HARVICK WINS DAYTONA!!!

I'm no Nascar fan, but my husband is. And he's a HUGE Kevin Harvick fan. AND Harvick is a hometown boy so what could be better than Harvick winning at Daytona on Sunday, the kick off of the 2007 Nascar season?

And what a win! Here's Harvick at the finish line, just edging out Mark Martin.

This is Harvick from Saturday night, I think, when he won the Busch race.


Larry and I met Harvick's dad, who's a Kern County Firefighter at a barbecue some years back. Nice man but I understand that Kevin is somewhat estranged from his family. No idea why, too bad.

Harvick grew up in Bakersfield, graudated from North High and apparently was a strong racer from a young age.

He was launched into the national spotlight in 2001 after legendary racer Dale Earnhardt died in the Daytona 500. On March 11 that year, Harvick drove Earnhardt's car to victory.

It's fitting then, I suppose, that he would go on to win the Daytona six years later.

As I said, I'm no Nascar fan, but I sat down for the last three laps in the garage where Larry was having a little party and it was pretty spectacular (the race, not the party). They were on a caution from a previous wreck. Mark Martin was in the lead.

I asked where Harvick was and no one seemed to know, "He's back there somewhere," was the general feeling in the room. Casey Mears (another B-town product) was in 11th, which I thought was pretty good for a young guy only in his 2nd or 3rd year in Nascar.

They went to green and Martin still held the lead.

OUT OF NOWHERE, Harvick came up on the outside, Matt Kenseth hot on his bumper. Just as he blew past Martin, Kenseth wobbled and took out the car next to him setting off a chain reaction of crashes. The pack seemed to explode with wrecks behind Martin and Harvick.

It seemed like no one, except the leaders, avoided the tangle. The 07 car flipped over and skidded down the track, catching fire and finally flipping back over in the grass. (The driver was fine.)

It was neck and neck but Harvick beat out Martin by a fraction of a second.

The crowd went wild! Actually, Larry started hollering and scared the dogs.

This is a Getty image of the final seconds. Wow! (Bet Martin is T.O.'ed.)

Here's Harvick's page: http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/kharvick00/cup/index.html