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Third time's charm Rookie Harvick wins Cracker Barrel 500 at the line
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com HAMPTON, Ga. -- It would be difficult if not impossible to adequately convey either the level of emotion or the degree of excitement that gripped Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon. When Kevin Harvick, driving the No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet inherited from Dale Earnhardt all of three weeks ago, grabbed the lead of the Cracker Barrel 500 with a daring move with four laps to go, the sense of disbelief was palpable. When Harvick, who was driving in just his third Winston Cup race, held off a desperate Jeff Gordon at the line to win by a miniscule six-thousandths of a second, there was an instantaneous and collective sigh of relief from all those who happened to be there. Not only had everyone witnessed a numbingly intense finish, but everyone had also witnessed an outcome that was richly deserved. "There is no one I'd rather finish second to than that team there," Gordon said. "That was just a great race, an awesome race. I don't know how to explain what happened to Kevin Harvick and his team, but his winning that race shows that someone is definitely watching over that team right now."
Gordon's teammate, Jerry Nadeau, who led 66 of the 325 laps and appeared headed for his second consecutive win at the track, finished third. Pole sitter Dale Jarrett finished fourth. The previous Winston Cup record for winning in the fewest starts was 11 by Ron Bouchard in 1981. Harvick's win serves as an appropriate epitaph to the death of Earnhardt. Last year, in a race that was equally exciting but certainly lacking the inherent emotional conflict of this edition, The Intimidator held off Bobby Labonte by 1/100th of a second in what was, until Sunday, the closest finish in Atlanta Motor Speedway history. Harvick capped his intense and emotional win in a cloud of blue smoke, the result of a furious series of donuts that he did before taking a reverse victory lap before an audience that raised three fingers in their own salute. "I'm not sure how you could have scripted it any different," Harvick said as he climbed out of his car. "All I have to say is this one is for Dale. I think someone was watching over us." Harvick's win left Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner, in tears. "I just kept praying for Dale to help us out," Childress said. "He gave us the help we needed. I know he's somewhere, I can see him with that mustache of his just breaking into a big grin." It being impossible to prove otherwise, it sure seemed that something was at the controls Sunday. Forget that Harvick won, how about the fact that for the third consecutive week, a Winston Cup race was interrupted by a caution period during the third lap, the lap designated to be run in "silent" tribute to Earnhardt? Once is odd, twice is a little strange, but three times? That's just plain weird. Or what of the fact that Gordon, comfortably in the lead ahead of Dave Blaney, ran out of fuel on lap 144, dropping the three-time Winston Cup champion 25 places? Hardly the type of mistake that one expects from Gordon or his crew. Or how to explain that the otherwise-heady Dale Jarrett (among other drivers) mistakenly entered pit road when it was still closed, thus resulting in the loss of a lap? No, strange things were afoot all day in Hampton, but in the end, everything turned out just fine. What had begun with the potential for disaster -- one of the series' fastest tracks combined with a new, unfamiliar tire that many thought would wreak havoc -- was largely uneventful and undeniably thrilling. There were 29 lead changes among 11 drivers, but it was that last one that really elevated things. For almost an entire lap, Harvick, ducking low, took Jarrett and Nadeau three wide in a gutsy effort to take the lead. "I had momentum," he said nonchalantly of his move, "and nine times out of 10, if you're the guy on the bottom you're going to win. It's never been my nature to give in." Strange -- you can almost hear Earnhardt saying the same thing.
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