Nobody has been able to catch Kevin Harvick -- at Bristol or in the standings. Credit: Autostock

Busch Series chasing Harvick with 10 to go

Bristol a tough place for competitors to catch points leader

Let the Chase begin.

No, the Busch Series hasn't adopted the Nextel Cup's version of a 10-race playoff, but if it did, this week would kick things off. If it did, Kevin Harvick's 484-point lead would be dropped to five points. His series-leading five victories and the fact that he's finished worse than 10th just three times would mean nothing toward the championship other than momentum.

Sound familiar?

Shane Huffman will take over the No. 88 starting this weekend. Credit: Autostock

HUFFMAN HITS HALF-MILE Shane Huffman makes his debut in the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy Friday night at Bristol.  Huffman replaces Mark McFarland as the team's full-time driver and will finish the season behind the wheel.  Friday will be just his third career start in the Busch Series, but Huffman has experience with success.  Huffman has spent this season driving the JR Motorsports car in the Southern Division of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series. In the first 10 races, he scored four victories and seven top-fives.  "Bristol is a tough track, but I'm glad it'll be the site of my first race in the No. 88," Huffman said. "It's one of the few tracks we'll go to this year that I have experience on."  And he's decent there, too.  He won the first Pro Cup Series race there in 2004. And on Wednesday night, he finished fifth.  "That should help some with the learning curve I'm facing in the Busch Series," he said.

Consider: In the 2003 Cup season, Matt Kenseth put the title wagon on cruise control halfway through the season. And although he had just one victory all year, he finished 25 of 36 races in the top 10.

With 10 races to go, he had an insurmountable 418-point lead in the standings. The next year, NASCAR introduced the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"It's not easy by any means ..." Harvick said of his runaway season. "It's as hard as it's ever been and we've been fortunate this year to capitalize on cars that have been running good and put ourselves in position to win some races that we shouldn't have won, and win some of the races that we should have won as well."

What a Busch Series Chase couldn't take away from Harvick, however, is Bristol. And for him, that's good.

Harvick is to Bristol's Busch Series race like Jeff Gordon or Kurt Busch is to the short track's Cup event.

In 13 races at the high-banked half-mile, Harvick has four victories, nine top-fives and 10 top-10s. He's led 10 races there for 922 laps, more than three times anyone else who'll race in Friday night's Food City 250 (7:45 p.m. ET, TNT).

"Bristol is my favorite place to go," said Harvick, who has seven consecutive top-fives at the track. "We go there with high expectations but you never know what's going to happen."

Harvick led a race-high 86 laps in the 2001 spring race, but finished seventh behind race winner Matt Kenseth.

His only two DNFs there both came in 2002, when he wrecked late in the spring, then blew a motor in the fall.

In the 2003 fall race, he led a race-high 109 laps but wound up fifth behind winner Michael Waltrip.

He led 120 laps there in the snow-delayed March race, but when the checkered finally waved, Kyle Busch had slipped by.

Even Busch, who has three top-three finishes in four races at the bullring, said he didn't have the best car.

"We had a good car there in the spring," said Busch, who is eighth in the standings but 1,091 points back. "I think Kevin Harvick was a little bit better than we were."

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It's been a common theme this year, but there's still a Chase -- the chase to finish second behind Harvick in the points.

Bristol, however, can have a big say in that outcome.

"Bristol is one of those places that make a crew chief and fabricator just cringe," said Dave Rogers, crew chief for second-place driver Denny Hamlin. "The racing is so tight and aggressive that often you are involved in accidents that are not of your making."

There's 40 feet of racing surface around Bristol's concrete bowl, but it doesn't make passing easier.

"Is it a one-groove racetrack? For the most part, yes," said Matt Kenseth, who has won there twice and has three consecutive top-fives. "Is it impossible to pass without running into somebody? Absolutely not. You just have to be patient and get your car to turn a little better than the guy in front of you."

The key to turning better, says Busch's crew chief Chad Walter, is to have a driver who's willing to get up on the wheel. Weeklong preparation, he said, doesn't teach that.

"Every car is basically going the same speed at Bristol," he said. "So in order to beat all of those cars that are just as fast as you, you have to be able to get that something extra from your car. Basically, the driver has to be able to abuse the car when needed."

And Harvick knows how to do that, too. It's just more fun to abuse the car and run up front.

"Oh yes, I still have a lot of fun," he said. "Anytime you're running good and winning races it is fun."