Harvick looks to race his own car to sweep at Bristol

Kevin Harvick's victory in the Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway in March was an extraordinarily proud occasion, his first win in the series driving for the KHI team he and wife, DeLana, built from the ground up.

Harvick returns for Friday's Food City 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) going for a season sweep at Bristol, one of his best tracks in the series. He is the all-time Nationwide leader with five wins and has 11 top-fives in 18 starts.

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"Bristol is one of my favorite race tracks," Harvick said. "I enjoy the short-track stuff, and we've always been fortunate to run really well there. We go there with high expectations, but you never know what's going to happen. You can get caught up in a wreck in a hurry and have your day ended. You have to go to Bristol and enjoy it, but know that the outcome could be the opposite of what you want it to be."

Harvick's win at Bristol has been one of the highlights of a very strong season for Kevin Harvick Inc., which also fields multiple entries in the Camping World Truck Series. KHI's Ron Hornaday carried a five-race winning streak, longest in a NASCAR national series in 38 years, into Wednesday night's O'Reilly 200 at Bristol.

KHI had won races with Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte in the series, but Harvick driving into Victory Lane brought special satisfaction.

"Finally, we got this out of the way," Harvick said in March. "DeLana and I built this company from basically dirt. It started as a hobby. There's been a tremendous amount of pressure that I've put on myself and probably more pressure than any of the guys want to see at the shop over the last year, but it's been well worth the reward.

"I guess it's kind of fitting that it comes on what's been my most successful track in the Nationwide Series. I'm just glad it all finally came together."

Harvick, the 2001 and '06 series champion, is second on the all-time Nationwide win list with 33. But only one has come in KHI equipment, and he's undoubtedly hungry to get a second win. (The other 32 wins came with Richard Childress Racing.)

"I grew up on a half-mile, high-banked race track," he said, referring to Mesa Marin Raceway in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif. "I know Bristol is a lot more banked, but it's kind of the same mind-set for me driving around the track. It's short-track beating and banging, and it's a lot of fun.

"I seem to have a lot of success every time I go, so I'm always excited to go back."

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THREE TO WATCH

Ryan Newman, No. 5: One of Newman's seven Nationwide wins has come at Bristol. In six starts, he has five top-10s. He didn't lead any laps in his first two starts as a rookie in 2001, be he has led laps in each of the four races since (300 laps total).

Kyle Busch, No. 18: Can Busch bounce back from his worst Nationwide finish since May? After 10 consecutive finishes of first or second, Busch could do no better than a third last week at Michigan. What's wrong with Kyle? All kidding aside, Busch stretched his points lead to 339 over second place Carl Edwards. At Bristol, Busch has one win and eight top-10s in 10 starts. The only times he failed to finish in the top 10 were because of crashes.

Brad Keselowski, No. 88: Keselowski was the surprise winner last week when he scooted past Busch and Brian Vickers as they tangled on the last lap. Vickers isn't in Friday's race, so Keselowski will be forced to employ another piece of strategy if he is gong to get his second win at the track. In five starts, Keselowski has three top-10s including his win last August.

TRACK CHATTER

Eric McClure: "We had an OK run in March [26th], certainly weren't bad at the end of the race, so hopefully we can build on that. After the troubles we had during June, we're finally locked in solidly in the top 30 in owner points, so we're going to go try and have a good day in front of the home crowd and try to keep climbing the ladder a bit. Bristol owes us something good for once."

Doug Randolph, crew chief for Clint Bowyer: "The biggest thing for the race will be getting the car to enter and exit the corners consistently. Although this is a short track, the cars carry a lot of speed in and off the high-banked turns. The progressive banking in the corners allows for several different lines to choose from, so we'll adjust our Chevy to whichever line works best for Clint. Another key aspect at Bristol is qualifying toward the front and staying out of trouble. If we can do that, we should be in contention for another top-three finish and an overall strong points day."