NNS: Harvick Marches Through Atlanta Field

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NNS: Harvick Marches Through Atlanta Field

Kevin Harvick was dominant in his own car to win the Degree V12 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway...

Tom Jensen | Posted September 05, 2009 Hampton, GA

Kevin Harvick celebrates in victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway after winning the Degree V12 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

Kevin Harvick crosses the finish line as the winner of the Degree V12 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

Kevin Harvick didn’t merely win the Degree V12 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday night, he kicked the living stuffing out of the field in the process.

Harvick utterly dominated the proceedings under the lights at AMS driving his own Chevrolet out of the Kevin Harvick Inc. stables. The two-time series champion won his second race of the season and the 34th of his NNS career with a car that was demonstrably better than anything else in the field.

Degree V12 300 Results - Atlanta Motor Speedway

Finishing second to Harvick was the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Kyle Busch, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports Chevy, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Burton. Harvick led 131 of 195 laps, utterly trashing the competition.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. started on the pole in his JR Motorsports Chevrolet, flanked by Harvick’s KHI entry. Earnhardt led the opening five laps, but it wasn’t long until Harvick went out front, with points leader Kyle Busch’s all-conquering Toyota taking second.

Harvick quickly opened up a huge lead, sometimes half a second faster than the rest of the field. By Lap 20, Harvick’s Chevrolet was 1.306 seconds up on Busch and 5.465 seconds on third place Kasey Kahne.

On Lap 26, Brendan Gaughan pancaked the wall in Turn 4 in his Rusty Wallace-owned entry. That brought out the night’s first caution and sent the leaders down pit road. By this time, just 29 of 43 cars in the race were still on the lead lap.

Busch won the race off pit road over Harvick, Joey Logano and Carl Edwards.

Jeremy Clemens caused the second caution on Lap 39 when he lost an engine in his Chevy. On the Lap 46 restart, Harvick bolted to the lead on the bottom of the track, but Busch went around him on the high side as the two began a furious duel for the lead, trading the point several times before Harvick again asserted himself.

Harvick pitted under green on Lap 86 and when the leaders cycled through the round of stops, Harvick led Busch by 3.335 seconds on Lap 93.

At Lap 100, the order was Harvick, Busch and then Earnhardt, who was 17.540 seconds back in third. Then came Brad Keselowski, Logano, David Gilliland, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Brian Vickers. All told, Harvick led 68 of the first 100 laps.

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Tom Jensen

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