Harvick Wins NASCAR Coke Zero 400

(DAYTONA BEACH Fla., MyFoxOrlando.com) - Kevin Harvick won a wild Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday night.

It was a record-breaking, weather delayed, crash filled affair that saw nearly half the field damaged or in the garage before it was over and with the checkered flag actually falling early Sunday morning.

Harvick led the field to the green at 9:24 p.m. nearly two hours past the scheduled start time thanks to rain that delayed the start. Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson quickly passed him for the lead, but he was soon passed by his teammate Jeff Gordon, who was soon passed by Greg Biffle. And so it went in the early stages as the lead was swapped back and forth several times.

The first caution came out on lap 17, a scheduled competition caution called by NASCAR. Harvick retook the lead out of the pits when he took two tires while most of the field behind him took four.

The two tires for Harvick may have got him in the lead, but four tires soon won out and Harvick was passed first by Kurt Busch then Elliott Sadler. Harvick began to fade finding himself outside the top five as Busch and Sadler battled for the lead.

During the first half of the event the lead changed seemingly countless times in fact breaking a record for different leaders (17) for the summer race at Daytona just after halfway.

Kyle Busch emerged at the front of the field early in the second half of the race and would go on to lead 23 laps overall second only to Harvick who led 26, but Busch’s hopes for a victory ended on lap 104 on the backstretch as he appeared to cut across the front of the Chevy of Juan Pablo Montoya and was turned nose first into the wall.

Busch’s Toyota slid down the wall in flames before coming to a rest on the apron of the track. Busch climbed from his machine and began walking back towards the pits on the apron.

“The replay shows I turned right across the nose of the 42 (Montoya),” Busch said. “So apparently I wanted to wreck myself, I don’t know. Some people they don’t understand what happens in these cars.”

It wasn’t long after that things really got wild

Kurt Busch had taken the lead on a restart on lap 141. Soon however, thanks to a push from his teammate Clint Bowyer, Harvick retook the lead. After another caution shortly after, Bowyer took the lead with Harvick pushing him from behind. The teammates started to check out with Jeff Gordon in tow and as the laps wound down it looked as though the race would be decided between them.

Then directly behind them, Busch and Jeff Burton got together setting off a ripple effect behind them. The ensuing melee involved 20 cars that were swept up into a wad with only 12 laps to go.

“You couldn’t see much from the cars,” Jimmie Johnson said. “I saw the number 2 (Kurt Busch) down on the flat. Then I was hit from behind and everybody was trying to slow down and I just got caught up in things We came close, I mean 380-something miles of not having a big one and then we always seem to have that big one at the end.”

The crash forced NASCAR to throw a red flag and the race was stopped for nearly twenty minutes for the cleanup.

On the green, white, checkered flag restart, Bowyer was on the outside with Harvick on the inside. Bowyer was pushed ahead by Gordon, but soon Harvick reasserted himself in second behind Bowyer. As the field came into turn four, Bowyer lost a tire on his Chevy, spun, and Harvick went to the front as the white flag came out. Behind him, Kasey Kahne got past Gordon while Harvick held the lead to the checkered flag.

“That really wasn’t the situation we wanted to be in,” Harvick said of the final restart. “I wanted to be behind him (Bowyer) and be able to push him because it was working pretty good for us. Than that caution came out and we had to split up because of the double file restarts. But helped him as much as I could and we got spilt up and the number 9 (Kahne) and the number 24 (Gordon), spilt the number 33 (Bowyer) and that was it.”

Gordon finished third, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in fourth with Jeff Burton rounding out the top five.

After the second win of the season and the 13th of his career Harvick kept his lead in the driver standings while Jeff Gordon owing to Johnson’s 31st place finish took over the second and trails Harvick by 212 as the series heads to Chicagoland next week.

Saturday’s race marked the last time a race will be held on the old surface. Starting Monday, the track will be repaved for the first time since 1979.

“I think this racetrack is obviously the most historic racetrack that we race on, and I think if that asphalt could talk, you can go back and look at all the stories,” Harvick said. “But it's just such a neat deal to be able to win the last race on that particular asphalt. It's going to be a lot different race when we come back.

Any time you can win, though, whether it's new asphalt or old asphalt, it's always going to be the baddest place to win, and that's Daytona.”