Harvick OnLine: Harvick Stands His Ground

Harvick Stands His Ground

By Daniel Malloy

LOUDON, N.H. -- It wasn't quite deja vu. The finish of yesterday's Camping World 200 was more like looking in a mirror -- the same thing, but in reverse.

Last year, Carl Edwards held off a final-lap challenge from Kevin Harvick to win the Busch Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Yesterday, Harvick withstood a charge from Edwards on the final turn to take home the victory.

"That's the exact position we were in last year," said Edwards, who drives the No. 60 Scotts Miracle-Gro Ford. "I was trying to hold off Kevin Harvick. He's a hard guy to hold off and it was neat to be able to race him again this year. We just turned up one spot short."

During the postrace inspection, NASCAR confiscated an unapproved shock absorber from Edwards's Ford for further evaluation. Officials said his second-place finish stands for now and any penalty will be announced this week.

Harvick, the pole-sitter, led 166 of 200 laps on the mile-long oval, including the last 29. But in the last 10 laps, Edwards cut into Harvick's lead, and it was down to a car length by the final lap. In Turn 4, Edwards dived low to try to pass on the inside, nearly bumping Harvick as 38,000 fans rose to their feet.

"On that last corner I drove it down there thinking that maybe I could rattle him a little bit and he'll slide up or something," Edwards said. "I just drove it down into the corner just to see what would happen, but I didn't plan on wrecking.

"If we could have had a caution with 10 [laps] to go, or maybe this was a 205-lap race, I think we could have got him, but we just ran out of time."

Harvick held his ground and held on for the win, by 0.284 seconds.

"I knew he was going to drive it into corners, just try to get up underneath us," Harvick said. "There's enough room there in the corner to drive up. I was ready for that to happen. I just wanted to keep my car in the bottom so I could get a good, straight shot off the corner."

The No. 21 AutoZone Chevrolet became the 21st winner in 21 Busch races at NHIS.

Edwards, who started second, was driving for Roush Fenway Racing -- and therefore a crowd favorite in these Red Sox-crazy parts -- and had dominated the Busch Series this year with four victories and a robust points lead.

But Edwards's dominance has come with help from Harvick, who is running a reduced schedule on the Busch Series this year, to concentrate on Nextel Cup events, after winning the points title in 2006.

Harvick, who hasn't finished outside the top 10 at NHIS since his first start here in 2001, had taken three Busch races off before yesterday -- though the victory still moved him to third in the standings.

"It's hard to watch the 60 car kind of dominating," Harvick said. "It looks like he doesn't have a whole lot of people to race against. It's kind of hard to watch, but for the Cup Series I think the focus is better to stay at the racetracks and concentrate on the Cup car."

Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

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