HAMPTON, GA. — The race started with a tribute to Dale Earnhardt, and Kevin Harvick offered one of his own at the end, driving The Intimidator's car to victory.
Harvick, a 25-year-old rookie who took over for Earnhardt after his death in the season-opening Daytona 500, won the first time in his Winston Cup career, beating Jeff Gordon by inches in the Cracker Barrel 500.
Kevin Harvick celebrates his NASCAR Cracker Barrel 500 victory.
The outcome left Richard Childress, Earnhardt's longtime car owner, in tears and unable to forget their glorious past.
"I just kept praying for Dale to help us out," Childress said. "He gave us the help we needed."
In the same Chevrolet Earnhardt drove to a second-place finish here last November, Harvick beat Gordon to the finish line at Atlanta Motor Speedway by .006 seconds the edge of his front bumper.
"I don't know how you could script it any different," Harvick said. "None of us expected this so soon, what with the unfortunate circumstances. All I can say is this one is for Dale."
The finish was eerily similar to the spring race last year, when Earnhardt beat Bobby Labonte by .010 seconds for his record ninth victory on Atlanta's 1.5-mile oval.
And the scene afterward was similar to that when Earnhardt won the 1998 Daytona 500 and crew members from every team lined up along pit road to congratulate him. As Harvick made his victory lap, waiving three fingers out the window to symbolize Earnhardt's No. 3, the other crews gathered to greet him as he came off the track.
The outcome left his own crew celebrating wildly and Childress so emotional he could hardly speak.
"I'm just thrilled, just thrilled," said Childress, for whom Earnhardt had driven since 1984.
The day began with a tribute to Earnhardt on the third lap of the race.
Most of the 125,000 fans stood silently for the entire lap with three fingers in the air while track officials released 7,000 black balloons 1,000 for each of Earnhardt's seven series championships.
Harvick, meanwhile, bided his time throughout the 325-lap race.
He started fifth, in his Chevrolet. But it was painted white, instead of Earnhardt's trademark black, and was changed to No. 29 while NASCAR observes a one-year moratorium on Earnhardt's No. 3.
Harvick ran up front with the leaders for most of the race, and even led 12 laps early. But he didn't make his move until the final 10 laps of the event.
Sterling Marlin brought out the eighth caution of the race when his Dodge blew its engine on lap 300. The race went green five laps later, and Jerry Nadeau and Dale Jarrett quickly broke away from Harvick, Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But the trio closed in on the leaders, and Harvick pulled alongside Nadeau and Jarrett coming out of Turn 4 of lap 320.
He cleared them coming out of Turn 2 on the next lap and was running alone up front until Gordon, who won a week earlier in Las Vegas, caught him in Turn 3 of the last lap. They battled side-by-side for the last half-mile as they hurtled forward to the finish line.
The two Chevrolets were practically touching as they crossed the line, with Harvick nosing ahead for the victory.
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