Harvick closer but not able to clinch Busch Series title yet
Kevin Harvick can't clinch the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series championship this weekend at Kansas Speedway, but he can take a giant step toward wrapping up the title.
Harvick leads by 699 points over Carl Edwards and can win the championship by finishing 29th or better in the remaining six races.
Even if Harvick leads the most laps and wins at Kansas, the largest number of points he can lead by after the race is 855, which is not enough to mathematically eliminate Edwards.
If Harvick merely starts the next six races, earning 34 points in each, Edwards would have to finish fifth or better in every race to pass Harvick.
To clinch at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the site of the next Busch race, Harvick needs to gain 62 points in the next two races. To clinch at Memphis Motorsports Park, which hosts the race after Lowe's, Harvick needs to finish sixth or better at Kansas, Charlotte and Memphis.
To clinch at Texas, Harvick needs only to finish 17th or better in the next three races.
"Yeah, it has been a really great year for the No. 21 Coast Guard team," Harvick said. "Everything has gone right for us on the Busch side. We have been fortunate to have fast race cars and have also been able to capitalize during situation when we haven't had the best car. It has just been one of those years where everything has just fallen our way."
Harvick is already piling up some impressive numbers, comparable to the best previous Busch seasons. He needs to win four of the next six races to match Sam Ard's record of 10 victories in a season set in 1983. He needs six more top-fives to match Jeff Green's record of 25 set in 2000, and he needs four more top-10s to match Ard's record of 30 set in 1983. To top Ard's record of 5,454 points in 1983, Harvick needs to finish eighth or better in the remaining races.
