Our Next Chapter in our “Closer Chronicles” series takes us back to the beginning, or at least to the beginning of Kevin Harvick’s NASCAR Cup Series Career.
Following the tragic loss of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500, car owner Richard Childress thrust a young Harvick into Dale’s car, albeit with a number change to the next available number and a paint job that wiped away the presence of the legend on the surface.
The aesthetic changes failed to lighten the loss of Earnhardt as his loss is still felt a quarter century later.
By the time the series reached Atlanta, the 25-year-old rode into Georgia to make his third career Cup start and had brought home his first top-10 with an eighth-place finish the week prior at Las Vegas. A strong qualifying effort slotted the 29 car into the fifth position.
With impossible shoes to fill, Harvick had his work cut out for him, but as he would prove on this day, he was very much up for the challenge.
Harvick rocketed off the start and got up to the second position by the end of the first lap, battling for position with Jeff Gordon as the first caution of the day would come out for a Jerry Nadeau spin on lap 3.
Harvick would shoot to the outside of Dale Jarrett on the ensuing restart on lap 7 and lead 12 of the 18 laps he would lead on the day. Gordon would work around Harvick after the 29 got loose mid-corner.
On lap 58, Gordon, Harvick, and the other leaders dove onto pit road for their first green flag pit stops of the afternoon. Harvick cycled out in the third position behind Gordon and Sterling Marlin.
Steve Park’s expiring engine brought out the second caution of the day on lap 84. Under this caution, Harvick cycled ahead to second behind Gordon.
Jarrett made his way past Harvick on the restart as the rookie tried to adjust to the changes made to his Goodwrench Chevrolet. He slipped to fourth spot behind Dave Blaney, who made a charge towards the front in his Amoco Dodge.
Blaney led 70 laps on this day, but losing a wheel in the latter half of the race ended his efforts in disappointment rather than in a maiden trip to victory lane. 20 years later, his son Ryan Blaney would claim a redemption of sorts by bringing an Atlanta win to the Blaney family in the 2021 spring race.
As the race wore on there, wasn’t much change among the top-5 outside of Blaney’s issues in the latter stages. There weren’t any major incidents outside of a pair of blown engines and a trio of cautions for single-car incidents for Todd Bodine, Matt Kenseth, and Mike Skinner.
The last cautions flew on lap 301 for Sterling Marlin’s Coors Light Dodge, creating a 21-lap sprint to the finish.
Harvick made his charge on the final restart from the third position, slowly reeling in the leaders Nadeau and Jarrett as Gordon followed the trio in hot pursuit by weaving through lapped traffic from fifth.
Harvick reached the two leaders as they approached 10 laps to go. After working over Jarrett for several laps, Harvick worked below the UPS machine as he also ducked beneath Nadeau’s UAW-Delphi ride with all three cars battling across the line with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Gordon right on their heels.
Harvick cleared the hornet’s nest behind him and took the lead on the backstretch with just five laps to go. Gordon made quick work of Jarrett to move into third as he homed in on the tire tracks of Harvick and Nadeau.
In just the third race since his father’s untimely passing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped from contention due to a flat tire with just a few laps remaining.
Gordon slipped by Nadeau on the backstretch with three laps to go, setting his sights on Harvick and his second victory in a row after winning at Vegas the previous week.
Gordon and Harvick sat nose-to-tail as they took the white flag. Gordon’s newly-revitalized flaming DuPont scheme blazed through turns 1 and 2 before diving low into turn 3 as Harvick went high for the final time.
Gordon stormed off the bottom, getting a run coming to the line off of turn four to get alongside Harvick down the frontstretch. Harvick used his position on the outside to get as close to Gordon as he could, disturbing the air going across the DuPont Chevy’s nose enough to loosen Jeff and score his first NASCAR Cup Series victory by a margin of just .006 seconds.
This race marked the first of 60 career wins for Kevin Harvick. While this wasn’t a “Closer” performance in the typical sense as he ran top-5 nearly the entire 500 miles, it laid the groundwork of the performances that would earn Harvick “The Closer” nickname in the coming years.
While he was in contention for much of the day, Harvick lead a mere 5.5% of the laps on the day, showing he took the race over when it mattered most.
The performance led him to victory lane for the very first time in a much-needed win for the legend Dale Earnhardt, car owner Richard Childress, and the sport as a whole.
(Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey | ALLSPORT)
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