Lap 250: Harvick finishes 10th. It's his third top-10 finish in the last six races.

Lap 249: Harvick slides by Ryan Newman for 11th place.

Lap 248: When the green flag flies again, Harvick is 15th. After stopping, Harvick has to hustle into his place in line.

Lap 247: Harvick pits for four tires. The stop lasts 14.8 seconds.

Lap 246: It appears that Harvick will pit the next lap, although it'll be one to go before the green.

7:19 p.m.: The field begins to roll again.

Lap 246: Team owner Richard Childress thinks the team will be OK due to the number of cars taken out just behind Harvick.

Lap 245: Another yellow flag is out for a big crash behind Harvick. No matter how many cars were involved in the crash, Harvick says he's pitting. The red flag is brought out for the accident involving Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, A.J. Allmendiner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne and others.

Lap 244: Harvick is in huge traffic, stacking at times four wide.

Lap 244: When the green flag flies, Harvick is ninth.

Lap 242: Gil Martin tells Harvick to put the car on the bottom of the track and get what he can after the restart. Harvick responds, "It ... won't ... go ... on ... the ... restart."

Lap 241: Harvick tells his spotter, "I've tried swerving the tires. I'll try driving it backwards if you want me to, but it ain't gonna go on the restart." He finishes by saying he'll be lucky to finish 15th.

Lap 240: Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle wreck on the frontstretch. The caution is out again.

Lap 239: Harvick is eighth on the restart.

Lap 237: After most of the field behind him pits, there are sharp exchanges between Harvick and his spotter.

Lap 236: Harvick seems to be lobbying for a two-tire stop. He's asked how much his lap times have dropped off, how many laps since the last stop and how many laps are left. He moves to come onto pit road, but veers back on the track at the last moment.

Lap 235: A third caution for debris is out.

Lap 231: "Took off real good that time!" Harvick says.

Lap 228: On pit road, Harvick's last scheduled stop of the afternoon takes 15.6 seconds to finish.

Lap 227: Harvick suddenly insists, "Need to pit." He'll be in the next lap.

Lap 224: Harvick will pit for the final time today in about eight laps.

Lap 207: Handling is again an issue. Harvick feels the car is very loose, and asks if a track-bar changes on the previous stop was all the team did. He says, "Loose, loose, loose, loose."

Lap 200: There are fifty laps remaining. Harvick is eighth, 5.73 seconds behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 199: The car is looser off the turns and tighter in the middle.

Lap 195: Harvick dives to the inside of the track on the backstretch, but gets ate up on the frontstretch. He drops back to seventh.

Lap 195: Harvick is in third place on the restart.

Lap 194: Harvick spots damage on the nose of Juan Pablo Montoya's car. Montoya was involved in the mishap with Hamlin.

Lap 192: Crew chief Gil Martin says that Harvick should try to save fuel, although there's probably no way they can make it to the end of the race without stopping again.

Lap 190: The green flag is out again with 60 laps to go. Harvick is fifth. Immediately after the restart, Denny Hamlin spins in turn one to cause another caution.

Lap 187: Harvick pulls his yellow-and-red Chevrolet into its pit stall. The stop lasts just 13.6 seconds, the quickest of the day.

Lap 186: If there are no other cautions, Harvick will be about 13 laps short on his fuel supply of making it the rest of the way without stopping.

Lap 185: Another caution is out for debris.

Lap 179: Harvick is still in sixth place, 19.8 seconds behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 168: Gil Martin asks if the car took off any better following the team's most recent stop. Harvick quickly replies, "Yeah."

Lap 166: Once the round of green-flag stops is completed, Harvick is shown sixth on the leader board, 19.05 seconds behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 161: Harvick is on pit road. His fifth stop of the day takes 14.2 seconds to cycle through.

Lap 160: Harvick will be pitting the next time by.

Lap 150: One hundred laps to go!

Lap 149: Crew chief Gil Martin tells Harvick that he's still running "really good lap times."

Lap 147: Harvick says the car just isn't running like it did in the beginning.

Lap 145: The radio comes briefly to life. Crew chief Gil Martin says the team's next pit stop will be in about 14 laps.

Lap 142: It's very, very quiet on the team's radio. Not a word has been said since the last exchange 12 laps ago.

Lap 138: Greg Biffle gives up ninth place to Harvick.

Lap 130: Harvick's spotter tells him the line another car is taking, to which Harvick responds, "I don't care what he's doing."

