Harvick wins Brickyard 400

INDIANAPOLIS - The biggest problem Kevin Harvick had all day at the Brickyard 400 was when his right rear tire blew and the fender flew off while he spun victory doughnuts.\nThe big celebration was well-deserved. Harvick turned a tight race into a runaway Sunday, pulling away in the last 10 laps for the biggest win of his budding NASCAR career.\n"I don't even know if I can explain it. It's so awesome," Harvick said after climbing from his car in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.\nHe took over at the end of the 160-lap race.\nHarvick was second, battling Jamie McMurray for the lead and trying to hold off Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth and Robby Gordon on a frantic restart with 16 laps remaining, when a multicar crash broke out behind the leaders.\nThe green flag came back out on lap 151, and Harvick got a great jump. He was 10 car-lengths ahead of second-place Gordon at the end of that lap and just kept racing away.\nHarvick wound up 2.754 seconds -- about 20 car-lengths -- ahead of runner-up Kenseth, who grabbed second place on lap 157, passing McMurray as Gordon faded.\nHarvick, who averaged 134.554 mph, became the first driver in the 10-year history of the Brickyard race to win from the pole. He didn't dominate, though, leading only 33 laps, while Tony Stewart was out front for a race-high 60.\nIt was Harvick's fourth career victory and first in just over a year.\nAfter winning, he paid tribute to Dale Earnhardt Sr., the driver he replaced after the seven-time Winston Cup champion and former Brickyard winner was killed in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500.\nHarvick gave some of the credit for Sunday's win to teammate Gordon.\n"Robby did all he could to hold those guys back there, and this one is much his as it is ours," Harvick said.\nReferring to the June race in Sonoma, Calif, in which Gordon angered Harvick by passing him under caution as the teammates battled for the lead, Harvick said, "I guess I can't be mad at Robby any more. Maybe we're even now."\nMcMurray wound up third, followed by three-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon, defending champion Bill Elliott, Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch.\nKenseth came into the race with a solid 232-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the season standings. The runner-up finish for Kenseth, combined with a 14th-place finish by Earnhardt, turned that margin into 286 points.\n"I was too far behind," Kenseth said. "We had a good strategy. I should have blocked a little more, but it was a great job by my guys, a great run, and we were close."\nUntil a pair of caution flags came out in the final 21 laps, it appeared the race would be the fifth in a row determined by fuel strategy.\nAbout half the drivers on the lead lap had made final stops for two tires and a splash of gas when debris on the track brought out a caution on lap 140. The rest of the leaders then made their stops, and the field was well scrambled when the green flag came back out for lap 145.\nBut Stewart, one of the drivers to pit before the caution on lap 140, made another stop for left-side tires during the final caution and never recovered, finishing 12th.\nThere was a frightening moment on pit lane on lap 37 when Dale Jarrett spun as he drove off the track and tried to slow in a hurry. Jarrett's Ford clipped a crew member, John Bryan, then hit the pit wall and wound up facing backward. Bryan's helmet was broken, but he was able to walk away, complaining of a sore shoulder and pain in his pelvis. He was taken to the hospital.\nBryan also was hit on pit road in November 2001, during a race at Homestead, Fla. He came away from that accident with a concussion and a minor knee injury.\nJarrett, a two-time Brickyard winner, wound up 39th Sunday, 18 laps behind the winner.