Bowyer Finds Way to a Busch Victory

Clint Bowyer found a way to maneuver his way around the spinning and smoking cars that littered Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Bowyer won a green-white-checkered flag finale Saturday for his first NASCAR Busch Series victory of the year after four runner-up finishes.

“It means a lot to win the race, not by dominating, but battling it out against the best in the world,” said Bowyer, a three-time career winner on the Busch Series.

Almost from the start, the Dover 200 was a mess, with no more than a handful of laps ever being completed before the caution came out after another accident. There were a track-record 13 cautions for 46 laps.

Matt Kenseth finished second and series leader Kevin Harvick was third. Harvick, who has dominated the series, has the season title nearly wrapped up.

Harvick, who started 24th, could make it a championship double-double. With his win last week at New Hampshire, he has the early lead in the Chase and qualified 25th for today’s Nextel Cup race. Even with so much at stake in the Cup races, Harvick has no plans to ease off the remaining Busch schedule.

“The plan’s been going pretty good as we go through the year,” he said. “We’ve got through everything as planned.”

Harvick has a 659-point lead over Carl Edwards with six races remaining.

After a final caution flag with two laps to go, Bowyer took control at the restart and pulled away, leaving Harvick and Kenseth in a fight for second place. Bowyer finished 0.547 seconds ahead of Kenseth.

With cars seemingly spending as much time in the garage as they did on the track, Bowyer finally caught Kenseth with just over 20 laps from the scheduled finish for his first Busch win since October at Memphis, Tenn.

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Mike Skinner raced to his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the year, passing Ted Musgrave with 20 laps to go and holding on to take the Smith’s Las Vegas 350.

Skinner, who started from the pole for the sixth time this year, led 114 laps in the 146-lap, 219-mile race on the reconfigured Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The victory was his first since Sept. 8, 2005, in Richmond.

Musgrave finished second, about three truck-lengths behind. Mike Bliss was third, followed by Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday.

Series leader Todd Bodine was 12th. He has a 91-point lead over Benson with six races left.