CONCORD, N.C. - Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick was clearly frustrated following the Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway Saturday night.

Both Harvick and his RCR teammate Clint Bowyer lost gears during the race. Harvick held on to finish 18th, but that certainly wasn't what he had in mind entering the weekend. He had problems at the May race at the track, too, leading him to offer some less-than-complimentary remarks about the place.

"We had some transmission troubles the first time, so it would be nice if they filled this place with water - nothing ever goes right and I hate coming here," he said.

He deemed it a "lucky break" that his team kept going and actually climbed a spot in the standings to third. Harvick is 89 points behind teammate and point leader Jeff Burton.

"To come off pit road in fourth gear and still have a clutch in it with all three gears brole individually and have all those pieces roaming around in the transmission, we are very fortunate to have the thing still going only two laps down," he said. "It was a very good day on the luck side anyway."

With five races to go in the Chase For The Nextel Cup, NASCAR's title-determining segment of the season, Harvick is optimistic that he can still contend for the championship.

"We're 80-something points out, but we're only halfway there," he said. "So there's a lot of racing yet to do."