Harvick wins Busch at Chicagoland

Harvick made a last minute move to stay on the track when he looked committed to pit during the sixth and last caution 33 laps from the chequered flag.

He then overtook Jeff Burton and easily pulled away to win a Busch Series race at Chicago for the second time in the last three years.

In the closing laps Matt Kenseth started to gain on him but never got close enough to be able to challenge for victory.

"What a huge credit to this team," Harvick said. "We struggled a little bit when we first got here and we just really had to change a lot of things on the car, and I think we turned it upside down and really made things happen.

"We had a really good car in the first half of the race. In the second half we were just really loose, so we raised the air pressures up and just tried to get the thing off the ground and tried to get it going and once did it I was able to drive it and make up some time."

Kyle Busch looked set to be a challenger for victory once again, but pitted from the lead during the last caution, watching in his rear-view mirrors how his main rivals, who were following him towards pitroad, eventually stayed on the track.

He was left once again hoping for what could've been, leading the most laps but taking little consolation from a fifth place finish after a great recovery in the closing laps. He still did not understand why he was called into the pits on that last caution.

"I have no idea, ask (crew-chief) Alan Gustafson," Busch said. "It was definitely a fast race car out there. The guys did an awesome job, we were able to come out here, get a top-five finish but not what we wanted. I had to drive harder than I should've but that's a part of racing I guess, so hopefully it was a good show for the fans."

Jeff Burton finished third after a very hot drive. His car's air-conditioning did not work at all during the race but despite that he was a top contender all afternoon in his return to the No. 29 car, which had been driven by Scott Wimmer for the past few races.

Richard Childress cars took three out of the top five places at the end of the race with Clint Bowyer finishing fourth ahead of Kyle Busch, while the Joe Gibbs cars, which had both qualified both in the top three had a troubled race.

Polesitter Denny Hamlin was forced to pit with a dead battery on lap 94, which caused the heat to rise inside his car as the air-conditioning also stopped working. He was also among the cars pitting behind Busch in the final caution, but despite all his problems still finished seventh.

His teammate Aric Almirola brought out the yellow flags twice, first on lap 94 after brushing the wall, and then with 34 to go when he spun out of turn two to cause the final caution of the day, returning to his garage to call it a day.

Points leader Carl Edwards was on a charge after the last restart but pitted under green with 23 laps to go for a suspected puncture on one of his left tyres. He was running fifth at that moment, and instead finished down in 20th.

Juan Pablo Montoya recovered as much as he could from an early brush with the wall and fell two laps down after being unlucky with the yellow flags. He finished behind Edwards in 21st.

"We were just unlucky," Montoya said. "We had the car to get the lap back and we just got passed as the yellow went by and we went two laps down and that was it. We did a change and I was really loose in until I hit the wall. That's okay."

The top four in the championship remains unchanged, with Edwards leading Harvick by 716 points.

Pos   Driver              Car         Laps
 1.   Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet    200
 2.   Matt Kenseth        Ford         200
 3.   Jeff Burton         Chevrolet    200
 4.   Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet    200
 5.   Kyle Busch          Chevrolet    200
 6.   Paul Menard         Chevrolet    200
 7.   Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet    200
 8.   Tony Stewart        Chevrolet    200
 9.   Dave Blaney         Toyota       200
10.   Stephen Leicht      Ford         200
11.   J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet    200
12.   Kasey Kahne         Dodge        200
13.   Casey Mears         Chevrolet    200
14.   Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet    200
15.   Reed Sorenson       Dodge        200
16.   Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet    200
17.   David Reutimann     Toyota       199
18.   Mike Wallace        Chevrolet    199
19.   David Ragan         Ford         199
20.   Carl Edwards        Ford         198
21.   Juan Montoya        Dodge        198
22.   Ward Burton         Ford         198
23.   Jamie McMurray      Ford         198
24.   Kelly Bires         Ford         198
25.   David Stremme       Dodge        197
26.   Todd Kluever        Ford         197
27.   David Gilliland     Ford         197
28.   Kyle Krisiloff      Ford         196
29.   Bobby Hamilton Jr   Ford         196
30.   Mark Green          Chevrolet    196
31.   Stanton Barrett     Chevrolet    196
32.   Steve Wallace       Dodge        196
33.   Jason Leffler       Toyota       196
34.   Robby Gordon        Ford         195
35.   Jason Keller        Chevrolet    194
36.   Derrike Cope        Chevrolet    194
37.   Marcos Ambrose      Ford         190
38.   Aric Almirola       Chevrolet    167
39.   Greg Biffle         Ford         161
40.   Brent Sherman       Chevrolet    143
41.   Eric McClure        Chevrolet     71
42.   Morgan Shepherd     Dodge         13
43.   Ryan Newman         Dodge          4