Better late than ever
FONTANA, Calif. — Growing up as a driver, Kevin Harvick wasn’t taught to stomp the gas as hard as he could all the time. Sit back, let the others bang into each other, then make your move was the way he was told to do it.
It seems to be working out quite well for him.
Pulling off what’s become his typical linger-then-close move, Harvick passed California king Jimmie Johnson on the final turn at Auto Club Speedway to win after trailing the entire race.
“I always was taught to race, just go fast enough to put yourself in position to be around at the end and make sure your car still has all the fenders and tires and everything still underneath it,” Harvick said. “When it’s time to go, you have a little something left, your car is hopefully fresher than the guys around you.”
Kyle Busch had the dominant car most of the day and led a race-high 151 laps, including off a restart with nine laps left.
Johnson, a five-time winner at Fontana, had the late burst, chasing down Busch for the lead with two laps left.
Harvick, as he always seems to, nailed the finish.
He had a rough start to the season, finishing 42nd at Daytona after a blown engine and hadn’t been able to pull it together since despite having fast cars. His best finish was a fourth at Phoenix.
Harvick didn’t have a particularly strong qualifying session at Fontana, either, to start 24th and wasn’t exactly ripping through the field once the race started.
What he did was gradually work his way to the front, pulling up behind Johnson after getting past Busch.
Taking advantage of a small gap to the outside, Harvick made his move on Johnson going into Turn 3, then completed it coming around Turn 4. Ahead going down the last straightway, he finished off his becoming-a-trademark finish to take the checkers for the 15th time in his career.
“I really felt good when they had that restart because I knew his car was really fast on the long run,” said Richard Childress, owner of Harvick’s No. 29 car. “I knew if they didn’t get too far out in front of us, we’d have a shot. All we needed was to get him side-by-side and start racing. That gave Kevin a chance to catch them and he made the right move going into 3.”
