Harvick wins second straight in Busch

Watkins Glen, NY (Sports Network) - Kevin Harvick captured Saturday afternoon's Zippo 200 Busch Series race at the Watkins Glen International road course. The No.21 Auto Zone Chevrolet crossed the finish line more than three seconds ahead of Jeff Burton.
The victory was Harvick's series-leading fifth of the season and 31st of his Busch Series career. Harvick ties Jack Ingram for second all-time behind only Mark Martin (47).
"What a car! We didn't qualify like we wanted to and we thought our car was really good in race trim and when they dropped the green flag it was good to go," said Harvick.
Kurt Busch brought the field to the green flag for 82 laps of racing over the fast 2.45-mile road course in upstate New York. He led the first 12 laps before making his first pit stop of the afternoon on lap 13.
From there Ron Fellows inherited the lead because he had yet to pit. None of the top-three drivers had pitted in the first 15 laps leaving Greg Biffle and Patrick Carpentier in second and third, respectively.
The trio finally made their initial stops by lap 23 and Harvick found himself in the lead with Busch five spots back in sixth. Harvick's lead was more than six seconds over Burton and seven over third place Paul Menard. And lurking in fifth place was Mexico City winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
By lap 35 Harvick's primary competition, Burton, Menard and Montoya, had closed the gap to four seconds. But a caution flag, for a Steve Wallace spin, slowed the race to a crawl.
Most of the teams pitted with 44 laps to go, hoping for about eight laps of caution to reach the checkered flag. Scott Pruett stayed out until lap 41 and his crew said he could make it to the finish from there, though most experts doubted it.
Meanwhile, Busch led the race and was waiting for his pit stop because he couldn't make it all the way based on their past fuel mileage. Montoya made his last stop on lap 46 and Busch came in on lap 47.
With 30 laps to go Harvick regained the lead, but Busch was in sixth and didn't need to save any fuel to reach the finish line. Busch got around Brad Coleman for fourth place with 26 laps still remaining. He took Kenseth easily and Menard before the bus stop and then there was just one driver remaining between himself and the lead.
Harvick's lead over Busch was 4.098 seconds on lap 57. But Busch was in no hurry to catch Harvick because his crew chief didn't think Harvick could reach the finish line without stopping. So Busch settled into second place about five seconds behind Harvick and two seconds ahead of third place Burton.
Then on lap 67 a caution flag erased Harvick's lead. But the caution flag laps also allowed Harvick to run full out to the finish line. The green flag dropped to restart the race with 13 laps remaining but went back to caution with an incident at the restart.
The final restart began with 10 laps to go. Busch, who had fallen to fourth just before the last caution flag, passed both Menard and Burton for second on the first green flag lap. With eight laps to go, Busch got too wide in turn one and spun way wide, losing ground to the leader and second place to Burton.
Harvick's lead was 1.615 seconds on Burton with seven to go and 2.957 seconds one lap later and the No.21 RCR Chevrolet cruised to his second consecutive Busch Series win.
Busch, Menard and Coleman completed the top-five. Edwards finished a distant 32nd.
The next race in the series is set for Saturday, August 18th at the Michigan International Speedway.