INDIANAPOLIS, 5 August 2003 — The old Intimidator would have been proud of the way his successor ran on Sunday. So would a lot of old-time stock car folks who haven’t looked favorably on a bunch of open-wheel kids coming in and dominating NASCAR Winston Cup racing the past few years.

Kevin Harvick, the driver picked by Richard Childress to drive Dale Earnhardt’s Chevrolet after the death of Earnhardt at Daytona two years ago, powered away in the final laps to win the 10th Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Anything we can do that Dale Earnhardt did is an accomplishment,” said Harvick after taking the checkered flag. Earnhardt won the second 400 in 1995 in a Childress car. Even though his car number is 29, Harvick has a big ‘3’ on its side in memory of the seven-time Winston Cup champion.

Harvick is only 27 and comes from Bakersfield, Calif., not exactly backwoods bootleg country such as the sand hills of the Piedmont, but Harvick is as close to the likes of Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough or Richard Petty than anyone in racing today.

He grew up with the Mears boys, Clint and Casey, and idolized Rick Mears, the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner from Bakersfield.

In Sunday’s race, Harvic became the first driver to win the 400 from the pole. He wasn’t a wire-to-wire winner by any means, but over the final stretch no one could handle him.

Harvick led the first 17 laps from the pole before giving way to last year’s winner, Bill Elliott.

In the meantime, Tony Stewart was impressively moving from 15th to catch the leaders one by one as the cars entered the first turn-carrying the momentum of 200 mph speed down the long front straightaway to take the inside line and duck under the car ahead of him. He passed Kurt Busch for fourth on lap 16, Ryan Newman for third on lap 21, Harvick for second on lap 22 and Elliott for the lead on lap 26.

He finished a disappointing 12th.

From lap 106, the last lap Stewart led, the win was up for grabs. First Robby Gordon looked as if he was going to make up for the heartbreak of running out of fuel while leading the Indianapolis 500 a few years ago; then rookie Jamie McMurray took his Dodge to the front and led for 22 laps; and Matt Kenseth, the Winston Cup points leader, led for nine laps.

The pivotal point came after a caution flag brought out by a six-car pileup on the back straight when cars were running four-abreast and Terry Labonte got punted across the track by Busch. When the green flag reappeared, there were 10 laps left with Harvick, Robby Gordon, McMurray, Kenseth and Jeff Gordon lined up bumper to bumper. Harvick got the jump when starter Jimmy Howell dropped the green.

Robby Gordon, his Childress teammate and the man who snookered Harvick at Sonoma last month by passing him during a caution period, found he couldn’t catch Harvick, so he did his best to hold up the following pack.

Kenseth finished second, increasing his points lead to 286 over Dale Earnhardt Jr., 3,152 to 2,866. Earnhardt Jr. finished 14th.

Even though Kenseth is well ahead for the championship, he has won only one race this year.

McMurray was third, Jeff Gordon fourth, Elliott fifth and Robby Gordon sixth.