Kevin Harvick wore his signature shades and sarcastic smile, on pit road after the race. He was disappointed that a dominant victory slipped away, and a good points day didn’t make it better.
“I don’t care about points. I’d rather win.”
It was Harvick’s race to lose, and he found a way to lose it.
In the midst of a woodshed whooping, Harvick pitted from the lead with 80 laps to go. He pitted again a lap later with a loose wheel, caused by a lug nut knocking off the valve stem to his right-front tire. He returned to the race a lap down.
“I can’t control where the lug nuts fly. Our Busch Beer Ford was really fast, and that’s about it.”
A caution got Harvick back on the lead lap. He avoided the multi-car pileup on the backstretch with three laps to go.
“Yeah, we were just lucky there. We were dodging and weaving and being in the right place. I guess that makes up for the bad luck on losing the race with a dominant car.”
His charge through the field stalled out at sixth, where his day ended.
He took command of the race on the 16th lap. Aside from a few laps during two green flag pit cycles and Joey Logano beating him off pit road under the first caution, it was his to lose.
Harvick led a total of 251 laps and swept the stages.
He leaves Dover with the points lead.
