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closeHarvick holds off Edwards for the Busch Series win
Runner-up finish in doubt after failing inspection
JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
Saturday, Jun. 30, 2007
LOUDON, N.H. – Not even some clever pit strategy could slow Kevin Harvick.
Matt Kenseth used a two-tire pit stop late in the race, but it took Harvick just a lap to take back the lead and he held off fast-charging Carl Edwards by 0.284 seconds to win Saturday’s Camping World 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Following the race, NASCAR officials found Edwards’ car to have an unapproved right-rear shock. For now his result remains. No penalties will be announced until next week.
Harvick dominated the race, starting from the pole and led all but 29 of the 200 laps. It’s his second NASCAR Busch Series win of the season, 28th of his career and first at New Hampshire.
On the last lap, Edwards back off some to get one final run on Harvick. Edwards closed to Harvick’s rear bumper in Turn 3 and tried to slip under him, but Harvick had just enough to hold him off.
“It seems like old times – beat (Edwards) and win the race,” said Harvick, who beat Edwards for his second Busch championship last season. “The last run we got tight. I made the call not to tighten it up and it almost cost us the race.
“I could see (Edwards) coming. We kind of geared up for the short run. We got a little too tight there at the end but we were able to hold on with what we had.”
The finish was eerily similar to this race a year ago but the roles reversed as Edwards held off Harvick for the victory.
“If we had a caution with 10 to go or if this was a 205-lap race we could have got him,” Edwards said of Saturday’s finish. “He would get slower and slower as we got closer and closer.
“That last corner I just dove down in there and thought I could rattle him just a little bit. That’s all I had. We just ran out of time.”
Kenseth’s pit gamble came during the final caution of the race, which was started on Lap 166 when Clint Bowyer hit Juan Pablo Montoya in Turn 4, sending Montoya into the wall.
“I just got hit by Clint, I think, and spun,” Montoya said.
After Kenseth took two tires, he moved into the lead on the restart on Lap 172, with Harvick right behind him. Harvick needed just over a lap to work his way back out front.
Kenseth finished third. Tony Stewart, driving a car owned by Harvick, finished fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth. Edwards holds a commanding 809-point lead over David Reutimann in the series standings.