Harvick Wins It by a Nose
Martin Is 0.02 Back in a Crash-Filled Daytona 500 Finish

By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 19, 2007

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 18 -- With the coveted Daytona 500 trophy just a half-lap from his clutches after 23 fruitless attempts, all Mark Martin had to do was fend off the furious challenge in his rearview mirror. One of the tiniest men in NASCAR, Martin summoned a giant's courage and made his Chevrolet's bumper as wide as possible as he hurtled toward the final turn of stock-car racing's biggest event.

But it wasn't enough to block the onslaught from Kevin Harvick, 31, who struck like lightning from seventh place to pass him on the high side of the superspeedway's treacherous fourth corner. They drag-raced to the finish as a crash-fest erupted behind them -- racecars caroming like pinballs and spewing smoke and shards of sheet metal -- for one of the wildest finales in NASCAR's history.

Harvick's Chevy was out front by less than a yard when his car crossed the finish, edging Martin by 0.02 of a second to claim the victory and spoil the sentimental finish so many NASCAR fans and racers had hoped to see. But what the finish lacked in sentiment, it more than made up for in Technicolor pyrotechnics, with the Chevy of second-year driver Clint Bowyer crossing the finish Will Ferrell-style, skidding on its hood and erupting in flames.

Bowyer, credited with an 18th-place finish, extricated himself without injury. And like most of the dozen or so drivers involved in the last-lap mayhem, he needed a peek at video replay to figure out exactly what had happened.

"This had to be the wildest Daytona 500 I've ever watched," said Richard Childress, owner of Harvick's winning car. "I kept my eyes shut a little bit."

The outcome wasn't without controversy.

Under NASCAR rules, races are slowed by a caution flag, with the running order frozen, when a car crashes and comes to rest in the racing groove (rather than track apron), posing a hazard to the rest of the field that's whizzing by at top speed.

Martin was leading by inches when the crashing started behind him, and he desperately wanted a caution flag thrown. But NASCAR officials delayed a few seconds, and that's all it took for Harvick to retake the lead, shoving his car's nose past the finish like a sprinter falling into the tape.

"We had him! We had him! I can't believe they waited!" Martin yelled to his crew chief over the radio after crossing the line second. But he reined in his emotions by the time he faced reporters and, in the manner that has earned him such respect in a 30-year racing career, shouldered responsibility for the loss.

"Nobody wants to hear a grown man cry," said Martin, 48, NASCAR's most credentialed bridesmaid as a four-time runner-up for stock-car racing's annual championship. "And I'm not going to cry about it."

Asked if a small part of him didn't wish Harvick hadn't challenged him quite so hard down the stretch, Martin looked incredulous.

"It would have broke me in half," he said. " That's what I love about this sport: because it's so hard. It's what has driven me for over 30 years. And that's why I'm here today."

Afterward, NASCAR officials defended their timing of the yellow flag, saying they threw the flag the moment Bowyer's car got sideways on the track and posed a hazard.

"At that time, [Harvick] was ahead of [Martin] and declared the winner," spokesman Ramsey Poston said.

NASCAR's season opener had a split personality: an uneventful first 150 laps, notable only for its fast pace and a few single-car spins, followed by a frenzied final 52 laps that saw the two best cars -- Tony Stewart's Chevrolet and Kurt Busch's Dodge -- wadded up in a fourth-turn crash.

Stewart had just reclaimed the lead and was in good position to deliver car owner Joe Gibbs the victory when he bobbled slightly and got tapped by Busch. The contact turned Stewart's car sideways, and Busch plowed into it hard enough to total both.

With the best cars out, what had shaped up as a two-man race turned into a free-for-all, with at least 15 drivers sure they had a shot to win. By then dusk had fallen, the track temperatures had cooled, the tires were sticking better and any notion of risk-aversion on the drivers' part went out the window.

Defending champion Jimmie Johnson triggered a five-car wreck on the backstretch after losing control of his racecar. On the pit stops that followed, Martin took only two new tires rather than four, which enabled him to vault into the lead exiting the pits.

In no time there was bump-fest in Turn 4, with too many drivers cramming their cars in too tiny a space. Dave Blaney sped down pit road, breaking the speed limit by about 135 mph, in a frantic effort to avoid the crashing. But when he tried to pop back onto the racetrack at top speed, he tagged Ken Schrader to trigger another pileup.

That set up a 10-lap sprint to the finish, with Martin out front, mulling the remote likelihood of finding a drafting partner in his rear-view mirror to help push him to the victory. But one last crash delayed the drama, with Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ricky Rudd getting the brunt of damage.

To avoid finishing the race under caution, NASCAR officials red-flagged the event, bringing the action to a halt for 11 minutes 39 seconds so workers could mop up the oil and debris. The upshot gave fans and Fox broadcasters what they paid to see: a finish under green.

But with just two laps to go, it also set up the scenario drivers dread most at restrictor-plate tracks, where horsepower is so equal that one driver's wreck is apt to snare a dozen.

"A bunch of demons came out when it got dark; I know that much," Harvick said. "All hell broke loose after that."