Tony Stewart (14) and Jimmie Johnson (48) spin out in Turn 2 during the Toyota Owner’s 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup series auto race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Va., Saturday April 27, 2013.RICHMOND, Va. – When the dust settled at Richmond, ‘Ol Happy Harvick was the only driver smiling.
Kevin Harvick plowed through traffic on the final restart, driving from seventh to Victory Lane in a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway. He did it with one of those head-scratching “Where did he come from?” drives in which everyone was just hanging on.
“Just shifted gears, hit the pedal and hoped for the best,” Harvick said. “They all went high and I went low. The seas kind of parted there. They didn’t get a very good restart, and my car launched.
“I was able to take it three-wide, those guys all drove it in hard, and I was able to get by the next two. I only had one to go by the time I got to the backstretch.”
It was Harvick’s first Sprint Cup win of the season – he opened the year with a win in the exhibition Sprint Unlimited at Daytona – and his 20th career victory. It put Chevrolet and Richard Childress Racing in Victory Lane, snapping a two-race winning streak by Joe Gibbs Racing.