Harvick's win an emotional one for Richard Childress

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Six years ago on the closing lap of the Daytona 500 Richard Childress, NASCAR and all NASCAR fans suffered the biggest loss in the history of the series due to the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt. Childress seriously questioned giving up.

Following the first rule of racing, he didn't quit. Richard Childress Racing repainted the black No. 3 and put a rookie, Kevin Harvick, in the seat vacated by the late seven-time champion.

Harvick repaid that confidence by winning the third race of that season. It was just his second start in the Cup Series. With that victory, healing began and Harvick went on to win the Busch championship and finish ninth in the standings.

You would think that things would go straight up from there for Harvick and the team. But they didn't. Failing to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup in 2004 and 2005, Harvick was talking to other teams early last year, but the driver and the owner came to terms to continue. That was a key moment.

The addition of Jeff Burton to the team in 2005 -- as Harvick has said many times -- was the catalyst of a change of attitude.

Last year both Burton and Harvick made the Chase while Harvick repeated his Busch title. RCR was back as a viable Cup contender.

In the days leading up to the Daytona 500 everyone was preoccupied with the "cheating scandal," which at the time seemed to inflict a black eye on the entire stock car series.

When it came to racing stories the confident and powerful Tony Stewart, who won the Shootout and easily won his 150-mile qualifier, was a heavy favorite.

"Happy" Harvick was a bit off most of our radars as he started a lowly 34th on Sunday afternoon. Maybe we should have taken bigger notice of his win in the Busch series race on Saturday.

As expected Stewart ran strong in the daylight portion of the day, even though he fell to 37th due to damage on a pit stop and a pit road speed violation. He was back in front by lap 150. Only three laps later he lost the handle on his Chevrolet, suddenly slowing in the path of Kurt Busch -- who led a race-high 95 laps. They were gone.

The sun set and Harvick said "a bunch of demons came out when it got dark."

Childress agreed. "I've seen a lot of these Daytona 500s, and this had to be the wildest 500 I've ever watched." Then he closed his eyes because, he told Harvick, the last few laps were too awful to watch.

The crash that took out Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 196 set up the loved and hated green-white checkered flag, a procedure instituted to appease fans who threw beer cans at Talladega Speedway a few years ago when a race finished under yellow and Jeff Gordon was declared winner over Earnhardt Jr.

Simply stated, the field gets two laps of green-lap racing to get it done. It is always a recipe for a big crash, and that's how the race ended, with a big one behind the race leaders.

After the race Childress was giddy, with mixed emotions over a healing win while dealing with the memories of his good friend Dale Earnhardt.

Somehow you've got to believe that the man in black has a wicked grin on his mustachioed face -- wherever he is. Maybe he was one of the demons Harvick talked about.