NASCAR BUSCH Harvick holds off his teammate for first victory of 2006 season

GLADEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick raced to his first NASCAR Busch Series victory of the year Saturday, taking the lead with 52 laps to go and holding off teammate Clint Bowyer after a late caution in the Pepsi 300.
Harvick finished 0.504 seconds ahead of Bowyer, his Richard Childress racing teammate, en route to his 18th career Busch Series victory. Harvick also took a 156-point lead over Denny Hamlin in the series standings and became the eighth Nextel Cup driver to win in the first eight races of the Busch Series season.
"Right now life is good," Harvick said. "But life can go bad in a hurry. The best thing to do is enjoy it while you can, then move on to the next race."
Hamlin, the pole-sitter, was third, followed by J.J. Yeley and Carl Edwards.
Nextel Cup edge
The top five are full-time competitors in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, and Nextel Cup drivers have won the first eight races of the season. Jon Wood finished sixth, the best showing by a Busch Series regular.
Harvick, racing on the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2001, relied heavily on crew chief Shane Wilson.
"The car needed to be loosened up and Shane has been here for a lot of races and knows what he's doing," Harvick said.
Harvick withstood a challenge from defending race champion Reed Sorenson in the waning laps.
"I was overdriving my car and he was beating me through the center of the corner in turns three and four," Harvick said. "I had to adjust my line a little bit."
Sorenson, who finished 19th, fell out of contention when he brushed the wall with six to go, setting up a final sprint to the finish between Harvick and Bowyer.