Harvick takes Busch win at Daytona

Harvick looked unstoppable in the last part of the race leading the pack in his No. 21 Richard Childress Chevrolet. His speed was unmatched in the final laps when he even broke away from the chasing pack.

"We've always run well in the superspeedways, but just hadn't been able to win a race in one until now, so it's pretty neat," said Harvick. "Our car just handled really well and I had the pedal to the floor.

"That's what we were shooting for in practice and it worked out. It wasn't great in qualifying but it was all about holding the thing wide open. Being able to run at the bottom of the track is what won us the race."

The first few laps were hectic for everyone, with the first caution flag coming out as soon as lap 5, when David Ragan, Jon Wood and Dave Blaney were involved in an incident on the back stretch. Ragan was effectively out of the race, while Wood and Blaney were able to carry on.

On lap 17, the second caution came out when Kasey Kahne hit the wall after being hit by another car. Ganassi's Reed Sorenson got tapped from behind by Ward Burton and then ran into the back of the No. 9 Dodge of Kahne.

Jamie McMurray and John Andretti were also involved in the incident, which effectively ended their race. Kahne was, however, the worst victim of the wreck, as he crashed head-on into the wall. All drivers escaped unscathed from the incident.

On lap 21, the race went under green again with Kyle Busch holding the lead after the the first round of pitstops.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who had recovered from 16th on the grid up to fourth by the time of the second caution, had fallen back during the pitstops after making a rear suspension adjustment.

As he was making his way up the field again, Montoya suddenly slowed down with an apparent engine problem. His car lost power, forcing the Colombian to pit and eventually retire for the second time in a row during the week.

"That's racing, you know," the Ganassi driver said. "These things happen. The car handled well anyway and we were quick. Something happened with the engine, I don't know."

Up front, the race remained unchanged with most of the "Busch-wackers" - the Nextel Cup drivers racing in the Busch - controlling the pack and drafting between them. Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards, all Nextel Cup drivers, led the race and looked likely contenders for the win.

The final caution went out on lap 65 for four laps, and most drivers took the chance to pit for tyres and fuel as the race approached its last quarter.

Kyle Busch, who had led a race-high 48 laps and looked like the man to beat, had a disappointing end to his race as fuel pressure problems hit his No. 5 Lowe's Chevrolet on lap 82 after the pump failed.

With Busch out, it was Harvick who looked as the strongest of the front-runners, taking the lead on lap 79 and never giving it back.

Harvick led the last 42 laps, taking advantage of the draft from some backmarkers he caught in the last two miles of the race, to hold off the impressive Toyota of Dave Blaney who followed in second.

Behind them, Edwards, Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin rounded up the top five, while the top twelve spots were taken by Nextel Cup drivers.

A total 100,000 fans filled the stands at Daytona to watch what looked to be a good preview of Sunday's Daytona 500.

The Orbitz 300 results:

Pos  Driver                 Make        Laps
 1.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet   119
 2.  Dave Blaney            Toyota      119
 3.  Carl Edwards           Ford        119
 4.  Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet   119
 5.  Mark Martin            Ford        119
 6.  Martin Truex Jr        Chevrolet   119
 7.  Dale Earnhardt Jr      Chevrolet   119
 8.  Tony Stewart           Chevrolet   119
 9.  Denny Hamlin           Chevrolet   119
10.  Greg Biffle            Ford        119
11.  Robby Gordon           Ford        119
12.  Matt Kenseth           Ford        119
13.  Mike Wallace           Chevrolet   119
14.  Scott Wimmer           Chevrolet   119
15.  Todd Kluever           Ford        119
16.  Jon Wood               Ford        119
17.  Marcos Ambrose         Ford        119
18.  Paul Menard            Chevrolet   119
19.  Aric Almirola          Chevrolet   119
20.  Bobby Labonte          Chevrolet   119
21.  David Gilliland        Chevrolet   119
22.  Brent Sherman          Chevrolet   119
23.  Jason Leffler          Toyota      119
24.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.     Ford        118
25.  Steve Grissom          Chevrolet   117
26.  Regan Smith            Chevrolet   114
27.  Kyle Krisiloff         Ford        113
28.  Robert Richardson, II  Chevrolet   113
29.  David Reutimann        Toyota      113
30.  Steve Wallace          Dodge       113
31.  Ward Burton            Ford        113
32.  Sam Hornish Jr         Dodge       113
33.  Stephen Leicht         Ford        104
34.  Joe Nemechek           Chevrolet   100
35.  Eric McClure           Chevrolet    98
36.  Shane Huffman          Chevrolet    85
37.  Kyle Busch             Chevrolet    82
38.  Reed Sorenson          Dodge        80
39.  John Andretti          Toyota       26
40.  Juan Montoya           Dodge        24
41.  Kasey Kahne            Dodge        16
42.  Jamie McMurray         Ford         15
43.  David Ragan            Ford          4