CUP: Harvick Happy With Second

Sprint Cup

CUP: Harvick Happy With Second

Kevin Harvick continues to lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings.

Tom Jensen | Posted February 28, 2010 Las Vegas, NV

Kevin Harvick has now won two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in a row and is the leader in the points. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Kevin Harvick had a lot to be pleased with Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he finished second to race-winner Jimmie Johnson in the Shelby American.

Results: Shelby American

It was Harvick's second consecutive runner-up finish and it extended his NASCAR Sprint Cup points lead, two very good things for sure. More than that, though, the strong finish signaled a new resiliency for Richard Childress Racing, a team that suffered through a woeful 2009 season.

Harvick put his RCR crew's collective backs up against the wall on Friday, when he bounced his Pennzoil-sponsored Chevrolet Impala SS off the outside wall during the opening round of practice. That forced a lengthy session or repair work by his crew. And Sprint Cup qualifying was nearly as bad, as he was just 34th-fastest during Friday afternoon's time trials.

And yet, Harvick left Las Vegas with a second-place finish, one day after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in his own Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet.

Sunday, though, he was stoked about how his RCR crew had dug deep to get him back towards the front. “All in all, to come from where we started — and I got us behind on Friday, got us back in the field in qualifying. We were able to rebound from that, and those were things we couldn't do over the past couple of years.”

Already, just three races into the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Harvick is one of the more interesting storylines in the NASCAR garage. Last year was a difficult one for Harvick, who fell all the way to 19th in points, his worst finish since 2002. This after finishing in the top 10 for each of the three previous seasons.

Harvick and car owner Richard Childress had some heated battles last year, with speculation being that Harvick would leave RCR at the end of 2010, his final contract year.

Regardless of whether he stays or goes — and so far, Harvick has declined to discuss his future — success makes it easier on everyone. And Harvick was happy with his Las Vegas race, even if Johnson beat him for the second race in a row.

Last week, after Harvick finished second to Johnson, he said the four-time champion had a “golden horseshoe” for good luck. On Sunday at Las Vegas, Harvick said he wasn't beaten by luck.

And he allowed as how he might have won had he not performed poorly on Friday.

“You know, having a better Friday would have been very beneficial for us to keep our track position where we needed it to be there at the end. If we had been second or third, I think we could have run with him,” Harvick said of Johnson. “Do I think we could have beat him? I don't know. But I think we would have at least had a shot.”

Results: Shelby American

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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Tom Jensen

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