Kevin Harvick holds off Bowyer to win at Martinsville
Kevin Harvick continues to be the class of the Busch Series with another win. He took the checkered flag just ahead of the hard charging the Clint Bowyer in the #2 AC-Delco Chevy owned by Richard Childress Racing. The smae Richard Childress that owns the #21 Coast Guard sponsored Chevy driven by Kevin Harvick.
The race wasn’t exactly exciting, unless you count the record setting number of cautions (19) at Martinsville Speedway for a Busch Series race. J.J. Yeley tallied several of the wrecks when for some reason he felt it necessary to drive through the cars in front of him, since passing was at a premium at the very narrow Martinsville track.
Steve Wallace was Yeley’s very first victim very early in the race and he never recovered barely finishing the race, he only completed 171 of the scheduled 250 laps. Since the Busch Series hasn’t been to Martinsville in 12 years most of the non Cup drivers haven’t even been on the track before this weekend. That pretty much left Steve Wallace and the other non Cup drivers at the mercy of the Buschwackers that have driven on the track in Nextel Cup Series.
This is Kevin Harvicks fourth win of the season and he extends his points lead over second place Carl Edwards to 348 points and 402 points over Clint Bowyer who is third in points. The nearest non Cup Series regular is Paul Menard (DEI owned #11) in 7th, 771 points behind leader Kevin Harvick. I fully expect Paul Menard to be moved up to the Cup Series next season and drive the #15 car, which has been sitting mostly idle except for a couple od races driven my Menard.
I have read rumors that DEI (Teresa Earnhardt) is looking to add a fourth Cup team and was also rumored to have been talking to MB2 racing to use some space in their shop, I guess because DEI’s famed Garage Mahal doesn’t have enough space for a fourth complete team. So I will just have to follow the developments of the fourth DEI team.
Top 10 finishers
| 1. | Kevin Harvick | Chevy |
| 2. | Clint Bowyer | Chevy |
| 3. | Denny Hamlin | Chevy |
| 4. | Reed Sorenson | Dodge |
| 5. | Johnny Sauter | Chevy |
| 6. | Carl Edwards | Ford |
| 7. | John Andretti | Ford |
| 8. | Jason Leffler | Chevy |
| 9. | J.J. Yeley | Chevy |
| 10. | Jay Sauter |
Chevy |
Other notable finishers
12. Paul Menard Chevy
DEI beter get the three teams they have working before they add a fourth.
Comment by DonB — July 24, 2006 @ 12:01 pm