Harvick makes late charge to win at Martinsville

Kevin Harvick was so bad during the early laps at Martinsville Speedway, his team had to force him to focus or risk a race-ruining driver meltdown.

He would have been lucky to salvage a decent finish during that rough stretch Sunday.

Racing for a win? At the track where nobody could challenge Denny Hamlin or Jimmie Johnson the last four years? Not a chance.

Harvick rallied, though, and came from nowhere for the second consecutive week to grab his second victory of the season. It gave his Richard Childress Racing team its first win at Martinsville since the late Dale Earnhardt's 1995 victory, and came at the expense of his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who settled for second and saw his losing streak stretch to 99 races.

"As I was catching him, I'm like, 'Man, I'm going to be the bad guy here,'" Harvick said. "I've got to do what I've got to do. I know the fans want to see him win. I want to see him win. It would be great for the sport and I think today went a long ways to showing how competitive (Earnhardt) can be and that's what we need. We all need him to win.

"But I'm not going to back down."

Harvick passed Earnhardt with four laps to go, spoiling what would have been his first win since Michigan in June 2008. Despite the loss, Earnhardt and his legion of fans saw that he's running much better after three years of struggles.

Earnhardt is eighth in the standings, the highest he's been since Texas this time last year.

"I am frustrated. I got close," Earnhardt said. "I ain't won in a long time. I was thinking at the end I was meant to win the damn race."