Harvick holds off Edwards for win

Kevin Harvick held off a late challenge by Carl Edwards to grab his second NASCAR Busch Series victory of the season Saturday at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

The two-time Busch champion, who had not won since the opening weekend of the season when he swept the Busch and Nextel Cup races at Daytona, picked up his 28th Busch Series victory.

Juan Pablo Montoya was running in fifth place when he and Clint Bowyer collided on Lap 165 of 200 on the 1.058-mile oval, bringing out the last of six yellow flags in the race.

Matt Kenseth, who finished third, took the lead with a two-tire stop during the ensuing caution period. Harvick, who led for 166 laps in a Chevrolet, was second when the race restarted for the last time on Lap 172.

But Harvick easily drove into the lead halfway through that lap and stayed out front the rest of the way. Edwards, who has four wins this season and is the runaway points leader, also got past Kenseth on lap 181 and went after the leader.

Edwards got his Ford right up to Harvick’s rear bumper with two laps to go. He made one final try to duck under the leader on the final lap, but Harvick held him off by 0.284 of a second -- about two car lengths.

During the post-race inspection, NASCAR confiscated an unapproved shock absorber from Edwards’ car for further evaluation. Officials said his second-place finish stands for now and any penalty will be announced next week.

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Travis Kvapil finally passed a spinning Brad Keselowski with nine laps to go and pulled away on the restart to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly 200 at Memphis, Tenn.

Kvapil had stalked Keselowski for more than a half dozen laps in his Ford before taking the lead on Lap 192 when he bumped Keselowski.

The contact coming out of Turn 4 sent Keselowski’s Toyota spinning toward the infield, and Kvapil swept by to take the lead.

Kvapil’s said after the race he didn’t intend to wreck Keselowski for the win.

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Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson will both have a new voice in their ear during today’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

The Hendrick Motorsports teammates are beginning a six-race stint without crew chiefs Steve Letarte (Gordon) and Chad Knaus (Johnson).

Both were suspended for six weeks and fined $100,000 in the aftermath of their cars failing inspection last week at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

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Pole-sitter Dario Franchitti led all but nine laps and held off Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon with the help of a late caution to win the Indy Racing League Indy Challenge at Richmond, Va.

Franchitti, whose position in the standings got him the top starting spot when Friday night’s qualifying was rained out, gave up the lead only twice, and even then it was during pit stops under caution.

His victory was secured when a late caution allowed him to conserve fuel, and he pulled away with ease on a restart with six laps to go.

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Felipe Massa of Ferrari edged Lewis Hamilton to win the pole position for today’s Formula One French Grand Prix at Magny Cours.

Massa was timed in 1 minute 15.034 seconds on the 2.74-mile circuit for his fourth pole of the season. Hamilton was second for McLaren-Mercedes in 1:15.104, just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari in 1:15.257.

Two-time defending world champion Fernando Alonso was 10th in his McLaren. On his first lap in the third session, he had a problem with his car and went straight to the pits.

If Alonso changes his engine, he could be penalized to the back of the grid.

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The PKV Racing crew instructed Tristan Gommendy to remain in pit lane throughout the rain-marred qualifying session for today’s Champ Car World Series race at Mont-Tremblant, Canada.

Gommendy looked on as the provisional pole he won on Friday’s stood up.

Will Power jumped ahead of current points leader Sebastien Bourdais to take the second spot on the front row with the fastest lap Saturday at 1:20.943 seconds. That was well off Gomendy’s pole-winning time of 1:16.776.

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Rip Michels took the lead after leader Scott Dodd was penalized for a bumping incident and went on to win the ACDelco Super Late Model division 50-lap feature race at Irwindale Speedway.

It was his seventh consecutive victory.