Kevin Harvick has found the key to winning the biggest races at Daytona International Speedway: lead as few laps as possible. Harvick, who won the 2007 Daytona 500 after leading just four laps, led just one Saturday night en route to winning his first Bud Shootout.His improbable win was just the tip of the iceberg on a wild, full moon Florida night as 28 of NASCAR's stars knocked the dust of the steering wheel in the season-opening exhibition.
"I say we have offseasons from November to February every year," said Harvick. "That was the most exciting race I've been a part of in a long time."
Opting to wait out what proved to be a crash-heavy race, Harvick stayed towards the back of the pack during most of the race before charging to the front when it really mattered.
The 75-lap affair under the lights on the high banks of Daytona's 2.5-miles truly lived up to its wild expectations, after an off-season with limited testing, multiple driver moves and an interesting draw for Shootout starting positions left the the events scheduled to take place following the drop of 2009's first green flag with a myriad of questions.
The race -- the longest in the history of the season-opening event thanks to NASCAR's new format for 2009 -- featured a record eight caution flags. The final yellow flag sealed the deal for Harvick as drivers behind him tangled in Turn 3 of the last lap.
The final wreck happened during a two-lap, green-white-checkered finish after Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears made contact entering the second-to-last corner. Johnson's car slammed the outside wall as Mears spun, collecting Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin while fourth-place finisher Jeff Gordon slipped past the carnage. Gordon's move was the second time that the two-time Shootout winner narrowly escaped a crash Saturday night.
The final crash froze the field immediately, per NASCAR's rulebook, after the yellow flag was displayed -- giving Harvick the win and leaving Jamie McMurray second, Tony Stewart third, Gordon fourth and A.J. Allmendinger an impressive fifth. The race finished in a green-white-checkered fashion, thanks to a crash with just three laps to go involving David Stremme and Greg Biffle coming off turn four.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., as is usual at Daytona, looked strong early by leading 24 laps, but the No. 88 got loose underneath teammate Gordon while battling for the lead and fell to the back of the pack. Just laps later, the drop in position cost Earnhardt Jr. after Paul Menard got loose off turn four and slammed the side of the No. 88.
In a measure of just how wild and crazy Saturday night was, of the record 28 drivers who started the event, just 14 finished on the lead lap.
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