Harvick dominant at Atlanta
By Sports Network
The Sports Network
Kevin Harvick put on a dominating performance but had to pass Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead with two laps remaining to win Saturday's Degree V12 300 Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Harvick and Kyle Busch made their final stops for gas and tires with less than 15 laps remaining, but Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards opted to go the distance without pitting for fuel. Busch also passed Earnhardt Jr. in the final laps before finishing a little more than a second behind Harvick.
"Kyle was a little bit better on the short runs, but after eight or ten laps, this thing was just flat-out awesome," said Harvick, who led 131 of 195 laps. "We cut it a little bit closer than I would have liked to at the end."
Harvick recorded his second win of the season and the 34th of his Nationwide career. His win in March at Bristol marked the first time he won in the car he and his wife, DeLana, own.
In March 2001, Harvick scored his first Cup Series victory at Atlanta, three races after he replaced the late-Dale Earnhardt in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
With his second-place finish, Busch slightly extended his lead to 221 points over Edwards.
"Harvick was gone," Busch said. "What a non-race that was, but hopefully it was a show there at the end."
Earnhardt Jr., the pole sitter, had just enough fuel to cross the finish line third.
"We just tried to save what we could, and we knew we could probably make it, so we just didn't pit trying to take a chance," Earnhardt Jr. said.
Earnhardt Jr.'s protege, Brad Keselowski, finished fourth, and Jeff Burton came in fifth.
Only the top-five drivers finished on the lead lap.
Joey Logano was sixth, followed by Edwards, Greg Biffle, David Ragan and Reed Sorenson. Edwards drove with a broken right foot he sustained while playing Frisbee earlier this week.
"That's a sore right foot if you don't push the pedal very hard, so that's good for fuel mileage," said Edwards, whose fuel also held up at the end. "Seventh is not what we came here to do, but considering everything, that was a pretty good run."
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