Auto Racing: Kevin Harvick has work cut out for him at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Kevin Harvick has picked his way through traffic before at Martinsville Speedway, never when the stakes were so high.

A poor qualifying effort has Harvick starting 33rd, behind all the other title contenders, in today’s race on the Virginia short track. Because the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field is starting in the top 13, Harvick won’t have much time to avoid being lapped.

His Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet was considerably faster on Saturday – he was fastest in the final practice of the weekend – so crew chief Rodney Childers didn’t seem too concerned about race day.

“Just gotta roll with it at this point,” said Childers. “In the spring we went back to 30th three different times and drove back to the top-five like it wasn’t nothing, so you’ve just got to have a good car and drive up there.”

There’s no margin for error as the third round of the Chase begins. There are eight drivers remaining from a field that started with 16 but has gone through two rounds of cuts after every three races.

Now the Chase hits the critical stretch – races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix – and winners earn an automatic berth into the finale. NASCAR will crown the champion on Nov. 16 at Homestead, where the final four will race for the title. The winner will be the highest finisher of the four eligible drivers.

It will take either victories or consistency to make it to Homestead, and Harvick will have to hustle today. Although he drove from 36th to third in 2010, this marks just the seventh time in 27 career starts he has started outside the top 20 at Martinsville.

Truck Series

Darrell Wallace Jr. won the Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway for the second consecutive year.

The victory came a year after Wallace became the first black driver to win a national NASCAR race since Wendell Scott in 1963.

Kyle Busch Motorsports changed the number of Wallace’s Toyota truck on Saturday from No. 54 to No. 34 on Saturday to honor Scott. The NASCAR pioneer will be posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January.

Wallace led a race-high 97 laps in winning his third race of the season. The victory cut Wallace’s deficit in the Truck Series points standings to Matt Crafton to 28 with four races remaining.

Timothy Peters finished second, followed by Crafton, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.