The victory was Harvick's series-leading eighth of the season and 25th of his Busch career.

"That was good short-track racing," said Harvick.

Johnny Sauter brought the field to the green flag for 250 laps of racing. It was an interesting start to the race with many of the field's elite drivers (read Nextel Cup drivers) starting at the rear due to the weather problems in Atlanta where tomorrow's "Cup" race will be run.

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Sauter maintained the early lead, but a long green flag run at the start allowed the "Buschwhackers" to quickly make their way up the charts. Also moving up from his ninth place on the starting grid was former F1 star Juan Montoya who cracked the top-five by lap 15.

Through 25 laps, Sauter's lead over Jason Keller was 3.764 seconds and increasing. Despite lapping slower cars, Sauter's lead was 4.500 seconds through 40 laps.

Finally on lap 45, the first caution flag of the afternoon brought the field onto pit road. Sauter came off pit lane in first, Montoya held onto fifth.

But the "Big Guns" were coming quickly. Harvick and Bowyer were sixth and seventh, respectively. J.J. Yeley was ninth, Carl Edwards 14th, Denny Hamlin 17th and Kasey Kahne 23rd.

Before lap 58, both Harvick and Bowyer got around the "rookie" Montoya. Bowyer continued to charge towards the front, first passing teammate Harvick and then making his way to second place after 80 laps. He was just about half a second behind Sauter and closing quickly.

The first lead change took place on lap 84 as Bowyer easily slid past Sauter. He opened up a three-second margin before caution flag No.4 brought the race to a halt.

At the mid-point Bowyer was still holding the lead, though his margin over Sauter was just over one second and he was not getting away as quickly as before. Harvick was third and Edwards was charging as well, cracking the top- five. Montoya was still racing well, for his first time out, and was 10th.

On the next caution flag, four drivers stayed out to take the top spots and Harvick beat Bowyer off pit road for fifth.

Kenny Wallace led the "non-pitting" group to the green flag on lap 147.

Meanwhile, Jason Keller sent Montoya spinning on lap 155, knocking the F1 star out of the top-10 for the first time all day. He would restart 30th with just over 90 laps to go.

Harvick jumped past Wallace for the lead on the first green flag lap after the caution - lap 160.

Harvick, Bowyer, Sauter and Edwards maintained the top-four positions and appeared to be the class of the field as they crossed the 200-lap mark. Slowly, every so slowly, Harvick began to pull away from Bowyer and with 40 laps the margin was 1.326 seconds.

The gap was 1.695 seconds with 25 laps to go and barring a caution flag it seemed as if Bowyer would not be able to catch Harvick. In fact, Edwards passed Bowyer with 22 laps to go.

Could he mount an attack or would it be another notch on Harvick's belt?

Edwards was the fastest car on the track but one and-a-half seconds back with 20 laps to go. One lap later, a caution flag put Edwards on Harvick's rear bumper.

The restart came with 13 laps remaining. Edwards got a great jump on the start and pulled even with the 2006 Busch Series champion. A half lap later he went deep into turn four for the lead.

Another caution flag for a Kahne/Jay Sauter incident gave Harvick one last shot at taking the lead back from Edwards. The six-lap shootout for the win was interrupted by another caution flag and the race would be completed under a green-white-checker finish.

On the final restart, Edwards seemed to spin his tires slightly and Harvick ducked to the bottom of the track. He gave Edwards a nudge up the track and both he and Bowyer slipped by. Harvick held off his teammate for another win.

"I just didn't get a good restart," said Edwards.

"Both of us were sideways, loose, our tires wore out on the last laps," said Harvick. "What more can you ask for, to come down to the last couple of laps."

Edwards, Sauter and Shane Huffman completed the top-five.

Montoya was unofficially credited with a 12th-place finish, a solid rebound from his mid-race spin.

The next race in the series is set for Saturday, November 4th at the Texas Motor Speedway.