Race report

NASCAR Cup

Harvick struggles to 11th at Richmond

Outback Chevrolet suffered from a "funky set of tires'

Edited: Apr 27, 2014, 1:55 PM

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Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), struggled with an ill-handling racecar and finished 11th in the Richmond 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

“We never could get the car to turn through the center of the corner,” Harvick said. “We lacked rear grip and got behind on one run with a funky set of tires there. We kind of got caught back in the swarm and were never able to quite make it up. It all just didn’t line up right on the restarts there at the end. We were just a little bit off tonight with our Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet.”

Harvick started fifth in the 43-car field and, despite battling a tight-handling condition on corner entry and loose-handling condition on exit, was able to overtake Brad Keselowski on lap 32 for the lead. Harvick continued to maintain presence toward the front of the pack for much of the first half of the race thanks to fine-tuning adjustments by his Rodney Childers-led crew.

Shortly after halfway, Harvick’s No. 4 began moving the wrong way down the scoring pylon. He reported to his crew that he was dealing with an extremely tight-handling situation and, thanks in part to an extended green-flag run, fell back as far as the 12th position on lap 290. The team surmised that it was likely a bad set of tires and that Harvick would have to weather the storm until they had an opportunity to solve his handling woes.

A timely caution period on lap 295 saw Harvick hit pit road to rectify the situation. He was able to advance as high as eighth when the caution flag waved once again, on lap 367, giving Childers one last chance at making air pressure and chassis adjustments. Despite the crew’s best efforts, Harvick was unable to return to the form he showed early in the race. A series of late-race cautions limited the laps that Harvick needed to make his move toward the front of the field. When the checkered flag dropped, Harvick was 11th.

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