Lap 127: Harvick is still hot. "Track position is a pretty big thing, in case you hadn't noticed," he complains to crew chief Gil Martin, who responds, "Yeah, I've noticed that." Harvick shoots back, "Ask the four guys behind me how to get going."

Lap 125: Says Harvick: "I'm about to lose my mind on the restarts ... feels like the freakin' tires are flat."

Lap 122: When the green flag flies again, Harvick is listed in eighth place.

Lap 119: Harvick brings the Shell Chevy onto pit road. It takes 14.8 seconds to change four tires and add fuel.

Lap 118: The caution is out for debris in turn one. Harvick says, "Debris cautions are a bunch of crap. They do it every week."

Lap 114: Running sixth, Harvick is 10.09 seconds behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 108: Harvick says to put air pressure back in the tires because they're "sliding all over the place."

Lap 95: Handling seems to be getting better. Harvick has picked his way back up to sixth place, 5.5 seconds behind leader Juan Pablo Montoya.

Lap 92: Harvick says the car just won't get going on the restart.

Lap 91: The car is too tight, Harvick says.

Lap 89: Harvick has dropped back to ninth since the restart. He hasn't said anything about what the problem might be.

Lap 87: Harvick is fifth on the restart. Leader Martin Truex Jr. took just two tires, while those behind him bolted on four fresh Goodyears.

Lap 83: Harvick pits for four tires and fuel. The stop takes just 13.8 seconds to complete, the quickest so far today.

Lap 82: Ryan Newman's car is stalled on the track, bringing out the caution. Harvick says the car has come around.

Lap 81: Harvick has moved past Jeff Gordon for fifth place.

Lap 72: Harvick is now in sixth place, 2 seconds behind leader Mark Martin.

Lap 68: Harvick thinks he might have a flat right-rear tire. He's told it looks OK.

Lap 67: Mark Martin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmie Johnson steam past Harvick.

Lap 66: Denny Hamlin goes to the high side of Harvick's Chevrolet, and then remain side by side before Hamlin clears Harvick for the lead in turn four.

Lap 65: Harvick is second on the restart, and takes the lead going into turn one.

Lap 62: Harvick is headed to pit road. Before entering his stall, Harvick asks for some tape to be placed on the grille of his car because water temperatures have reached 180 degrees. The crew's 14.2-second stop gets Harvick off pit road second to Juan Pablo Montoya.

Lap 61: Harvick says the car is OK, and how his lap times look compared to other frontrunners.

Lap 60: The race's first caution is out for Jamie McMurray's accident.

Lap 44: The leaders have cycled through their stops. Harvick is back in third, 2.17 seconds behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

Lap 40: Harvick drops onto pit road, telling the crew to get ready. They evidently weren't expecting for a couple more laps. Harvick's four-tire stop takes 15.6 seconds to complete.

Lap 38: Harvick says that the car is a little tight, but adds that he doesn't want to lose any grip. Crew chief Gil Martin makes the call to not make any chassis changes.

Lap 33: The leaders should be pitting in the next seven laps or so.

Lap 28: Still in third place, Harvick trails leader Juan Pablo Montoya by 2.49 seconds.

Lap 24: Going into turn one, Harvick hits 203 mph.

Lap 21: According to his spotter, Harvick is about three-tenths of a second faster than the leaders.

Lap 17: Harvick is going after Denny Hamlin for third place. He takes the spot on the front stretch.

Lap 4: Harvick has moved into fifth place.

3:34 p.m.: Green flag! Today's race is 250 laps, 500 miles.

3:32 p.m.: Team owner Richard Childress wishes Harvick and the team well today, adding, "Let's go win this thing."

3:28 p.m.: The field begins to roll off pit road. The green flag will be displayed the third time by the starter's stand.

3:23 p.m.: "Cheers" and "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer gives the command to fire engines.

3:16 p.m.: Actor/singer Jesse McCartney sings the National Anthem.

3:15 p.m.: Motor Racing Outreach's Tim Griffin is giving today's invocation.

Pre-Race: The car Kevin Harvick is driving this weekend is brand new. Harvick qualified seventh for today's event, his best starting spot since beginning the 2008 season finale at Homestead from fifth on the grid.

In 14 Cup starts at California, Harvick has one top-five and four top-10 finishes at the two-mile oval. Harvick's best finish at his "home track" is a fourth in last year's fall event.