Harvick wins Texas Busch race

Harvick is the replacement for the late Dale Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing in the Goodwrench Chevrolet. After the race, Harvick drove around the speedway in the opposite direction holding three fingers out the window to honour Earnhardt, who was killed in the February 18 Daytona 500.

"The car was awesome all day long, Mike Skinner let us by earlier in the race and that helped," Harvick said. "This place owed us one after last year. It was great to come back and have a car equally awesome. This is where we started to run good last year and I can't say enough about this team."

Jeff Burton was second after starting 22nd.

"We were a little bit quicker than he was, but when you catch a guy, you lose the air and can't get by him," Burton said.

Jay Sauter was third followed by Joe Nemechek and Matt Kenseth. Harvick now leads Jason Keller by 115 points in the NASCAR Busch Series.

The green flag waved with nine laps remaining with Harvick the leader. He was able to open a huge gap coming off the second turn. But Jeff Burton began to chase down Harvick with six laps remaining in a bid to take away the lead. But Burton was unable to get close enough to Harvick to make a pass.

Earlier, Kenny Wallace crashed in the fourth turn three laps into the race to bring out the first caution flag. Wallace backed the car into the wall and suffered serious damage after his car was loose and slid into Ashton Lewis' car. Kevin Grubb was able to get on the brakes and avoid the crash. The front grille on Jason Keller's car also suffered damage, causing the car to overheat.

Skinner took the lead on the restart when he passed Kenseth's loose Chevrolet. Mark Green crashed coming out of the second turn on the backstretch on the 14th lap after Todd Bodine ran into the back of him. It was Green's fourth DNF in the last five races.

Skinner was in the lead when the green flag waved on lap 20. The yellow flag waved again when Shawna Robinson and Shane Hall both crashed in the fourth turn. Robinson was underneath Hall on the apron when the two cars touched, sending both out of control.

"We were a little loose and I tried to keep it under control, we made contact and that was it," Robinson said. "The last thing I thought I would be today was loose. It's disappointing because this is a three-race deal with Michael Waltrip."

That allowed the leaders to pit under caution and Kenseth was the first out to take the lead. The green flag waved on lap 55. But just a few laps later, defending Busch champion Jeff Green's Chevrolet slipped sideways on the frontstretch on lap 58. Mike McLaughlin slammed hard into the wall on the front straightaway after sliding through the tri-oval grass. Biffle spun through the grass but was able to avoid contact.

"I just lost it, I don't do that very often," Green said. "I had cold tyres, it came out from under me and I thought I had it saved. It's all bent up. It's my fault."

It was the second week in a row that Green crashed in the first 100 laps of a race, damaging his defence of the championship. Five of the top six drivers had trouble up to this point in the race. The only driver of the six that did not incur damage was series points leader Kevin Harvick.

"I thought I was through that deal, I got in the grass and it shot into the wall," McLaughlin said.

Skinner led Harvick to the green flag on lap 64 to resume high-speed racing. Harvick took the lead on lap 67 to gain five bonus points towards the championship. Skinner fell back to fourth position on the next lap when Tony Raines and Jay Sauter were able to get by.

Harvick led by nearly 3 seconds at the halfway point on lap 100.

Skinner's bid for victory was hampered when NASCAR officials held him in the pits for speeding down pit road. Skinner was driving the car for Mike Dillon, who was injured last week at Bristol.

Another caution flag waved when Andy Hillenburg crashed in the third turn on lap 152, which set up the final round of pit stops for the leaders. Jimmie Johnson's crew elected to change two tyres rather than four which allowed him to leave pit road as the leader after entering in eighth place.

The green flag waved with 40 laps to go and Harvick immediately regained the lead when he passed Johnson in the second turn. Skinner and Tony Raines made contact on the frontstretch two laps later, Skinner's car slid across the grass, but he was able to save it and keep up to speed when he returned to the race track without a caution flag.

With 17 laps remaining, Chad Little spun coming down the frontstretch. Kelly Denton tried to save the car, but crashed into the frontstretch wall to bring out another caution flag. After the clean-up, the green flag waved with nine laps to go setting up a Texas-sized shootout.