A bump-and-run tactic allowed David Green to slip by Winston Cup regular Kevin Harvick and capture the NASCAR Busch series New England 200.
By Kalle Oakes
Sports Editor
LOUDON, N.H.

Take that, Buschwhackers!

David Green struck a decisive blow for the full-time drivers on the NASCAR Busch Series, using a bump-and-run move to drive around Kevin Harvick and holding off the Winston Cup star for the final 45 laps Saturday afternoon to win the New England 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

For Green, a Kentucky native who was himself a journeyman Winston Cup driver in the late 1990s, it was his second Busch victory of the season. Bidding for his second series championship and first since 1994, Green also leapfrogged Scott Riggs into the point lead.

“Having done this for a long time, I welcome the opportunity to race with those guys,” Green said. “My crew gave me great track position with a two-tire stop, and I knew I had to make a run on Harvick while I could.”

Harvick, who led 152 of the first 155 laps, said his Chevrolet didn’t handle well on restarts. Green, who vaulted from eighth to second thanks to his team’s handiwork on pit road after Ron Barfield’s crash on lap 146, pulled his Pontiac to the inside of the recently repaved and slightly widened third turn.

The cars touched briefly, with Harvick letting off the accelerator just long enough for Green to pull off the slide job.

“I thought he might try to get back up and return the favor,” said Green.

Driving a car owned by his Winston Cup boss, Richard Childress, the typically hard-nosed Harvick never really crept close enough to issue retribution. Green got the jump on the sixth and final restart on lap 166 and maintained an advantage that fluctuated from two to six car lengths until the checkered flag.

“My car was great all day. It was just really loose the first four or five laps after a restart and a little tight at the end, so we couldn’t do anything with David,” said Harvick, who led by more than six seconds during one early stretch of green-flag racing.

Winston Cup point leader Matt Kenseth characterized himself as “an undeserving third,” but the next nine finishers were Busch drivers. Brian Vickers and Scott Wimmer completed the top five, followed by defending race champion Bobby Hamilton Jr., Jason Keller, Ron Hornaday Jr., Kasey Kahne and Stacy Compton.

Dave Blaney, Jeff Burton and Joe Nemechek were not a factor in the finish, and Todd Bodine and Mike Wallace each sat out a Busch race for the first time all season.

NHIS has not been particularly kind to Winston Cup invaders in the primary support series’ races since the track opened in 1990. Tommy Ellis outpowered a field teeming with top-division drivers to win the 300-lap inaugural Busch event. Two years later, then-up-and-comer Nemechek got the better of legendary Dale Earnhardt in a paint-swapping drag race to the stripe.

Derrike Cope was the only active Winston Cup driver to win a Busch race at the relatively flat, 1.058-mile track, in 1994.

“That’s what this series needs,” said Hamilton, one of only five Busch regulars to win this season. “We don’t need those guys coming down and tearing it up every week.”

Hornaday, Keller and Riggs are the other drivers to break the spell of the Cup drivers, known not-so-affectionately as the “Buschwhackers” or “Ambuschers,” and drive into victory lane this season. Vickers logged his sixth top-five effort without a win.

“I did everything I could to get around Kenseth, but he blocked me. He’s a Winston Cup driver, and it shows,” said the 19-year-old Vickers. “That’s why I like those guys coming down to our series. You can learn from ’em.”

In addition to striking a blow for the junior circuit, Green’s victory continued an amazing streak. He is the 17th different driver to win a Busch race at NHIS without a repeater.

Harvick appeared untouchable in pursuit of his third win in eight Busch starts this year until Johnny Sauter stormed from 13th on a lap 84 restart to snag the lead on lap 143. Interestingly, Sauter shares driving duties of the No. 21 Chevy with Harvick but was with a competing team on Saturday.

Once he landed the top spot, Sauter elected to make what he anticipated would be his final pit stop for fuel and tires under green-flag conditions. Barfield crashed during Sauter’s visit, however, a break that left Sauter one lap down after the other leaders made their stops under the ensuing yellow.

Sauter regained his lap from Harvick when the race was slowed again for debris on the track, but motor problems set in. Sauter’s day ended in a plume of gray smoke on lap 177. Only 24 cars successfully completed the race, with 13 on the lead lap.

While pit strategy was the beginning of Sauter’s downfall, it changed the tone of the day for Green and Kenseth. Each followed Harvick’s lead in taking on two tires at lap 147. Green’s were scuffs, or tires that had been used for several laps during practice, as opposed to the sticker, or new, tires that sent him backwards during the middle stages of the race.

“The car didn’t like stickers. I was crying like a baby to the crew,” Green said. “Once we took those two scuffs, I thought we could get by Harvick. Then I just hoped we could hold him off.”

Kenseth also engaged in mirror-driving to protect his spot after entering the pits 12th and coming out third.

“Our car wasn’t good at all,” said Kenseth of his Ford. “That stop gave us track position, and we just held on as long as we could. I know everybody behind us was a lot better than we were.”

As evidenced by Sauter’s surge to the front and spurts of side-by-side racing, passing was easier early in the afternoon.

Green said that the new pavement in the corners at NHIS was a helpful change.

“We all had some mixed feelings about coming here,” said Green, who rejoined the Busch Series in 2000 and was at the track when Adam Petty was killed in a practice crash that May. “The asphalt enabled us to run two- or three-wide. That was nice.”

Beating two of the best in the business? Even nicer.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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