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| Harvick gets first career win at Martinsville |
Harvick passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead on Lap 497 of 500 and pulled away to win the Goody's Fast Relief 500 Sprint Cup race Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Earnhardt ran second, extending his winless streak to 99 races.
The victory was Harvick's second of the season and his first at Martinsville. Harvick has 16 victories in the Cup Series.
Earnhardt had muscled past third-place finisher Kyle Busch on Lap 480 and held the lead until Harvick made the winning pass in Turn 2.
Juan Montoya ran fourth, followed by Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and pole-sitter Jamie McMurray. David Ragan and Clint Bowyer were eighth and ninth, respectively. Mark Martin finished 10th in his 800th race in the Cup Series.
"I hate to be the bad guy here, but we're in it to win it," said Harvick, who ended Denny Hamlin's string of three consecutive victories at Martinsville and became the first driver other than Hamlin or Jimmie Johnson to win at the .526-mile short track since Tony Stewart on April 2, 2006.
Harvick's pass accounted for the last of a track-record 31 lead changes, but it was one Harvick knew would be unpopular in some quarters.
"I could see people going crazy in Turn 2 when he took the lead from Kyle, and I was catching him, and I'm like, 'Man, I'm going to be the bad guy here,' " Harvick said. "But I've got to do what I've got to do.
"To race with Dale Jr. and win the race at Martinsville, I think it's pretty cool. ... I know the fans want to see him win -- I want to see him win. It would be great for the sport, and I think today went a long way to showing how competitive they can be, racing for wins.
"That's what we need. We all need him to win, but I'm not going to back down."
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| It looked like Junior might get the win late, but Harvick came strong |
"We had the opportunity there to win a race, and I'm disappointed that I didn't get the job done," Earnhardt said. "It'll probably bother me more and more as the night goes on -- I'll probably think about it a million times, what I could have done differently -- but, you know, if I know what's best for me, I should probably have a good attitude about what happened today.
"I'll probably go into the next race and use it as momentum and confidence, as any other good driver would do, instead of worrying about how close we came. I should be thankful and grateful for the opportunity I had today and the opportunity I got to work with the team I'm with, and to even be here competing.
"Steve's a good crew chief, and he's going to give me more opportunities like this, I feel."
Busch took the series lead by five points over Carl Edwards, who finished 18th.
Goody's 500 Results
Post Race Notes
| • With his 16th victory in his 364th Cup Series start, Kevin Harvick tied Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin for 46th on the all-time victories list. |
| • Kevin Harvick became the first repeat winner in the Cup Series in 2011. |
| • Kevin Harvick earned his first victory at Martinsville, giving him wins on 13 current Cup Series tracks. |
| • Kevin Harvick joined Bobby Labonte as the only drivers to have won at Martinsville in all three of NASCAR's top touring series. |
| • Dale Earnhardt Jr. (second) earned his best finish since coming home second in the 2010 Daytona 500. |
| • Kyle Busch (third) earned his best finish at Martinsville, topping his previous best of fourth. He is the only driver to have top-fives in four of the first six races. |
| • Juan Montoya (fourth) got his fourth top-10 finish in six races this season. |
| • Jeff Gordon (fifth) got his second top-1o finish of 2011, and he's finished in the top five in 12 of the past 13 Martinsville races. |
| • Jeff Gordon moved into fourth all time in laps led at Martinsville,with 2,981, passing Richard Petty's mark of 2,964. |
| • Jimmie Johnson (11th) ended a 17-race streak of top-10 finishes at Martinsville. |
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