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Harvick Cruises To Victory At Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen, N. Y. ? Kevin Harvick cruised to victory at Watkins Glen International, winning the Zippo 200 Busch Series event with relative ease. For the reigning Busch Series champion, he scored a victory for the second week in a row on a road course.

The California native claimed his fifth victory in 2007 and won for the 31st time in his illustrious Busch Series career. His win tied him with Jack Ingram for second on the all-time series winners list.

?When the green flag dropped, the car was ready to go and I learned quickly what a good car I had,? Harvick said in victory lane. ?We took last week?s car and rebuilt it. From the first lap of practice, we realized how good it was. We had a plan and stuck with it, and it made for a great day.?

The winner drove the Auto Zone Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing.

Second place went to Jeff Burton, who battled back from an incident with a lapped car to gain the runner-up position. ?We had a good day,? Burton said. ?I lost a lot of time racing with a lapped car, but we had a good strategy.?

He, too, drove a Childress entry — the Holiday Inn Chevrolet.

Fast qualifier Kurt Busch led 20 laps and overcame a brake problem to finish in third place. In the late going, Busch?s brake problems were clearly evident and he lost second place to Burton toward the end. ?We got behind with our pit strategy,? Busch said. ?As a result, I had to over work the brakes, and we got beat.?

Paul Menard came from the eighth starting position to finish a strong fourth place.

Rookie Brad Coleman advanced from 12th to fifth place, to become the highest finishing rookie. ?I have never driven here but with video games, I have raced on the course dozens of times,? Coleman said. ?We worked really hard for this race, and I am really thrilled with our finish.?

Matt Kenseth ended up in sixth ahead of Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman and rookie Andy Lally.

Five caution flags slowed the race for 11 laps. No major incidents occurred but Scott Pruett and Ron Fellows tangled on the last lap with both cars ending up off the course.

Juan Pablo Montoya ran in the top five for much of the race before exiting the race after being rear-ended in the late going.

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