Hot off the best season of his young career, Kevin Harvick entered the 2007 NASCAR Cup Series season determined to make it a campaign he and his No. 29 team would not soon forget.
Speedweeks started the previous Sunday where Harvick debuted a brand new primary sponsor, Shell Pennzoil, and a bright yellow-and-red paint scheme to match the brand’s colors.
This was a stark departure from the black-and-silver that accompanied longtime sponsor, GM Goodwrench, since 1988 when they linked up with Dale Earnhardt after his third Cup title.
In the Budweiser Shootout, the 31-year-old racer managed to keep his nose clean throughout the event and come home with a quiet top-5 finish while the field crashed behind him.
Qualifying the next day blunted the team’s momentum after a 28th-place effort, and a strong showing in the Daytona Duels unwound when a rear end gear failed on the No. 29 car, putting the flagship Richard Childress Racing entry behind the 8-ball for the Great American Race.
Making matters more difficult was the date of the race: February 18, 2007.
Six years earlier to the day, Harvick’s predecessor, Dale Earnhardt Sr., lost his life in a crash in turn 4 on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, meaning this was the first time since 2001 that the sport’s biggest race took place on the anniversary of its darkest day.
Rolling off the grid in 34th position, the Bakersfield Basher snaked his way through the pack and into the top-15 in the opening laps, but a bobble from Dale Earnhardt Jr. right in front of the Shell Pennzoil machine nearly put an early end to both of their races.
A Boris Said spin on lap 18 brought the field down pit road where the 29 crew bumped their driver up the running order, sending him out 10th behind Matt Kenseth.
Harvick worked together with Kenseth for the first half of the next green-flag stretch on the high side before tucking behind good friend Tony Stewart. Kenseth hung in there with Harvick and Stewart while giving significant pushes to David Stremme but ultimately fell back.
After the 75th lap clicked by, Harvick moved his way into third, right behind the two dominant drivers of the day, Stewart and Kurt Busch.
Stewart and Busch — two of the sport’s biggest hot heads — blistered a decorated Daytona 500 field that included a dozen past and future winners to the tune of 130 combined laps led, so getting by both of them would prove to be no easy task.
Lucky for Harvick, a caution came out for Kyle Petty on lap 80 that brought the field down for service. During this stop, a collision between David Gilliland and Robby Gordon trapped Stewart in his stall while the 29 crew delivered a heater, getting their driver out first.
Unfortunately for Harvick, his reign over the field lasted just three laps as Kurt Busch powered around the Pennzoil pacemaker to retake the lead with assistance from his younger brother Kyle and Kurt’s teammate Ryan Newman.
Harvick attempted to respond down the backstretch with help from Dale Jr., but Kyle slammed the door to protect his brother’s lead, forcing Harvick to retreat to the high line.
The race hit the halfway point, and Richard Childress’ top driver continued to cling to a top-10 spot, hoping to end a nine-year drought in the sport’s marquee event.
As the Sun started to sink behind the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, Harvick began dropping back through the field, slumping into the midpack by the time the next pit cycle started with 75 laps to go.
The contact with the younger Busch caused Harvick’s car to swing tight, so the 29 team took out a round-and-a-half of wedge to loosen their flailing Chevy.
Trouble for other major players allowed Harvick to get back in the mix, linking back up with a rebounding Stewart to re-enter the top-10 runners. After the lapped car of David Gilliland slowed the lead pack, the 20 and 29 put themselves back into the lead draft.
Their teamwork would be short-lived however, as Stewart scythed through the field like a hot knife through butter to continue his quarrel with the Busch brothers while Harvick stagnated in the back half of the top-15.
With 48 laps to go, the entire complexion of the race changed dramatically when Tony attempted to hedge off one of Kurt’s runs through turn 3, got loose, and subsequent contact sent the two best stock cars in Florida into the outside wall, ending their bids at the Harley J. Earl Trophy.
A decade down the road, Kurt would hoist that very trophy in Daytona victory lane alongside Stewart, who eventually became Busch’s car owner. Tony never sealed the deal in the Great American Race as a driver, but winning with Busch as an owner screamed poetic justice.
