Harvick holds off Burton to win rain-delayed race

It's his third victory in the past four races.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Points leader Kevin Harvick passed Paul Menard with 48 laps to go and held off a late challenge from Jeff Burton on Friday night to win the rain-delayed Busch Series race at Richmond International Raceway.
Harvick, who started the Circuit City 250 with a 299-point lead over Clint Bowyer, won for the third time in his last four races to push his Busch Series victory total to 20. Last week at Talladega, he finished second.
The race was delayed for 63 minutes at the start by rain, and then had delays of 22 and 44 minutes following red flags -- all before 35 laps had been completed.
But once the sky cleared, the dozen or more Nextel Cup regulars in the race asserted their dominance, as they have in sweeping all 11 races in the series this year. Early on, it was Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth running up front. Then Kasey Kahne took a turn, leading for 69 laps, and then Harvick and Burton ruled at the finish.
Close call at end
Harvick seemed home free after rebuffing a challenge by Kenseth, but Burton appeared on his back bumper with about 10 laps to go and did all he could to get around Harvick, his teammate with Richard Childress Racing. Burton several times appeared to pull ahead on the front stretch, but Harvick regained the lead in the first turn.
The victory wrapped up a big day for Harvick, who earlier announced that he'd signed a three-year deal to stay with Childress, his Cup car owner since 2001.
Burton finished second, giving Chevrolet the top two spots, followed by Kenseth and Greg Biffle in Fords, Newman in a Dodge, Carl Edwards in a Ford and Kyle Busch in a Chevy.
Kenseth made an out-of-sequence pit stop, falling to about 20th in the field, and then raced his way back up front on fresher tires.
He was fourth among drivers who stopped when the race came out of a caution with 59 laps to go, but quickly found out that Harvick's Chevrolet was more than his equal.
Sizable lead
Kenseth, Harvick, Burton and Edwards were behind Menard, who had stayed out during a caution that ended with 53 laps to go. While Kenseth tried to work his way around Menard, Harvick slipped by them both and quickly built a sizable lead.
He kept it the rest of the way, but held on for dear life at the end.
Kahne at one point seemed the man to beat, passing Menard for the lead on lap 93 and leading the next 69 laps, but he was struggling to stay in the top 10 when he rubbed against Greg Biffle's car on lap 193 and slammed in the wall in turn one.
The race wasn't a total defeat for Busch Series regulars who don't cross over to the premier series. Pole-sitter Jason Leffler led twice for 66 laps, the most laps led by a non-Cup driver this season in the series, but then crashed with 28 laps to go.
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