Harvick's chance at second Daytona 500 win falls short

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- When Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth went through a winless 2008 season, there's no telling what they thought, or when they thought they'd win again. But if they spent much time worrying, it was a waste because all three won races during Speedweeks 2009.

Harvick, who won the season's first event -- the Budweiser Shootout on the opening weekend at Daytona International Speedway -- scored perhaps the comeback of the Daytona 500 Sunday night by rebounding from a day in the weeds to finish second behind Kenseth when rain ended the race after 152 laps.

Race Video

• Final Laps: Harvick 's push
• Harvick happy with second

Harvick used some drafting help from Kenseth two years ago to win his first Daytona 500. He was disappointed with second place this year but saw the righteous element in the fact that he'd pushed Kenseth past leader Elliott Sadler on Sunday evening.

Kenseth was just plain relieved, but not overwhelmed when it was pointed out to him the sport's three most significant streaks of futility had ended at Daytona.

"That's pretty cool. I hope it keeps happening," Kenseth said. "I thought about us not winning. That was disappointing. But it's really hard. It's really competitive. Everything's got to go right to be able to win these races.

"It's pretty cool to be able to win this race, but it doesn't make or break your season. We know there's a lot of work to do coming up."

Harvick and his Richard Childress Racing crew did a lot of work in the 500 after he was one of seven drivers that went to the rear for using backup cars.

"Just from the start of the race the track changed a little bit," Harvick said. "We were on the right side of it with our car and were able to make some big adjustments early in the race because we started in the back. Our Chevrolet was rough in the beginning. We came in and made some really big adjustments with the spring rubber and some air pressure and did a lot of things to work on the handling. We realized that we didn't have the speed we needed to.

"They did a good job on pit road and kept us in the game and made the right adjustments and put us in position to have a chance and that's all you can ask for." (Continued)