Kevin Harvick Brings Home Second-Place Finish in No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS

Chevrolet, the winningest nameplate in NASCAR, continues to lead the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series manufacturer's standings with Kevin Harvick's second-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Harvick, the defending race winner, started 14th in the 43-car field set by the rule book provisions due to inclement weather washing out Friday's qualifying for the first short-track event of the season.

By lap 25, Harvick had moved his No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS to the top-10 and stayed a contender throughout the 500-lap race on the high banked ½ mile concrete track. By lap 200, he took the lead and picked up five bonus points for leading laps in the event.

Kyle Busch, winner of the Sharpie Mini 300 for the NASCAR Busch Series on Saturday, finished eighth after starting in the 20th position. The finish moves him to fifth place in the driver standings.

Harvick was just inches behind race-winner Kurt Busch (Dodge) while Matt Kenseth (Ford), Carl Edwards (Ford) and Bobby Labonte (Dodge) rounded out the top-five.

Series points leader and two-time 2006 winner Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo, remains in the top five in driver points despite suffering a cut tire on the first lap of the race. Johnson was forced down pit road and as a result, went two laps down to the leaders. A mid-race incident put him deeper in the field as Johnson's Chevrolet sustained severe suspension damage. Johnson finished 30th and now ranks third in the driver standings with 763 points, just 19 points behind new leader Kenseth and a mere nine points out of second.

Other Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS drivers currently in the top-10 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver standings are Dale Earnhardt Jr. (sixth), Jeff Gordon (seventh) and Tony Stewart (ninth) with 21 races remaining until the final 10 races of the Chase for the Championship.

The next event for Team Chevy Monte Carlo SS is the DIRECT TV 500 on April 2, 2006 at Martinsville Speedway.

Manufacturer Standings (Unofficial following the Food City 500)
1. Chevrolet - 34 points (2 wins)
2. Dodge - 32 points (2 wins)
3. Ford - 29 points (1 win)

Top 10 Driver Standings (Unofficial following the Food City 500)
1. Matt Kenseth - 782 points
2. Kasey Kahne - 774 points
3. Jimmie Johnson - 763 points
4. Mark Martin - 750 points
5. Kyle Busch - 677 points
6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - 664 points
7. Jeff Gordon - 644 points
8. Casey Mears - 642 points
9. Tony Stewart - 601 points
10. Dale Jarrett - 593 points

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 GM Goodwrench Monte Carlo SS - Finished 2nd

YOUR THOUGHTS ON TODAY'S RACE: "Well, it is Bristol. Not much else to say. That is about it. I am real proud of my GM Goodwrench guys all day. We fought being tight there for a while. I got into the back of the 17 there and got a little gap there between the 2 and I, and I couldn't get back to him. Good day for us, but I hate to see Kurt Busch win, but what do I know."

TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN OUT THERE TODAY AT BRISTOL: "It was a good day for us. We kind of got behind the first four races this year and we just needed a solid day here and not have anything else happen or go wrong. So great day, Todd (Berrier, crew chief) made some great adjustments on the car and just kept freeing the car up all day. We never got it quite all the way out but we were able to put ourself in position to give ourselves a chance to win, just came up one spot short."

YOU SAW WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END BETWEEN MATT KENNSETH AND KURT BUSCH. IS THAT JUST SHORT TRACK RACING? "A couple more laps, I probably would have done the same thing. It is just Bristol. It is just what you have to do in the closing laps. I think if the roles had been reversed, it probably would have happened the same way. Just good short track racing and one guy wins and one guy loses. So it ends up with one guy happy and then one guy mad."

YOU POKED FUN AT KURT BUSCH, DO YOU HAVE ANY RESPECT FOR HIM AS A DRIVER? "I wasn't poking anything, I met exactly what I said. I am not going to take it out on the race cars when we are on the track. If I have to, I will take it out on him. He took a cheap shot at me last week on the race the car and that isn't something that goes over well. I meant every word and stand behind everything I said."

WHEN YOU WERE RUNNING DOWN KURT, IF YOU HAD GOT TO HIM, WOULD YOU HAVE MOVED HIM TO TAKE THE LEAD? "All of our cars were really equal there at the end and the 17 faded there toward the end of the run. Then I had a little gap. I had to make up there at the end. I just needed a couple more laps to get to him."

