Saturday, November 3 Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas

Kevin Harvick won the O'Reilly Challenge.

Harvick Wins Race, Edwards Clinches Title
By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

FORT WORTH, TX (November 3, 2007) - Kevin Harvick won the battle. Carl Edwards won the war.

Harvick streaked across the finish line 3.486 seconds ahead of Kyle Busch to win Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Harvick won his series-best fourth race at Texas, his sixth of the season and the 32nd of his career, breaking a tie with Jack Ingram for second on the all-time Busch Series win list.

With a 531-point lead entering Saturday's race, Edwards accomplished what had become inevitable, his first series championship. With an 11th-place finish, he closed out second-place David Reutimann to give Roush Fenway Racing its first NASCAR title and Jack Roush his second championship in the Busch Series.

Edwards locked up the title by the time the race reached Lap 162. With Harvick a runaway winner last year, it marked the second straight season a full-time Nextel Cup driver has won the NASCAR Busch Series championship.

Edwards also will be the last in a line of 19 different Busch Series champions over 26 years, given that Nationwide assumes sponsorship of the series next year.

"It feels great," Edwards. "The first half of the year was so spectacular. We had luck on our side. It's just amazing. I've lived two completely different lives. I was here at Texas Motor Speedway in 2000 with Mike Mittler, working on his truck.

"So to be standing out there on pit road with the championship trophy is just amazing."

Harvick took the lead on Lap 166 when frontrunner Greg Biffle came to the pits with what he thought -- erroneously -- was a flat tire. From that point on, it was no contest.

Denny Hamlin ran third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth. Rookie Brad Keselowski finished sixth, followed by Tony Stewart, who had the race's dominant car until a mishap on Lap 111 slowed his Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet.

"Just to be up there with Jack Ingram and Mark Martin and all the guys who made the Busch Series what it is, that's pretty special," said Harvick, who is 15 wins behind Martin, the series leader.

During a green-flag run that lasted from Lap 27 to Lap 128, Stewart opened a lead that reached eight seconds over Harvick, who was running second. On Lap 111, however, at the end of the backstretch, the right front of Stewart's No. 18 Chevrolet clipped the rear of the lapped car of Kyle Krisiloff, punching a hole through the headlight decal on Stewart's car.

From that point until the yellow flag flew for debris in Turn 3 on Lap 128, Stewart's lead shrank at a rate of roughly three-tenths of a second per lap. Hamlin passed Harvick for second position on Lap 121 as the two drivers closed on the leader.

Stewart, who led 114 of the 200 laps, made an extra pit stop for repairs under the caution and restarted 13th on Lap 133. By then, there were only 15 cars on the lead lap.

Complete race results and point standings in the Event Stats section below...

[Click here] to read an interview with new champion Edwards...


Will I or won't I? could be the question in Carl Edwards mind as he awaits practice Friday for Saturday's O'Reilly Challenge. Edwards can clinch the series 2007 championship by finishing 36th or better in the race; he'll start third behind pole winner David Reutimann and outside pole sitter Tony Stewart. [starting lineup here]

Schedule/Broadcast Times*

Practice: Friday, November 2 (SPEED at 1 p.m./AT)

Qualifying: Friday, November 2 (SPEED at 7:30 p.m/AT)

Pre-Race Show: Saturday, November 3 (ESPN2 & TSN-HD at 4 p.m./AT)

Race: Saturday, November 3 (ESPN2 & TSN-HD at 4:30 p.m./AT)

*AT is one hour ahead of ET, i.e. if it's 2 p.m./AT - it's 1 p.m./ET...

Event Stats PDF files unless otherwise noted

Entry List

Starting Lineup

Race Results

Point Standings

Green Flag Fast Facts
The Race: O’Reilly Challenge
The Place: Texas Motor Speedway
Track Layout: 1.5-mile oval
Race Purse: $1,244,106
2006 Winner: Kevin Harvick
2006 Pole: Mark Martin
Pre-Race Schedule (local track time): Friday–Practice, 9-10:00 a.m.; Rookie Practice, 10:10-10:40 a.m.; Final Practice, 10:55-11:55 a.m.; Qualifying, 5:35 p.m. (impound).
Year-To-Date Standings: click here

Track Map



Green Flag Notes

• Following the race at Gateway International Raceway last July, Carl Edwards (No. 60 Dish Network Ford) had an 852-point lead over second-place David Reutimann (No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota) in the NASCAR Busch Series standings.
  
