodine later spun out on lap 196 and again on lap 244, eventually winding up finishing in 14th. 

Jerry Nadeau had the fastest car early in the race, and took over the lead during pit stops on lap 112, but fell victim to an over-heated engine and finished 37th. 

Point leader Jeff Gordon looked to be in contention for the win in the closing laps of the race, but suffered an engine failure that dropped him into a tie for the points lead with Dale Jarrett with 2515 points. 

Several other championship contenders also fell back in the points. Tony Stewart dropped from 4th to 6th in the points following his crash. Bobby Labonte, put out of the race by an engine failure, dropped from 7th to 10th in the points. 

As was the case with the Nascar Busch Series race held Saturday, there was plenty of great racing and plenty of caution flags. 

Mike Skinner brought out the first of ten caution flags on lap 22 after cutting down a right front tire and slamming hard into the turn three wall. Skinner had to be helped from his car and was taken to an area hospital as a precaution. 

Steve Park, Buckshot Jones, and Tony Stewart also met the outside wall. Jones had to be taken to the infield care center on a stretcher. 

QUOTES

ANDY HOUSTON --96-- McDonald's Taurus (Finished 43rd) -- "The rear end gear 
burned up on the pace lap. I've never experienced anything like that 
before. I don't know what the issues are with it, but it's just another 
nightmare, just another chapter of the way this year has been. It's 
extremely frustrating. These guys are working hard, so we'll see if they 
can get it fixed." DID YOU SHIFT AND THERE WAS NOTHING THERE? WHAT 
HAPPENED? "No, actually it started before I ever took the green flag. As I 
started through turns three and four, I felt it start shaking and I told 
these that something was wrong with it. I'm in second gear idling around I 
felt it really start vibrating. I didn't feel the vibration at all the 
first two pace laps or I would have definitely hit pit road. As a matter of 
fact, I would have gone ahead and hit pit road anyway if I wouldn't have 
been in the outside line. But we were coming to the green and as soon as I 
started to put power down it just free-wheeled, like there was no drive in 
the car. I never even actually shifted. I just lifted off and hoped that 
nobody ran over me. It was a pretty tense moment there, but it's just 
really, really frustrating." 

ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 15th) -- "It is 
frustrating. I don't know where we missed it at. It's very frustrating to 
come here and test and run good and come back and just now use the stuff 
like we need to. It's just tough. We're lucky we finished 15th, because of 
the cautions at the right time. It's just a tough day." 

JIMMY SPENCER --26-- Kmart Taurus (Finished 5th) -- "I'm really 
disappointed. I mean, the lapped cars really screwed me up today. We just 
weren't real good on the restarts, but I haven't seen that much straightaway 
speed on a race car in a long time than what the 29 had today. I was as 
good as any car in the corners, but I just can't believe the straightaway 
speed the 29 had. Oh well. That's a top five and that's pretty neat for 
the Kmart crew. We've had a rough couple of weeks and this is pretty good. 
We weren't the best Ford, but we gained a bunch." DID A SECOND GROOVE COME 
IN? "There was two grooves. There were two distinctive grooves going in 
and the track was just incredible. I think it's a neat place. We started 
up front and stayed in front all day. All in all, we had a good day." 

RICKY RUDD --28-- Texaco Havoline Taurus (Finished 3rd) -- "I owe it to this 
Texaco Havoline team. Everyone on this team, I owe them a lot. We came 
back from a long way. We started off and had the lead early on. I thought 
we had a great race car, but I found out we were way too tight. We pushed 
all day and they kept freeing the car up. I thought we might have been 
doomed there at the end. We got four tires when most everybody else got two 
and it ended up turning out to be the way to go at the end of the race." 
YOU PUT THE FANS ON THEIR FEET WITH THAT LAST RESTART. "There's an apron 
down there and we used it all day long. It's amazing there's so much grip 
there. I don't know if we can do that when we come back, but there's a lot 
of grip down on the apron. That Yates horsepower would really get rolling 
down around the start-finish line and we'd use that apron to get by a few 
cars. I'm not sure what happened on that restart. Somebody missed a gear 
and they all jumbled up and I had nowhere else to go but down to the grass 
to get by everybody." 

