Harvick leads RCR 1-2 in Busch

The championship's first visit to the 0.5-mile speedway since 1994 saw a remarkable 19 full course yellows - a record for Busch races at the track. Most of the interruptions were caused by minor contact or harmless spins, but the cautions eventually took up nearly 50 minutes of the two hour, ten minute race.

The profileration of yellows proved to be a mixed blessing for Harvick, who took the lead from polesitter Bowyer on lap 58 and then stayed ahead for most of the remainder of the race.

"We had to have some cautions to get the gas mileage where it needed to be, but my car wasn't good for four or five laps (after restarts)," said Harvick. "Once I could move up half a groove and get up off the corner like I needed to, I was alright."

Bowyer kept the pressure on Harvick and got alongside his teammate on a few occasions, particularly on restarts. They even made light contact on lap 216, leaving Harvick's car with some cosmetic damage at the rear.

"He kept getting good runs on the bottom, and I kept spinning the tyres," said Harvick. "Good racing, that's what it's all about."

Most of the drivers combining Nextel Cup and Busch duty this weekend managed to make it from Pocono to Martinsville in time for qualifying, but Pocono polesitter Danny Hamlin was one of the exceptions, and had to start at the back of the Busch field as a consequence.

But he came through strongly to take third after a long tussle with Reed Sorenson, and felt that he could have been on for a win if the leaders had been less polite with each other.

"Had it been anyone else, I'm sure they might have got into each other harder, but they're teammates and they probably thought about that," Hamlin said. "Those guys did a great job and I'm proud to finish third to them."

Paul Menard and Kevin Grubb both spent stints in the race lead while running alternative pit strategies. While Menard ultimately finished a competitive 12th, Grubb was one of the countless drivers caught up in incidents and was classified 33rd.

Returning three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip was another victim of the midfield contact, falling from 17th to 28th after a late tangle.

Results

Pos  Driver             Make      Laps
 1.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  250
 2.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  250
 3.  Denny Hamlin       Chevrolet  250
 4.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      250
 5.  Johnny Sauter      Chevrolet  250
 6.  Carl Edwards       Ford       250
 7.  John Andretti      Ford       250
 8.  Jason Leffler      Chevrolet  250
 9.  J.J. Yeley         Chevrolet  250
10.  Jay Sauter         Chevrolet  250
11.  Mike Wallace       Dodge      250
12.  Paul Menard        Chevrolet  250
13.  Kenny Wallace      Ford       250
14.  Regan Smith        Ford       250
15.  Stacy Compton      Ford       250
16.  Mark McFarland     Chevrolet  250
17.  Greg Biffle        Ford       250
18.  Boris Said         Dodge      250
19.  Tim Sauter         Chevrolet  250
20.  Kyle Busch         Chevrolet  250
21.  Jon Wood           Ford       250
22.  Danny O'Quinn Jr.  Ford       250
23.  Burney Lamar       Chevrolet  250
24.  Ron Hornaday       Chevrolet  250
25.  Auggie Vidovich    Dodge      250
26.  Matt McCall        Ford       250
27.  Ashton Lewis       Ford       250
28.  Darrell Waltrip    Dodge      250
29.  Carlos Contreras   Dodge      250
30.  Todd Kluever       Ford       250
31.  David Green        Ford       249
32.  Jerry Robertson    Chevrolet  249
33.  Kevin Grubb        Chevrolet  245
34.  Jason White        Dodge      208
35.  Steve Wallace      Dodge      171
36.  David Gilliland    Chevrolet  162
37.  Chase Pistone      Chevrolet  111
38.  Randy MacDonald    Chevrolet  72
39.  Ricky Craven       Dodge      66
40.  Ron Young          Chevrolet  59
41.  Carl Long          Chevrolet  57
42.  Kertus Davis       Chevrolet  35
43.  Shane Hall         Ford       34