Harvick wins on day Montoya makes debut

On a day when most of the focus was on Formula One champion Juan Pablo Montoya’s 11th-place finish in his NASCAR debut, Kevin Harvick kept it business as usual by racing to his eighth Busch Series win of the year Saturday in a caution-filled Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tenn.

Harvick has won three times in the last five starts and has 15 consecutive top-10 finishes. He also became the first multi-time winner in the event after winning the inaugural Memphis race in 2000.

He clinched his second Busch Series title two weeks ago at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. This victory gave Richard Childress his third owner’s title in the series.

“We were here for one purpose. It was checkers or wreckers,” said Harvick, who started from the rear of the 43-car field because he participated in final practice for today’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Atlanta and did not take part in morning qualifying at Millington.

Still, Harvick was in the top five before the first pit stop and took the lead with 90 laps to go. He appeared to dominate until a restart with 14 laps to go, when Carl Edwards got inside on the first turn on the short oval.

Said Montoya about the race, “It was pretty wild, to be honest. I learned today you have to pace yourself.”

Polesitter Johnny Sauter finished fourth, followed by Shane Huffman, Denny Hamlin and Reed Sorensen.

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Mike Bliss grabbed the lead on a restart 10 laps from the end at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., and held off Terry Cook for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory in four years.

Bliss caught the lead pack and moved up to second place behind rookie Erik Darnell before a fire in rookie Arik Almirola’s truck brought out the last of seven caution flags with 15 laps to go in the EasyCare Vehicle Services Contract 200.

The winner’s Chevrolet Silverado quickly moved into the lead on the restart and began to pull away. But Cook, in a Ford F-150, also drove past Darnell to take second on Lap 124 and quickly began to close in on Bliss.

Cook was just over a truck length behind the leader at the start of the final lap, but that was as close as he could come. Bliss won by about two lengths.

Darnell finished third, followed by David Reutimann, Rick Crawford and David Ragan.

The two drivers battling for the series championship each had a bad day. Leader Todd Bodine finished 25th and Johnny Benson was 29th, giving Bodine an 86-point lead with three races remaining.

Champ Car star A.J. Allmendinger, moving to NASCAR’s Nextel Cup series next season, ran his third truck race and started alongside pole-winner Mike Skinner. Allmendinger was leading early in the race when Joe Nemechek hit him from behind and sent him spinning hard into the wall. Allmendinger wound up 34th.

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IndyCar star Sam Hornish Jr. is the latest open-wheel driver ready to give NASCAR a try.

Hornish, a three-time IRL champion and this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, said he will try to qualify a Penske Racing South Dodge for the Busch Series races in November at Phoenix and Homestead, Fla.

Hornish said the Busch races this year are an experiment and added he remains committed to the IRL’s IndyCar Series next season, but plans to mix “a couple” of Busch races into the schedule.