Two drivers are winners

Kevin Harvick won the race while Carl Edwards won his first series title.

SPORTING NEWS NASCAR WIRE SERVICE

FORT WORTH, Texas — 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.

Though ESPN and NASCAR statistics disagreed on when it happened officially, Edwards had 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 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.