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus (Finished 13th) -- "We ran over 
something and a tire was going flat there at the end -- that's why we 
couldn't make up any spots in the final laps. We tried the two-tire deal 
early in the race and it didn't work for us. That's why we went with four 
on that late pit stop. We had a top-10 car here for sure today, but it just 
didn't work out that way. Our biggest problem most of the day was that we 
didn't have the speed we needed from the center of the turn out. I think 
maybe we had the chassis just too loaded up. Oh well, with some of those 
cats in front of us in the points having problems, maybe we did okay as far 
as the points go." 

DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus (Finished 4th) -- "We had a good car all day. 
The guys did a great job. The engine department, they're great. I just got 
a little tight there at the end. I just couldn't go through the center of 
the corner like I had been and that hurt me getting off the corner." YOU 
MADE UP SOME GROUND IN THE POINTS TOO. "Yeah, it was a good points day for 
us. Ricky had a good day, so Robert Yates Racing is right up there. That's 
what we're after." DID A SECOND GROOVE COME IN? "Well, the fast groove was 
on the bottom, but you could get up there if you had to and it didn't scare 
you to death. That was the good thing is that it came in enough that you 
didn't get totally scared if you got out of that groove a little bit." WHAT 
ABOUT YOUR STRATEGY? "That was the key -- getting track position because 
the cars would get an aero push. You just had to do what you could. We got 
two tires there and made my car a little bit too tight." DID YOU SEE GORDON 
SLOW? "I saw him puff some smoke down the backstretch and he went on into 
three like he was alright, but then he slowed up. I saw that and thought, 
'Well, here's a chance for us to take advantage of it a little bit.'" DID 
YOU THINK YOU HAD A CHANCE TO WIN AT THAT POINT? "I was still running hard, 
but I knew my car was a little bit too tight, so I just couldn't quite get 
to where I needed to go. By then it was just a matter of getting all the 
points that I could." 

ROBERT PRESSLEY --77-- Jasper Engines Taurus (Finished 2nd) -- "It was a 
great day. I mean, you couldn't ask for anything better except to win. Our 
car was just terribly loose on new tires, but we just kept hanging in there. 
When we got within the pit window I said, 'We don't want anymore tires. 
Let's keep what we've got,' because they were faster than new tires." THE 
CAUTIONS HELPED AS FAR AS MAKING IT ON FUEL. "Right. We could have made it 
easily, but what we really needed was no cautions because we could have made 
it on fuel. Maybe the 29 wouldn't have." 

MARK MARTIN --6-- Pfizer Taurus (Finished 6th) -- "I thought we were gonna 
run second and then for sure I thought we were gonna run third and then we 
ran out of gas on the restart. It did pick back up, but I guess you're 
never satisfied. I sure would have been happy to get what we earned. We 
took a car that I don't think was competitive and put it in contention for 
second or third place. I sure am disappointed that we didn't finish there 
with it." THE STRATEGY WAS WORKING FOR YOU. "It was pretty good, but the 
29 car was just so fast. Other than that, I just got beat on the restart. 
I got a great start, but the lapped cars and the way they wanted to race 
there, that let the 77 get by. We were strong enough to hold our track 
position. We played our cards right and we did good. We didn't have a 
whole lot to work with. We got up there once and then we got in the back 
and stayed in the back a long time and then we got up there again and were 
able to stay there pretty good. Sixth is a lot better than I thought we 
were gonna do, but third is a lot better than sixth." 

TODD BODINE --66-- Blue Light Special/Kmart Taurus (Finished 14th) -- "We 
had a good car, but it went bad. The car was swapping around. We're doing 
something wrong on our shocks and we haven't quite figured it out. Our car 
got worse and worse and worse. I spun out twice and had no warning it was 
going to do that. It's just a bad day and yet we still finished 14th. We 
gained a lot of points which is what we had to do. It's disappointing to be 
on the pole and have good car at the start and then it just went to hell." 
DID A SECOND GROOVE COME IN? "It was coming in, but it still wasn't all the 
way there." 

