No. 2 Kevin Harvick

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway turned out to be one of the worst races of the year for Kevin Harvick.
In year's past that might have meant a 20th or 30th place finish.
But not this year. Harvick took a poor car and turned it into a 12th-place day. Not great by any means, but far from disastrous.
"We turned a day that started out difficult in to a good finish for our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet, which is something we struggled with last season," said Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. "(Sunday) was much better than the race here a year ago."
His past five races at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's Cup race, haven't been great, but they haven't been that bad either. If he can have another race like the ones in 2006, when he finish third and fifth, he might be able to jump into the No. 1 spot in the Sprint Cup Series standings.
But if he has another race like last year's spring race at Texas, when he finished 29th, he might fall out of the top 12.
Harvick said his crew chief, Todd Berrier, and his team have been giving him good cars all year. And the way they responded at Martinsville has given Harvick a new sense of confidence.
"Todd and the crew kept working on the car making it better and better as the race unfolded," Harvick said. "I am proud of our effort and how hard we all worked to get a decent finish and have a solid points day."