Harvick pulls out third win

RICHMOND, Va. -- Kevin Harvick passed Brad Keselowski for the lead with just over 50 laps to go Friday night and won the Richmond 250 for his third Nationwide Series victory of the season and 37th overall.

Keselowski fell just short in an otherwise remarkable performance.

The series points leader went two laps down after a pit road problem before the midpoint of the 250-lap event at Richmond International Raceway. But Keselowski was back up to third when a caution flag came out with 46 laps to go. He was still third after the leaders all pitted.

"We just weren't good enough to beat Kevin legit tonight," said Keselowski, who spent the last 10 laps within a few car lengths of the leader.

Keselowski said he saved his tires for one final late push but was still pleased.

"To come back and get to the front and have a chance for the win, that's the sign of a strong team," he said after padding his lead over Carl Edwards to 373 points with eight races left in the season.

Trevor Bayne finished third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson.

In the third race of the season run with what will be the new series cars next season, Harvick led the first 109 laps and then retook the lead with just over 50 to go.

A caution shortly thereafter sent all the leaders to pit road, and while it took Harvick a few laps to get by cars that had stayed out, the stop was a disaster for Kyle Busch.

Seeking a record 11th win of the season, Busch seemed in position to make a late challenge. But after leaving pit road, he had to return, apparently because a nozzle broke off the fuel can and was still in the car as he drove away. The return trip to his pit dropped him from third in the field to 20th, and he wound up ninth.

Harvick led 170 of the 250 laps and won for the fifth time in his career at Richmond, tying Mark Martin for the series lead on the 0.75-mile oval.

■ FORMULA ONE -- At Monza, Italy, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time in practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver had the fastest lap of 1 minute, 22.839 seconds around the Monza circuit to deny local favorite Fernando Alonso the best time. The Ferrari driver was less than one-tenth of a second off the pace.

■ DESERT RACING -- The Bureau of Land Management ordered the SCORE Desert Racing series to disqualify Rob MacCachren from today's race in Primm because BLM personnel saw him driving his Trophy Truck on Wednesday on part of the course that runs from Primm to Jean east of Interstate 15.

"I've been going out there since 1982 to shake down my race cars," MacCachren said. "I wasn't trying to hide anything. We've never been told we can't go out there."

MacCachren, an eight-time SCORE series champion from Las Vegas, is sixth in points with one race left after today's SCORE Primm Terrible's 300, which begins at 6 a.m.