Catchfence

MONTREAL (August 31, 2009) — Fresh off his win in the Canadian Tire Series race Sunday morning, J. R. Fitzpatrick shifted gears and climbed behind the wheel of the No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. (KHI) Schick Chevrolet, starting the NAPA Auto Parts 200 from the 18th position on Sunday afternoon. Racing at a track that made NASCAR Nationwide Series history last year by becoming the first track where teams raced in the rain, the tradition continued this year as teams qualified in the rain and then competed in the longest Nationwide Series race in history (3 hours, 49 minutes and 19 seconds). Fitzpatrick ran most of the race in the top 15, but a late-race incident dropped the team to the 27th finishing position.

“The No. 33 Schick car was really good and fast,” said Fitzpatrick after climbing from the car. “The KHI team did a great job all weekend and deserved a good finish. We almost had that finish for them, but got caught up in someone else’s mess late in the race. I wish we could have gotten the finish we deserve, but overall it was a great day for this team and for Schick.”

With adrenaline pumping from his Canadian Tire Series win earlier that day, Fitzpatrick started the Nationwide Series race from the 18th position and patiently began working his toward the front.

The first caution of the day came on lap two with Fitzpatrick in the 14th position. He quickly radioed crew chief Ernie Cope that the car felt good and was pretty neutral. Immediately Cope responded by telling Fitzpatrick to begin saving fuel and stick with the pre-race pit strategy. The race restarted on lap seven with Fitzpatrick in the 11th spot.

Continuing to dodge cautions and move forward, Fitzpatrick was scored in the 10th position when the team decided to pit on lap 16 under caution for four tires, fuel and to remove tape from the nose. With teams taking advantage of varying pit strategies, the race restarted on lap 20 with Fitzpatrick in the 18th position.

Two laps later when the caution waved again, Fitzpatrick had advanced to the 12th spot. On the lap 25 restart, the No. 33 Schick car was in the ninth position and quickly had to take evasive action to avoid the wrecking cars of Ron Fellows and Justin Allgaier. Fitzpatrick told Cope the car was better in the center, but he really needed more laps to get a good feel for the car since the last pit stop.

Continuing to move toward the front, Fitzpatrick took over the fifth position on lap 43 behind Marcos Ambrose, Kyle Busch, Brad Coleman and Max Papis. Several laps later, the team gave up the track position to make a scheduled green-flag pit stop for four tires, an air-pressure adjustment and fuel. With stops cycling through the field, Fitzpatrick was in the seventh position on lap 58 when the caution waved for debris on the track and rain.

With heavy rain, teams were called to pit road on lap 60 and given five minutes to prepare the cars to finish the race in the rain. Following the changes of adding Rain-X to the windshield, putting on rain tires and making adjustments to add more rear grip to the car, the race restarted on lap 63. Working on a top-10 finish, Fitzpatrick was running ninth on lap 67 when Papis drove into the corner making it three-wide. With contact from Papis to the driver side of the No. 33 Schick machine, Fitzpatrick spun in turn one. Unable to restart the car, Fitzpatrick was pushed back to pit road where the team determined the kill switch on the steering wheel broke during the wreck and had to replace the steering wheel to complete the race. Fitpatrick returned to the race one lap down to the leaders in the 30th position.

With another caution in the final laps, the race was extended for a green-white-checkered finish where Fitzpatrick was able to gain several spots to finish 27th. Carl Edwards won the NAPA Auto Parts 200, passing a dominate Ambrose on the final turn of the last lap. Andrew Ranger, Jacque Villeneuve and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.

- Kevin Harvick Inc. Press Release