WAS THE KENNSETH/BUSCH INCIDENT JUST PART OF YOU HAVE TO GO AT BRISTOL? "Yes, you just got to go. You know you are coming down to the closing laps at Bristol. You do what you have to do to get all you can at the end. I think Kurt knew if he didn't go, we were going to be right on his bumper. So he took advantage of it. He got by him and gave himself a little gap there. That was the gap he needed to stay out front."

YOU DON'T LOOK HAPPY FOR FINISHING SECOND, IS IT BECAUSE YOU FINISHED SECOND TO BUSCH? "It is just one of those things, we have finished second two days in the row. This is a place where we feel like we should come to win. I am not disappointed, just ready to go home to be honest with you. But finishing second here is a great day here for us on both sides, especially today. It is a great points day over here in the Cup car going into Martinsville. If we can get a good run there, we can rebound a little bit further, not disappointed, just bored and ready to go."

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 8th

"It was a great run for us. It was just a solid effort by the whole Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS team. They did a great job for me. We had a car that was tight, loose, tight, loose. We kind of fought all day to find a good balance for it. There at the end with about 60 (laps) to go, we were able to make up some spots and got an eight place finish out of it so that's pretty good."

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS - Finished 11th

"(We were) struggling. We were tight all day. We got a couple of bad breaks there at the end with track position. (I) had to drive hard all day. It was real frustrating. We know we were a little bit, we were a lot better than that here in Bristol especially."

Tony Stewart, No. 20 The Home Depot Monte Carlo SS - Finished 12th

ABOUT YOUR DAY AT BRISTOL: "I am really disappointed. We had an awesome car all day. I felt like I ran the most patient race I have ever run at Bristol. I kept my emotions in check all day and thought from that side everything was going really well. We had a great car all day. That second to the last set of tires we put on made us really free and we dropped back to fifth. Then we came in put tires on under the caution and the last set of tires, we were tight. I couldn't turn it through the center at all. It is hard when everybody gets their cars right at the end of the race and you become a little bit off, it is hard to hold those guys back. So we just tried to race smart there and bring our car home in one piece."

TALK ABOUT YOUR PATIENCE WITH THE MARTIN TRUEX JR. INCIDENT LATE IN THE RACE: "I was following him, and when he went over the bump I don't know if his car got loose or what or if I just got a good run. I mean I got in the back of him but they said he had had a problem with the 24. I don't care if he wants to settle it, but settle it in the bus lot later on. We are running for a top-five finish there at the end and he is holding both of us up. It is part of Bristol racing. I mean it is just part of what goes around."

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Monte Carlo SS - Finished 14th

"It was a good day for us. The FedEx was really good. We just got caught behind there a lap down early. It took the entire race to get back up. We showed we were able to run with the top four when we were a lap down there. We got it back for a good top 15."

Sterling Marlin, No. 14 Waste Management Monte Carlo SS - Finished 17th

""Because we had to start so far back, we had a big hill to climb today. But we got out there, worked on the Waste Management Chevrolet and kept getting better and better. My spotter did a great job and we were able to avoid the wrecks and keep our fenders on."

"The main thing that we did tonight was survive until the checkered flag. A 17th-place finish isn't too bad, but it's not where this Waste Management team wants to be. It's a start in the right direction though, so we'll take it and go from here."

Scott Wimmer, No. 4 AERO Exhaust Monte Carlo SS - Finished 19th

"We learned quite a bit today. We came through a lot in the Aero Exhaust Chevy and got our lap back there at the end which was real important and ran all 500 miles. I think it was a big boost to this team to get a top-20 finish. We let one of those slip away at Atlanta last week. We're real excited - it was a good points day for us. We just lost something with the car, had a brake problem or something like that and we could just never get the car right after that. We ran strong all day and stayed out of trouble . I don't think we made anybody too mad and we will go on to Martinsville now."

