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BUSCH SERIES Green holds off Harvick to retake series lead

Tuesday, July 22, 2003


The 1994 series champion now has a 36-point lead in the standings.
LOUDON, N.H. (AP) -- David Green held off a hard-charge from Kevin Harvick to win at New Hampshire International Speedway on Saturday and retake the lead in the Busch Series standings.
Harvick, who started from the pole, led 152 of the 200 laps of the New England 200 and looked unbeatable. But a caution for debris on the track bunched up the field and gave Green a chance to pass him.
He did, pushing his Pontiac past Harvick's Chevrolet with 45 laps to go. Harvick then tried several times to pass Green, but never could, and Green raced off to his second win of the year and seventh of his career.
Green became the 17th different winner in 17 Busch Series events at New Hampshire.
"He raced me clean and I thought he was going to rattle my cage," Green said. "But I've been doing this a long time and I was looking forward to racing him. He was clean."
Point standings
Green, who led the Busch standings for four weeks earlier this season, came into the race trailing Scott Riggs by 23 points.
But Riggs finished 14th, and Green jumped him in the standings. The 1994 Busch Series champion now has a 36-point lead over Riggs in the standings.
Harvick finished second and fellow Winston Cup regular Matt Kenseth -- the series points leader -- was third.
Extra edge
By competing in the Busch race, the two got a little extra edge on the competition before today's Winston Cup race. The track surface has been under question since it seemed to separate in the July race here last season, but the track has been repaved and few know what to expect in the Cup race.
"There wasn't a bunch of sealer peeling up, so that's good," Harvick said. "And there's a couple of grooves out there, so it seems OK right now. But we'll wait and see."
Brian Vickers finished fourth and was followed by Scott Wimmer and Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Hamilton caused a wreck earlier in the race when he made contact with Mike Bliss, who was not very pleased with the young driver afterward.
"He's got a 10-foot ego, a 4-foot body, and it ain't working too good right now," Bliss said.
Jason Keller, Ron Hornaday, Kasey Kahne and Stacy Compton rounded out the top 10.