Kevin Harvick

Darlington, S.C. (May 12, 2008) — At the newly repaved Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Kevin Harvick and the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Camping World Chevrolet started the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 from the 17th position and managed to score a top-15 finish, crossing the start-finish line 13th.

“We just missed it tonight,” said Harvick. “We were never in contention no matter how much we worked on the car. We ran hard and stayed out of trouble, and we were able to secure a decent finish for our Camping World Chevrolet.”

Looking for his first NASCAR win at the track called “The Lady in Black,” Harvick battled a tight-handling car for most of the practice sessions. The team made numerous changes in an effort to improve the handling before the race, but soon after the green-flag waved on Friday evening it was clear the changes had not fixed the car.

Harvick was able to move as high as 14th by lap 6, but spent most of the night battling among the 15th and 20th positions. On lap 54 while running 18th, the No. 33 car was put one lap down when passed by the leaders.

Throughout the race, Harvick radioed crew chief Wally Rogers the car was not handling to his liking, with the tires chattering when exiting the corners. With every pit stop Harvick stayed on pit road longer to allow the crew to work on the car, but despite the never-give-up attitude of the No. 33 team, the car remained ill-handling.

After a green-white-checkered finish, Harvick was able to take the checkered flag from the 13th position and record his eighth top-15 finish of the season.