FONTANA, Calif.: As vocal as Kevin Harvick has been on his Stewart-Haas Racing pit crew when they have fumbled during a NASCAR Cup Series race, Harvick credited his pit crew for salvaging a top-10 finish in Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club (Calif.) Speedway.
Harvick, a former winner at Auto Club struggled with his No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang throughout Sunday’s 200-lap race.
And while crew chief Rodney Childers continued to adjust on the car throughout the race, the team struggled to find the right balance to catapult Harvick from a top-10 contender to a top-five challenger.
Being aggressive on restarts certainly caught the attention of Harvick’s challengers but as the race settled into a long green-flag run during Stage 3, Harvick’s car became, even more, a handful.
A superb pit stop by Harvick’s team though at Lap 160 kept him in the thick of the battle.
“We just didn’t have a very good weekend,” said Harvick. “This place wasn’t very good for us last year either. I am just having a hard time getting the car to be balanced all the way through the corner.
“I think as you look at it, we didn’t have a ninth-place car either, we just had a great day on pit road. Those guys did a phenomenal job on pit road and that kept us in the game.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