KURT BUSCH, Raybestos Rookie --97-- Sharpie/Rubbermaid Taurus (Finished 8th) 
-- "It seemed like we were off sequence all day long with tires. Track 
position was vital, but we had a good Ford and that Roush racing engine had 
good fuel mileage. It was really good strategy by all the Roush cars to 
stick together. I just got bumped out of the groove by Spencer at the end. 
I was holding him up a little bit, but, all in all, it was a great day." 
HOW HARD IS TO HOLD ON TO WHAT YOU HAVE AT THE END? "It's alright. It will 
come with time. The 29 car seems to be doing everything right. They had an 
advantage that nobody else had -- he was a great car today. It was 
wonderful to see a rookie go out there and win like that. Hopefully, we'll 
have our chance later on." 

MATT KENSETH --17-- DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 7th) -- "That was a 
tough run for us. We rally worked on the DEWALT car all day. Every single 
pit stop Robbie and the guys did an awesome job. The car was tight early on 
and then it was loose and the car just kept changing. We used scuffs the 
whole day." 

ROBBY GORDON --7-- NationsRent Taurus (Finished 35th) -- "We had really 
good car, but there was no reason to push it after we got behind. (Two hose 
clamps broke on a water pump hose). I think we were good enough to finish 
10th, 11th or 12th -- somewhere in there." 

JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo SUPERGARD Taurus (Finished 18th) -- "We ran great. 
We had a right-front go down. Fortunately, it went down in a straightaway 
and didn't hit anything. It's unfortunate because we ran well all day. We 
certainly had a top four, top three car. We didn't have anything for 
Harvick, but I thought we could run with about everybody on the track. We 
just didn't get a good break." WHAT ABOUT THE TIRES? "There was a lot of 
tire trouble today. The track is real fast and very abusive on tires. I 
think Goodyear did a great job coming here and the fact we didn't have more 
problems is a big surprise. It's hard to build a tire for a track like 
this." 

ROBERT PRESSLEY PRESS CONFERENCE -- "The guys in the pits just did a great 
job. We got within 67-70 laps and Ryan (Pemberton) opted to have us go the 
rest of the way on fuel. That's what got us track position to get up there 
and then we had some clean air. The guys in the pits did it. Our car was 
just a lot better on old tires than new tires. We just couldn't get going 
for about eight or 10 laps on new tires." 

RICKY RUDD PRESS CONFERENCE -- "I think the first 20 laps I couldn't have 
been happier about the way things were going. I thought we were the best 
car in the field and then I found out what it was -- we had a good car, but 
I think track position was more important than having a good car today. 
Once the pit strategy started taking place -- a lot of guys watched the 
Busch race yesterday and saw that two tires worked really good -- so we 
elected not to beat ourselves. We put on four tires just about all day long 
and that hemmed us up in traffic pretty badly. We never could get a clean 
race track. Our car pushed really bad and couldn't get it to turn when we 
were back in traffic, so they kept loosening the car up and finally at the 
end it still wasn't loose enough, but a lot better. Probably what made a 
difference for us is we elected to put on four tires. I'm thinking with 35 
laps to go there was a caution and elected to put on four (tires). I think 
it worked out good for Robert. I think some of these guys didn't put on any 
and some put on two, but for our car we started getting the tires dialed in 
there at the end, so four tires was probably the key to our running third. 
If not, we probably would have been somewhere between 10th and 12th." 