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS - Finished 21st

WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END WITH MATT KENNSETH? "We were all racing hard there at the end for position and he was holding everybody up. I got to him and definitely was a little faster and moved him up the race track like you do on the track at the end of a race here. We went down into one and he decided to wreck me instead. It is pretty disappointing. We had a great car. I am sorry that happened. I like racing with Matt, I certainly didn't enjoy racing with him today. I showed him my displeasure. I get fired up too. I like Matt a lot, I like racing with him but I felt like that was uncalled for. We will keep racing hard against him in the future. "

Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS - Finished 28th

"Not a great finish, but a great effort. We struggled in practice yesterday and I was concerned. But the crew put in a whole new set-up for the start of the race and the Army Chevy was bad to the bone. One of the best cars I have ever driven. It was incredible, I mean incredible on how good the car drove. Dale Jr. and somebody got together and shot up in front of me and I got into the back of them (on Lap 118). My brakes locked up and the impact crunched the nose in. The car never drove the same after that. It was a pretty frustrating deal to have a car drive that good and then all of sudden get wounded. For a while we had an easy top-10 car."

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS - Finished 30th

"Man, before we hit the start of the race we had a flat tire. It was just a tough day for us."

ON THE TIRE ISSUES WITH VARIOUS DRIVERS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE RACE: "Yeah, everybody had some problems at the beginning. We were going to recover from that OK and I thought I was clear off of turn two but Matt (Kenseth) evidently still had his nose tied in there and came across and hit the wall and just didn't have a good day.

Chad Knaus, crew chief for the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS

Note: Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS made incidental contact on lap one that forced him to come down pit road to replace a cut tire, putting him two laps down. Hard contact with the wall on lap 125 substantially damaged the No. 48 Lowe's Monte Carlo SS. Crew members made as many repairs as possible during repeated trips down pit road under the subsequent caution laps.

ON THE CAR: "Jimmie's car is pretty bad. During that last pit stop, we got up under there to check out the whole suspension to make sure nothing was going to fall off and it is pretty bent up under there."

"We're just going to do what we can to gain a few more spots out there. These guys keep wrecking and having their difficulties which will give us a few more spots and then we move on to Martinsville."

ON KEEPING HIS DRIVER'S SPIRITS UP: "Jimmie is OK. That kind of stuff happens at these race tracks. It's a tough race track. It's tough racing even if everything is going well for you. We'll do OK. Jimmie will be fine and we'll go to Martinsville and go after them there."

Jeff Burton, No. 31 Cingular Wireless Monte Carlo SS - Finished 34th

"We struggled a little bit but we kept working and kept making something out of it. It was going to be OK but we just had a big wreck in front of us. The 6 couldn't do anything. He got in the back of us. He got us straight. There's nothing he could have done. That messed us up. That's why we can't get to a spring race here without getting involved in a wreck. We'll keep digging. I hate when we finish that far back but there's not a whole lot we can do about it."

Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC Monte Carlo SS - Finished 37th

Note: Vickers was involved in a multi-car wreck on lap 188 making contact that forced him behind the pit wall for repairs.

"I don't know what happened. Somebody up in front of me had a problem and we checked up then we had no where to go. It is frustrating. We had a good car. We were running top-15 pretty much all race. We stayed out but a lot of guys behind us pitted and got by us there with fresh tires but we were on our way back up to the front. It is just unfortunate for everyone on this GMAC Monte Carlo SS team."

Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Monte Carlo SS - Finished 38th

Note: On lap 437 Truex was involved in a single-car incident making hard contact with the wall. The damage was sustained on the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Track Monte Carlo SS and forced his withdrawl for the remainder of the race. He was examined and released from the infield car center.

WHAT HAPPENED? "I got spun out."

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND JEFF GORDON? "He spun me out."

DO YOU KNOW WHY? "No, I'm not really sure. We just had a rough day. We were just about ready to get our lap back. We got our car running pretty decent. We ran a lap or two and we were the first car a lap down up there on the bottom. What did we run - two laps? Then we just got spun out. It was unfortunate. I don't know what happened the second time. I guess we got spun out again."

ON DRIVERS SAYING JEFF GORDON HAS BEEN DRIVING OVERLY AGGRESSIVE TODAY: "I'm not driving his car. All I know is he spun me out."