  He commented at the time that no lead was too large because no lead is ever safe.
  
  Many eyes rolled over that remark. Now, with three races left in the season, Edwards’ statement doesn’t seem so far-fetched. His lead over Reutimann is still stout at 531 points, but his luck lately has been anything but.
  
  Three weeks ago in Charlotte, he was seemingly en route to clinching the title when he was caught up in an incident on Lap 133, ending that opportunity. Last Saturday at Memphis he was forced to start from the rear of the field following a driver change upon his arrival from Atlanta and his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series duties after substitute driver Matt McCall qualified the No. 60 Ford.
  
  There, he was involved in two incidents that looked to knock him out of a clinch chance. He rallied, but a spin with less than 10 laps left relegated him to 25th –- the seventh finish of 25th or worse in his last 10 races.
  
  To clinch, he needs to leave Texas with a 390-point lead over Reutimann. If he finishes 36th or better, 37th and leads at least one lap, or 39th and leads the most laps, he will become the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series champion – finally.
  
  His luck could very well change at Texas, where he finished third last spring. In five races there, he has three top-five and four top-10 finishes. He also won the fall race last year in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series competition.
• Dario Franchitti will be joined at Texas by his former IndyCar rival Sam Hornish Jr. (No. 12 Kodak Dodge), giving the O’Reilly Challenge a field consisting of the last two Indianpolis 500 champions. Hornish, though, has the leg up on Franchitti as far as his body of work at Texas. Both will be making their stock-car debuts at the track, but Hornish won the IndyCar event at the track last June; Franchitti finished fourth.
• Labonte, Richardson Look To Home Track: Bobby Labonte (No. 77 Dollar General Chevrolet), the 1991 NASCAR Busch Series champion and Corpus Christi, Texas native, returns to his home track seeking his first series win there. Labonte has 195 starts in his series career to go along with his championship. At the other end of the spectrum is rookie driver Robert Richardson (No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet), who is from McKinney, Texas. He hopes to make his track debut at TMS Saturday; he’ll have to qualify on time to do so. Richardson, 25, has started 14 races for Jay Robinson Racing and is one of eight drivers competing for Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors. His best career finish is 19th last April at Talladega Superspeedway. Richardson attempted to make the spring race at Texas driving for his family-owned team but did not qualify.
• Painting The Town: Shawn Parker, crew chief for the No. 37 Kickbutt Amped Energy Ballz Ford of Casey Atwood and Mark Rette, car chief for the No. 41 Dodge team, are making plans for a paintball competition between their two teams. Parker and Rette previously worked together in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series garage and had talked about such a challenge. The event is scheduled for Thurs., Nov. 1 from 7-11:00 p.m. at the Gatsplat Indoor Paintball Field in Lewisville, Texas (www.gatsplat.com). Up to 15 Brewco members and 20-plus Ganassi members will participate. Drivers for each organization are also expected to attend to cheer on their crews. Media are welcome to attend and participate. For further information, contact Dennis Punch, Brewco Motorsports PR at 704-530-4754.
• Ambrose Seeks Consistency: With his first career series pole and his best finish to date (fourth) last week at Memphis, Marcos Ambrose (No. 59 Kingsford Ford) got a needed boost. The result was the Australian’s first top-five finish of the year and his first top-10 since placing seventh in Montreal. His only other oval top-10 finish was sixth at Dover International Speedway in June. The finish was also welcomed heading into another intermediate track where he’s struggled, especially recently. He posted DNFs at both Kansas Speedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway and has an overall average finish of 26.8. He was 31st at Texas last spring.
• Of Note – Texas: Jason Leffler (No. 38 Great Clips Toyota) won his first NASCAR Busch Series pole at Texas in 2000. … Two former winners are entered at Texas – Kevin Harvick (2001, ’05, ’06) and Matt Kenseth (2004, ’07). Kenseth owns the most top fives (five), top 10s (10) and most starts (12) in series competition at the track. … Harvick’s next win will be the 32nd of his series career and will vault him into second place on the all-time list. He’s currently tied with Jack Ingram with 31 victories. The two-time and reigning series champion averages a win every six starts – it has been seven starts since his last victory (Watkins Glen). He did not compete at Memphis.

IMPORTANT: All information, schedules and/or scheduled events is/are subject to change without notice. Please check with the source to confirm.