RUDD CONTINUED -- WHAT DID YOU THINK WHEN YOU SAW GORDON SLOW AND WERE YOU 
THINKING WIN OR POINTS AT THE END? "I saw Jeff slow, but it was getting 
real intense there toward the end of that race. I didn't have time to pay 
too much attention. I just knew that we had to come out of there with the 
best finish we possibly could. I don't know. I just got in the wrong line 
at Daytona last week. We had a top-five car and we came out of there with a 
14th and I think I started watching points too much. At Daytona I starting 
looking and at one time I said, 'Okay, we're third' and I looked and DJ was 
20th and Gordon had his problem. I'm thinking, 'Man, we can come out of 
here in really good shape.' Then I got boxed in. Maybe I got too 
conservative at the end of that race at Daytona. Today I didn't think 
points, I just thought positions. We need as many positions as we possibly 
can get. Something happened to these guys on the restart. I couldn't tell 
exactly what happened. Somebody missed a gear. Anyway, that opened the 
race track up for us and we dove low and were able to pick up a few spots." 
YOU GOT BY MARK, RIGHT? "Yeah. I'm not sure what happened to him. He 
broke or blew up. (ACTUALLY, MARTIN RAN OUT OF GAS TEMPORARILY. PLEASE SEE 
MARTIN QUOTES FOR FURTHER DETAILS). You get down to the end of the race and 
everybody is going through those gears really, really hard. It's very easy 
to miss a gear. He might not have missed one. He might have spun the 
tires. I'm not really sure what happened, but we took off good and then all 
of a sudden everybody, like, stopped. I'd been using that apron all day 
long. There was gonna be some clarification before the race whether we 
could or could not use the apron. The Busch cars used it all day yesterday. 
No one received word, so that meant it was not out of bounds during the 
race. Basically, it was there. It was one of those situation that it made 
me look good, but, really, my choice was to run over the cars in front of me 
or to dive down and try to miss a wreck. That's pretty much what I did. 
When I cleared it I looked up and said, 'Man, that turned out pretty good.' 
That made it look like I knew what I was doing, but it was pretty much an 
accident." 

PRESSLEY CONTINUED -- WERE YOU TRYING TO SPOOK HARVICK ON THAT LAST RESTART 
GETTING UP ON HIS BUMPER LIKE YOU DID? "Me and Kevin have never really 
raced together until today. I was really just wanting to shake him up a 
little bit and maybe make him drive off into one a little bit harder or 
maybe spin the tires a little bit on take off. I knew that if I could get 
on the inside of him getting into one, and with everybody really close 
together, that we might shuffle him back a little bit and maybe have a shot. 
I never thought about Ricky coming on. I thought I was gonna have to race 
Mark for second, but, evidently, he missed a gear or something. I wasn't 
gonna do anything to him (Harvick), I was just gonna try to get under there 
and beat him into turn one and hope that we got him hung on the outside." 
WAS YOUR CAR THAT MUCH BETTER ON SCUFFED TIRES? "Our car just wouldn't take 
off for eight or 10 laps. We had it so loose that we just couldn't get it 
to go. When we made our lap up there, that time when we got out of 
sequence, we were on old tires then and we went in and put on a set of tires 
we had earlier and was able to get the lap back. Kevin and I guess Nadeau 
helped us out right there giving us our lap back. Our car was just a whole 
lot better on old tires. If we hadn't had the caution at the end of the 
race with 30 to go, we were ready to go on gas. We came in and topped ours 
off late, so it's one of those deals that you'll never know what would have 
happened because we didn't get the opportunity to try it." WHAT ABOUT THE 
TRACK? "The race track is a really nice race track. It got a little wide. 
The only thing I would like to see better is that you could go into one or 
go into three and there was only one lane. Once you got into the middle, 
the race track really opened up. So I think over the years whenever turns 
one and three widen out going in, it's gonna be a great race track to race 
on." 

RUDD CONTINUED -- WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK? "When we come back it could be a 
different race track because this race track will go through a pretty hard 
winter this coming season and things will change. After an inaugural race, 
things usually change the next time you come back. It's a great race track. 
I wished we could have gotten into the corners side-by-side at full speed, 
but maybe next time. No one has picked up on this, but I just want to bring 
it to everyone's attention. Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon, I understand, are 
tied for the lead and we're 17 points back in second. I like that little 
tidbit, so I thought I'd throw it out there. It sounded good to me." 

PRESSLEY CONTINUED -- YOU PICKED UP A LOCAL SPONSOR HERE. CAN YOU TALK 
ABOUT THAT? "We picked up an associate sponsor here -- Empire Carpets. 
That's one of the deals where we're wanting to take this Jasper team to the 
next level. We've been picking up associate sponsors along the way at each 
race track that we go to. 'Help us, we need that little bit more to get our 
test program a little bit better and get our restrictor plate program a 
little better.' So we really appreciate Empire being on this week." 

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