LOUDON, N.H. — Kevin Harvick led 166 of the 200 laps in Saturday's Camping World 200 presented by RVs.com at New Hampshire Int’l Speedway, but he needed to get his elbows up to hold off Carl Edwards over the closing laps.
Driving car No. 21, Harvick became the 21st-different winner in 21 NASCAR Busch Series races at NHIS.
The top two reversed their finish from this event one year ago, when Edwards defeated Harvick. It marked the first time since 2000 that a Busch Series race at NHIS had been won from the pole and only the fourth time in the last 17 years that the leader of the most laps reached victory lane.
Harvick scored his 28th-career Busch Series win and his second of 2007 driving the Richard Childress Racing AutoZone Chevrolet. Edwards reached the stripe .284 second — about two car lengths — behind after giving Harvick a tap to announce his intentions on the final lap.
“I knew he was going to drive it into the corner and just try to get up underneath us enough to drive up off the corner,” Harvick declared. “I was ready for that to happen, hopefully. I just wanted to keep my car on the bottom so I could get off the corner good and get the straight shot.
“I knew my car was tight, so I slowed down a little bit extra and made sure that when I got back on the throttle I got up off the corner nice and straight and didn't have to lift once I got to the wall,” Harvick continued.
Edwards extended his Busch Series lead to a monumental 809 points, meaning he could skip the next four races even if runner-up David Reutimann won all four and still enjoy at lead of a least 49 points on his return.
Matt Kenseth chose two tires at the final round of caution-flag pit stops to take the lap-170 green flag in the lead, but Harvick's full set of new skins put him back in front within two green flag laps.
Kenseth held on for third, with Tony Stewart fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth.
Hamlin, who led a block of 21 laps just before the halfway mark, was the only driver to show Harvick his rear bumper for a significant green-flag run.
Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Reutimann, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears completed a top-10 sweep for active Nextel Cup drivers.
Scott Wimmer in 11th was the highest-finishing driver without a current Cup Series ride, and Steve Wallace in 15th the best of those without substantial time in the senior circuit.
The race got off to a ragged start with three cautions and a five-minute red flag for cleanup within the first 50 laps, but thereafter things smoothed out. The final slowdown came at lap 166 when Juan Pablo Montoya crashed in turn two with an assist from Bowyer. All the lead-lap cars pitted, with Kenseth taking the lead, but only until Harvick got up a head of steam.
Harvick began the day by capturing the Busch Pole Award at a non-record 129.335 miles per hour for the impound race.