The caution brought the lead-lap cars down pit road once again where the Pennzoil pit crew logged another sharp stop, gaining Harvick a spot for what was sure to be the final stop of the race if it went the rest of the way without a caution.
The Pennzoil powerhouse held his spot in line on the bottom for a handful of laps until the rug was pulled out from underneath him, sending Harvick plummeting down the running order to 37th place with 27 laps to go.
Right as it seemed Harvick’s chances of winning waned like the Sun, defending Daytona 500 winner and series champion Jimmie Johnson broke loose in the midpack and collected four other cars to bring out the race’s fourth yellow flag.
With 20 laps to go, Harvick sat in 30th.
Charging back to the front like he did in the first 20 laps would be extremely difficult to replicate at any other time in the race, but in the final 20 laps of the Daytona 500, it seemed completely unconscionable. After all, it took Stewart 60 laps to get back to the front.
Harvick took to the outside line and chipped away at the cars ahead of him, making his way back into the top-20 before contact between Carl Edwards and Casey Mears caused a stack-up that resulted in a Ken Schrader crash with 15 laps remaining.
The multi-tiered calamity vaulted Harvick to 15th for the restart with 10 laps to go. As the cars ahead scattered high, low, and in between, the two-time O’Reilly Auto Parts Series champion shifted into the center lane and utilized a push from Dale Jr. to get back into the top-10 for the first time in over 30 laps.
Coming to five laps to go, Harvick took to the outside as teammate Jeff Burton broke loose ahead of him in the center lane, but the squeeze into the top lane saw the 29 get into the back of Kenseth, nearly causing another pileup.
The Kenseth-Harvick skirmish set up an accident on the backstretch involving Jamie McMurray, Dale Jr., and Ricky Rudd, setting up the second green-white-checkered finish in the race’s history.
Lining up seventh for the final two laps, Harvick sat behind Mike Wallace until the entry of turn 3 when he went to Wallace’s outside with Kenseth in tow. Rounding turn 4 with the white flag in sight, Harvick found himself side-by-side with Elliott Sadler for fifth, which would’ve been an impressive comeback if it were to hold.
But, The Closer wanted more.
Heading a line consisting of Kenseth, Burton, Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, and Sterling Marlin, the 29 backed up to Kenseth through turns 1 and 2 to get a run down the backstretch.
On the exit of turn 2, fourth-place runner David Gilliland shaded high but thought better of it and tucked back in line before giving it another shot midway down when it was too late.
With Kenseth still tucked behind him, Harvick motored by Greg Biffle in third with just Kyle Busch and Mark Martin standing between him and Daytona immortality.
Just like earlier in the race, Kyle threw a late block as they closed in on turn 3, leaving a car’s width of space between Harvick and the wall. Harvick squeezed by one last time, setting up a one-mile showdown between Martin and the Closer.
Martin was in the midst of a long winless drought in the Daytona 500, one he looked to end after a lightning-fast two-tire stop with 25 laps to go. In his first race outside of Roush Racing since 1986, Mark just needed to hold on to secure the last Crown Jewel left to attain.
The Closer made other plans, blowing by Martin’s No. 01 Army Chevy in turn 3 and nearly completing the pass out of turn 4, but a push from Busch allowed Martin to stay alongside the Pennzoil machine.
As the top began barring down on the finish line, the field erupted behind them with Kyle Busch clipping the apron and setting off a massive accident that collected over a dozen cars.
Rather than throw the caution, the flagstand held the yellow and allowed Harvick and Martin to duel it out to the finish line.
Though Mark eked ahead down the short chute, The Closer squeaked back by in the trioval, beating Martin by .020 seconds to win his 11th career Cup Series race.
While he wouldn’t earn the moniker The Closer for another few years, his four laps led were less than 2 percent of the laps in the Daytona 500, tied with Benny Parsons’ 1975 win for the least amount of laps led by the race winner at the time.
Harvick kicked off the Pennzoil era of his career in epic fashion, fighting off overheating issues and a hole in the nose while avoiding every accident to claim the biggest victory of his career.
(Top Photo Credit: NASCAR Media)
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