Pit hiccups don’t deter Harvick

Kevin Harvick directed anger toward his pit crew and showed kindness toward Danica Patrick during his victory Saturday in the Sam's Town 300 Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Harvick had to rally from two bad pit stops before beating Denny Hamlin by 1.3 seconds. The start of the race was delayed by 1 hour, 45 minutes after a brief shower, and an estimated crowd of 50,000 endured a chilly, blustery day.

"It was good at the beginning and good at the end. We had some hiccups today," said Harvick, who will start 20th in today's Shelby American Sprint Cup race that begins at noon.

Hamlin was second, followed by Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers.

In between Harvick's tirades, when he said over his team's two-way radio that his crew looked "like a bunch of idiots on pit road," he tried to help Patrick find a better racing line on the track.

"Kevin Harvick was great, actually," she said of when she was a lap down early in the race. "Leading the race, he was telling me to go high with him.

"That's really cool to see that -- he's leading the race and taking time to help me out. I learned, for sure."

But it didn't help her avoid running into the lapped car of Michael McDowell, who was several laps down after his first crash. He took full responsibility for the crash with Patrick that ended her day on her 83rd lap.

Patrick, whose next NASCAR race will be in June, ran as high as third when she stayed on the track while the lead group of about 20 cars pitted. She finished 36th.

"I tried to give the outside, I saw her coming into it, and I closed the door. It was completely, 100 percent my fault," McDowell said.

Harvick started his No. 33 Chevrolet on the outside of the front row and took the lead on the first lap. He didn't relinquish it until the first round of pit stops on lap 58. That was the first slow stop.

After dropping out of the top five, Harvick regained the lead on lap 176 and held on for the win. The Richard Childress Racing driver led 83 of 200 laps.

"We expect pit road performances to be like what we are on the race track," said Harvick, who owns the team with his wife, DeLana.

It was a disappointing race for Kyle Busch, who led 43 laps and was running in third when he brushed the wall on lap 180. He finished 16th, and Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan was 13th.

It was a rough start to the weekend for Nationwide driver John Wes Townley, 20, who was cited for underage possession of alcohol in Las Vegas on Thursday. He finished 15th.

In a prepared statement, Townley said he made a "terrible mistake" and apologized to NASCAR and his Richard Childress Racing team.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0353.