Busch beats the snow and Harvick
Kyle Busch took a dramatic and slightly fortuitous victory in the NASCAR Busch Series round at Bristol Motor Speedway
Kevin Harvick had the pace to dominate this snow-interrupted race, but an out of sequence pit stop forced him to fight back through from 32nd position. He finished right on Busch's tail, but could not find a way past in the final showdown.
The race had to be red flagged after 33 laps when a snowstorm hit Bristol. Similar conditions had already forced the cancellation of qualifying, and initially it looked like the race might also have to be rearranged.
But the snow cleared, and racing resumed after a delay of one hour and 20 minutes. Harvick had controlled the race prior to the stoppage, shrugging off an early challenge from rookie Steve Wallace, and he continued to dominate until lap 148, when a window tear-off became stuck to his left rear tyre. Suspecting a puncture, Harvick pitted and dropped to 32nd.
While Harvick embarked on his recovery charge, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle took turns to lead the race. With a dozen laps to go Biffle looked set for victory, but then he slowed and pitted with an apparently loose wheel.
That left Busch to take the lead for the first time all afternoon, and he held on as the flying Harvick passed Matt Kenseth for second and closed to within 0.171 seconds at the chequered flag.
"The lap before I just got tight up in (turn) two and lost ground and couldn't get on his back bumper," said the frustrated Harvick. "You hate to lose it when your car's that good."
Sharpie Mini 300 results:
Pos Driver Make Laps 1. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 300 2. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 300 3. Matt Kenseth Ford 300 4. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 300 5. Carl Edwards Ford 300 6. Scott Riggs Dodge 300 7. Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 300 8. Kenny Wallace Ford 300 9. John Andretti Ford 300 10. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet 300 11. Danny O'Quinn Jr. Ford 300 12. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 300 13. Tracy Hines Dodge 300 14. Stacy Compton Ford 300 15. Jason Keller Dodge 300 16. Paul Menard Chevrolet 300 17. Jon Wood Ford 300 18. Aaron Fike Dodge 300 19. Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 300 20. Burney Lamar Chevrolet 300 21. Tim Sauter Chevrolet 300 22. Mark Green Dodge 300 23. Jay Sauter Chevrolet 299 24. Matt McCall Ford 299 25. David Green Ford 299 26. Michael Waltrip Dodge 299 27. Reed Sorenson Dodge 298 28. Greg Biffle Ford 298 29. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 298 30. Ashton Lewis Ford 296 31. Mark McFarland Chevrolet 290 32. Jason Leffler Chevrolet 289 33. Steve Wallace Dodge 288 34. Todd Kluever Ford 262 35. A.J. Foyt IV Dodge 257 36. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 237 37. Ken Schrader Ford 237 38. Regan Smith Ford 233 39. Chris Wimmer Chevrolet 195 40. Kertus Davis Chevrolet 175 41. Jorge Goeters Ford 167 42. Joel Kauffman Dodge 127 43. Kevin Conway Dodge 5
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