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Harvick Wins Busch Race; Edwards Takes Title

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The Associated Press

Published: November 4, 2007

FORT WORTH, Texas - Kevin Harvick won another race, and runaway points leader Carl Edwards finally wrapped up his first NASCAR Busch Series championship Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.

Edwards, who built a lead of more than 800 points in the first half of the season, stumbled through the second half before putting away the title with an 11th-place run in the O'Reilly Challenge. He leads runner-up David Reutimann by an insurmountable 552 points with two races to go.

"It's really amazing to be a Busch Series champion," said Edwards, who has won four times season. "I can't tell you how exciting that is and what it means to me."

Team owner Jack Roush was relieved that Edwards got it done Saturday.

"We were a better race team than we looked like at the end, with crashes and parts and things breaking," he said. "Those guys definitely deserve that championship, and I'm happy for them."

Edwards, a Nextel Cup regular who has done double duty all season, finished third in the Busch Series as a rookie in 2005 and was runner-up to fellow Cup star Harvick last year.

For Harvick, running a limited Busch schedule this season after his runaway title in 2006, it was business as usual as he won for a series-high sixth time in 24 starts in 2007. It was his 32nd career victory, moving past Jack Ingram into second place behind Mark Martin, who has 47 wins.

"Just to be up there with Jack Ingram and Mark Martin and all they guys who made this series, that's pretty special," said Harvick, who has won five of the last seven Busch races and has won a record four times at Texas, breaking a tie with Martin.

He beat Kyle Busch to the finish line by 3.486 seconds - most of the front straightaway on the 1.5-mile oval. Denny Hamlin finished third, followed by Clint Bowyer and Matt Kenseth. Sixth-place Brad Keselowki was the highest finishing Busch Series regular.

Tony Stewart, who started alongside pole winner Reutimann in the front row, had the dominant car most of the day, leading 114 of the first 129 laps. But a collision put a hole in the right front of his car, and he finished seventh after pitting for repairs on lap 130 and falling to 16th.

Greg Biffle then passed Hamlin for the lead on lap 140 and appeared on the way to his first Busch victory of the season until he pitted with what he thought was a deflating front tire on lap 166. It turned out the tire was fine, but Biffle fell a lap off the pace and finished 16th.

That left Harvick in the lead, and Busch couldn't catch up.

"He just got out into that clean air after the last restart and that was it, he was gone," Busch said.

Reutimann, a Zephyrhills native, finished 18th.

NHRA: At Pomona, Calif., four-time series champion Tony Schumacher raced to the No. 1 position in his last qualifying attempt Saturday in the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.

In Funny Car, points leader Tony Pedregon barely made the field in the 16th and final spot, holding on to all but secure his second world title.

The Pro Stock categories - led by Dave Connolly and Andrew Hines - are still undecided but could be wrapped up by the semifinals if the leaders maintain their edge.

FORMULA ONE: Fernando Alonso reportedly has been offered a return to Renault, the Formula One team where he won the 2005 and '06 world championships.

"I have presented a project for the future to Fernando," Renault boss Flavio Briatore was quoted as saying on the Web site of Gazzetta dello Sport. "If his desires coincide with ours, it can happen."

Alonso quit McLaren on Friday after one season following clashes with boss Ron Dennis and teammate Lewis Hamilton.

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