| | Associated Press
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Rookie Kevin Harvick survived a two-lap shootout to cap a dominating performance Friday night in the NASCAR Busch Series' Food City 250.
Harvick started on the pole and led 241 of the 250 laps around
Bristol Motor Speedway. The only time he wasn't in command was when
he gave up track position on a pit stop, but he passed Kyle Petty
nine laps later to retake the lead.
"All night long I could ride as hard as I wanted to," Harvick said. "We had an awesome race car. It was flawless. I had no problems at all and that made for a pretty fun race."
Harvick, who raced to his first career victory July 29 in Madison, Ill., appeared to be running away with the race until the eighth caution of the night on lap 245. Kevin LePage hit the rear bumper of Jeff Fuller's car, causing him to spin out and wreck three other cars.
NASCAR then decided to red-flag the race for just over seven minutes so the track could be cleaned in time to finish the race under green.
Jason Keller, who was running second at the time of the red
flag, left his car idling during the stop. When it was time to go
again, he stalled out.
Teammate Jeff Green tried to give Keller a push to get the car started, but Keller couldn't keep the engine on. He took a trip down pit road and NASCAR allowed him to move back into second place before the restart.
"Tears came to my eyes because I felt like I ran hard all night
and I had let it get away," Keller said. "I should have cut it
off, but I left it running and then I got it stuck between gears
and stalled out. Luckily my teammate helped me and NASCAR chose not
to penalize me."
But it made little difference because Harvick was quick off the
restart and wasted no time pulling away from Keller and Green.
Keller finished second, and Green was third.
Harvick beat Keller to the finish line by two car lengths.
It was a relief to Harvick, who thought a restart was the only
way anyone was going to catch him.
"Most races that I've seen at Bristol, when there's five laps
to go, all heck breaks loose," he said. "When they said red flag I
was a little worried because Jason's car was pretty good there at
the end. I thought if he got a good jump he could get me, but once
I got going it was all good."
Kenny Wallace finished fourth, followed by fellow Winston Cup regular Sterling Marlin and Jay Sauter.
The race was slowed eight times for 38 laps. Only 10 cars finished on the lead lap and five didn't finish at all -- typical for Bristol.
A high-banked, 0.533-mile, concrete bullring, drivers must have patience to finish the race because the high speeds and lack of room on the track lead to numerous wrecks.
It was clear the field was anxious from the get-go. Mike Dillon
spun out on lap eight, causing a six car pileup that brought out a
10-lap caution and knocked Kevin Grubb out of the race.
"They say you only have a 50 percent chance of finishing at
Bristol and I was on the wrong side of it," Grubb said. "I don't
know yet whether to love it or hate this track. I guess it's a
little of both."
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ALSO SEE
Busch Food City 250 results
Myrtle Beach cancels BGN race in 2001
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Kevin Harvick notches his second Busch Series victory.
avi: 1035 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Elton Sawyer gets tangled up on lap 244.
avi: 964 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Kevin Harvick talks about his duel with Jason Keller.
wav: 115 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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