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.

Busch edges Montoya for Busch pole

Watkins Glen, NY (Sports Network) - Kurt Busch won the pole for Saturday afternoon's Zippo 200 Busch Series race at the Watkins Glen International road course. The No.39 Penske Dodge circled the 2.45-mile circuit in one minute, 12.569 seconds (121.540 m.p.h.).The pole victory was Busch's first of the season and second of his Busch career. His only other pole was last year, also at Watkins Glen."I don't run Busch all that often and so when we come to the race track with this group of guys we're going for the win," said Busch. "We just won a small battle right now, there's still a big-time race this afternoon."Starting on the front row with Busch will be Juan Montoya who posted a time of 1:12.846.
Ryan Newman (1:13.002) and Robby Gordon (1:13.154) will make up row two.Carl Edwards finished a distant 30th last week in Montreal and with it lost 65 points in the standings. Somehow, the No.60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford driver will have to continue on with just a 787-point lead in the Busch Series championship. Edwards still leads the series with four wins (tied with Kevin Harvick), top-fives (13) and top-10s (17).
Behind Edwards are David Reutimann (-787) and Harvick (-919).
In fourth place overall is a surprising name to most - Jason Leffler. In the middle of his second full year of Busch racing, Leffler is set to improve on last year's 13th-place finish.
The green flag is set to drop at 3:30 p.m. (et).

Kevin Harvick wins USG Durock 300 Busch Series

Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - Kevin Harvick hung around the top-10 for 170 laps before taking his first lead of the race and went on to capture Saturday's USG Durock 300 Busch Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.21 Richard Childress Chevrolet driver crossed the finish line 1.012 seconds ahead of Matt Kenseth.
The victory was Harvick's third of the season and 29th of his Busch career.
After winning his fourth pole of the season earlier in the day, Denny Hamlin led the 43-car field, comprised of 25 "Cup" drivers, to the green flag for 200 laps of racing.
The No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet driver led the field through the first caution flag on lap three for a Ryan Newman crash.
On lap seven the first lead change occurred when the race got back underway. series points leader Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch ducked under Hamlin to take over the top-two spots, respectively.
Edwards started to pull away from his competitors. He expanded the margin to over two seconds as Busch, Hamlin and Kenseth battled for second. Hamlin eventually won the battle for second and begun to cut into Edwards' lead.
The No.60 Ford driver lost the first position on lap 31 when Hamlin used the high side to pass him. Edwards fought back though and would trade the top spot with Hamlin. Hamlin won the battle on lap 35 as Edwards lost a few spots when Busch and Kenseth passed him.
Hamlin continued to lead, but Kenseth was closing the gap between the two. And on lap 49 Kenseth was able to get around the No.20 Chevrolet for the first spot. Busch, Edwards and Jeff Burton battled for position behind these drivers.
On lap 58 the leaders started to make their way down pit road for their first stops of the afternoon as the race stayed under the green flag. Todd Kluever, the last driver to cycle through the stops, stayed out to lead three laps before he came down for service.
When the stops were complete Busch found himself leading Kenseth, Hamlin, Burton and Harvick.

Hamlin hustles around Chicagoland for pole

Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - Denny Hamlin won the pole for this afternoon's USG Durock 300 Busch Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet driver circled the 1.5-mile oval in 30.083 seconds (179.503 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Hamlin's fourth of the season and 10th of his Busch career.
Starting with Hamlin on the front row will be series points leader Carl Edwards who posted a time of 30.114 seconds.
Edwards is the man to beat in 2007 as he jogs to his first Busch Series championship. On the back of 15 top-10s and a series-leading four wins, Edwards has a stranglehold on the driving title - by 798 points. The all-time winning margin is 824 points which Kevin Harvick set last year.
Aric Almirola (30.210) and Kasey Kahne (30.302) will start in row two.
This week's Busch Series race at Chicagoland is likely to see a first-time winner make the turn into Victory Lane. In six previous races, there have been four first-time winners.
In 2001, Jimmie Johnson won the only Busch race of his career. The next year, Johnny Sauter held off late charges from Todd Bodine and Jeff Burton. Skip to 2004 and Justin Labonte won his first and only Busch race squeezing out every drop of fuel to get to the checkered flag. Casey Mears became the fourth member of the club one year ago when he beat Edwards to the checkers.
A possible choice for this year's first-timer would be Brad Keselowski. After a great run substituting for Ted Musgrave in a Craftsman Truck race, he will get a shot behind the wheel of Jr. Motorsports' No.88 U.S. Navy Chevrolet.
The 24-year-old made 13 starts for a smaller team - Keith Coleman Racing before it suspended its operations. When Musgrave was suspended for one race because of an on-track incident, Keselowski finally got the chance to compete in a top quality, competitive truck.
Keselowski won the pole, led four different times for a total of 62 laps and contended for the win.
"I've watched Brad for a while and he's shown a lot of promise in the few Busch races he's run," said Earnhardt Jr. on the team's website. "He became available at a time when we were looking to make some changes to our program and everything just lined up for us to put him in the Navy Chevrolet for the next three races."
The race is set to drop the green flag at 3 p.m. (et).

Harvick wins Busch pole at NHIS

Loudon, NH (Sports Network) - Kevin Harvick earned the pole for Saturday afternoon's Camping World 200 Busch Series race at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The No.21 Chevrolet circled the flat 1.058-mile oval in 29.449 seconds (129.335 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Harvick's second of the season and 16th of his Busch career.
"The Auto Zone Chevrolet was pretty good, but I left a little on the table in (turns) one and two," said Harvick.
Starting on the front row with Harvick will be Busch Series points leader Carl Edwards who posted a second-best time of 29.461 seconds.
In his first nine 2007 Busch Series starts, Edwards collected a win and eight top-fives. His lead was 424 over Dave Blaney. In the next eight races, Edwards earned only three top-fives (two were wins - Dover and Nashville) yet his lead has ballooned to 776 points over runner-up David Reutimann.
lint Bowyer (29.570) and Bobby Santos (29.580) will make up row two.
Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Denny Hamlin (sixth), Juan Montoya (seventh), Matt Kenseth (eighth), Blaney (ninth), Tony Stewart (10th) and Reutimann (12th).
Thirteen of the top-15 drivers are Nextel Cup drivers. Only Santos and Richard Johns stopped a clean sweep.
The race is set to begin at 3 p.m. (et).