Kevin Harvick Wins 2009 Budweiser Shootout

Kevin Harvick will enter the new Sprint Cup season feeling like a winner, after clinching the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Although he got knocked into the wall in the first part of the race and lost a valuable amount of time fixing his car – right and left fenders and right side – Harvick narrowed to the win after passing Jamie McMurray in the penultimate corner of the last lap.

The Chevrolet driver never gave up and continued to hope for the win, in a race that saw no less than 8 cautions (throughout 75 laps) and 23 lead changes. Soon after passing McMurray for the win, the Shootout pack was frozen for the 8th time on Saturday due to a wreck in the back of the field.

“We came in and put tires on [on Lap 66]. I got a little bit behind there early. Michael Waltrip had a flat tire [on Lap 42], and I lost the draft. I just came back up through there, and I was thinking that I won the Daytona 500 [in 2007] this exact same way, just never giving up,” said Harvick, according to NASCAR’s official site.

“I got squeezed up into the wall there [in the first 25-lap segment], and it knocked the left front fender off, and they repaired the left front fender, the right front fender and the right side during the break [between the 25- and 50-lap segments].”

“It just seemed like I was in the wrong spot for the whole race and then at the end wound up being at right place at the right time and had a good car to go with it,” explained the driver who started the race from the penultimate place on the grid.

Third overall was new NASCAR team owner/driver Tony Stewart (of Stewart-Haas Racing), followed by last placed on the starting grid in the Shootout, Hendrick Motorsports’ Jeff Gordon. The Top 5 was completed by Richard Petty Motorsports’ newly-signed A.J. Allmendinger.

Three-time Sprint Cup winner Jimmie Johnson – who also won the Shootout in 2005 – finished the race in 14th place, while the event’s pole sitter Paul Menard came in 12th.

Complete results of the 2009 Budweiser Shootout:

1. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet)
2. Jamie McMurray (Ford)
3. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet)
4. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet)
5. AJ Allmendinger (Dodge)
6. Kasey Kahne (Dodge)
7. Carl Edwards (Ford)
8. Matt Kenseth (Ford)
9. Kurt Busch (Dodge)
10. Kyle Busch (Toyota)
11. Brian Vickers (Toyota)
12. Paul Menard (Ford)
13. Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
14. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
15. Casey Mears (Chevrolet)
16. David Stremme (Dodge)
17. Greg Biffle (Ford)
18. Dale Earnhardt Jr (Chevrolet)
19. Bobby Labonte (Ford)
20. David Reutimann (Toyota)
21. Elliott Sadler (Dodge)
22. Michael Waltrip (Toyota)
23. Reed Sorenson (Dodge)
24. Jeff Burton (Chevrolet)
25. Scott Speed (Toyota)
26. David Ragan (Ford)
27. Robby Gordon (Dodge)
28. Joey Logano (Toyota)