BRISTOL, TN - AUGUST 22: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet, races during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 22, 2015 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jeff Curry/NASCAR via Getty Images)
There is certainly no love lost between Stewart-Haas Racing's Kevin Harvick and Team Penske's Joey Logano, and over the closing laps of Saturday night's Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the two rivals battled for the win.
When Logano took the lead on the final restart with 63 laps to go, Harvick worked his way to second and set his sights on the back bumper of the No. 22 Ford.
Working through heavy lapped traffic, Harvick changed his line to charge the corners, coming close to Logano's back bumper as the two leaders reached the middle of the corner. However, each time Logano's car would power off the corner and gap the No. 4 Chevrolet.
Despite multiple hard charges, Harvick could not catch Logano, who drove on to his third victory of the 2015 season and second at Bristol.
"Traffic was really the biggest reason we had to move around," Harvick told FOXSports.com after his 10th runner-up finish of the season and second in as many weeks. "I had to try and find something that could work and I just could never find something on the bottom that was able to work. I found a little something up top, but the traffic -- he was just able to stay one step ahead of me through traffic.
"I never got close enough to give him a shot, or I would've," he said.
Although Harvick as unable to take home the win, the second-place finish was a victory in its own right for the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.
With a fast Rodney Childers-prepared Chevrolet under him, Harvick was forced to overcome two pit-road penalties, one for crew members jumping over the wall too soon and another for speeding while entering the pits.
Remaining cool under pressure, Harvick worked his way back to the front on both occasions, although he did not lead a single lap on the night.
"All in all, just really proud of my team," he said. "We overcame a couple of pit-road problems there tonight with my speeding and whatever else happened. We had a fast car and were able to overcome."
Although Harvick has not won a race since Phoenix in March, he said it is how a team overcomes adversity, not necessarily victories, that makes the most difference once the Chase for the Sprint Cup starts.
"Stats don't matter in the Chase," he said. "It's all about being able to overcome things, being able to be persistent and consistent, and we have the speed to win. If the tide and momentum starts going our way, we can knock two or three wins off in a row. We can win at any type of racetrack, whether I like it or don't like it, whether we've been good or not been good in the past. It's just a matter of getting that momentum at the right time."
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