Throughout Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway, Kevin Harvick easily had one of the fastest cars in the field. However, any chance he had of winning for the first time in 2012 was dealt a serious blow when during what should have been a routine pit stop, Harvick overshot his pit stall.
NASCAR Dover Results 2012: Kevin Harvick Fights Back To Finish Second
“I was having trouble all day,” Harvick said after the race. “The pit (box) was on the corner and I was having trouble picking up my mark and I tried to get too much in between the timing lines there and just over-shot the pit.
“So just a bad mistake. But I didn’t do a very good job.”
Undeterred, and with a fast Chevrolet underneath him, Harvick was able to claw his way back up the leaderboard to post a spirited second-place finish to race-winner Jimmie Johnson and score his seventh top 10 of the year in 13 races (you can see the full NASCAR Dover results here).
And when the checkered flag waved, even though Harvick wasn’t able to win his first race of the year, he left Dover with a result that represents a moral victory of sorts for the lead driver of Richard Childress Racing.
What would have been a crippling mistake instead allowed Harvick to grit his teeth and attempt to atone for his gaffe, which he did by notching his best finish since finishing runnerup to Denny Hamlin in the second race of the year at Phoenix.
“We had a solid race,” Harvick said. “I made a mistake on pit road there and got us back to about 20th. The car was good enough to be able to drive back through the pack, and for whatever reason, we were able to adjust our car well today when we needed to and we were able to keep up with the racetrack and keep our car better through the day.
“I think that was a big key to getting through the traffic and putting ourselves back in position to at least have a chance.”
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