Just a couple hours before the Virginia 529 College Savings 250 at the Richmond International Raceway was set to begin, Sprint Cup Series points leader Kevin Harvick won the pole and started on the front row along with Cup teammate Clint Bowyer. Harvick was able to pull away from Bowyer, and Denny Hamlin jumped past Brad Keselowski for third. Trouble early for Brendan Gaughan Jeremy Clements who spun and brought out the first caution on lap ten. The field stayed on track, and Harvick led the field to the green on lap 17, once again pulling away, leaving second and third place Bowyer and Keselowski to fight for second. Bowyer began challenging Keselowski to regain that second place spot on lap 31, completing the pass three laps later. On lap 34 the second caution of the race came out after Braun Racing’s Brian Scott spun at the start finish line. Several cars back in the pack, including a struggling Ryan Newman, chose to come down pit road for adjustments while the leaders stayed on track. The race went back to green at lap 40 and once again Harvick kept the lead. Busch took fourth from his teammates and Bowyer and Keselowski continued to race for second. There was side by side racing all around the track, and the battle for third began to heat up as Busch ran side by side with the No. 22 for the spot. Three wide on lap 50 between Gaughan, Aric Almirola and Tony Raines, with Almirola pulling ahead. With new tires, Newman was speeding The No. 7 made it three wide again with the No. 16 and Elliott Sadler, who restarted 26th, ran eighth at lap 64 with his new tires. Meanwhile Keselowski reported to his team about a possible broken valve spring. A cluster of cars- Almirola, Stenhouse, Sorenson and Annett- all race for eighth through 11th place while the leader Harvick continued to lead and put cars a lap down. On lap 85 a still charging Sadler took fifth from Edwards as green flag stops approached, and going the other direction was Keselowski, who ran in sixth on lap 89. On lap 104 lap traffic had helped Bowyer and Sadler close in on the leader. As stops neared Busch had to lock up his pink No. 18 to avoid hitting the lapped car of Mark Green, and reported to the crew that hey “destroyed the left front tire.” On lap 108, Sadler moved into second and the following lap Edwards made his way onto pit road. Two laps later Menard pit and on lap 112 Sorenson, Busch, Bowyer and the leader Harvick hit pit road. Bayne, Hamlin, Kligerman and others pit the following lap. Keselowski had a rough time getting in his pit box, sitting sideways in his box and causing the team to have a dismal 18 second stop. On lap 119 Sadler was the race leader followed by Almirola and Nemechek. Former leader Harvick ran in the ninth spot. Just four cars remained on the lead lap after pit stops. On lap 130 Harvick got back on the lead lap and Sadler hit pit road on lap 131. Newman, who had moved into third, came down the next lap. After the remaining off sequence cars remained, Harvick regained the lead. Reed Sorenson continued a quiet but consistent run in his No. 32 Dollar General Toyota, and ran sixth at lap 138. After Sadler’s stop he ran 14 seconds behind the leader in seventh. Mike Bliss’ blew an engine on lap 140 bringing out the blank caution. The leaders once again made their way down pit road and Busch managed to beat Harvick off pit road. Because Sadler and Almirola stayed out Busch restarted third, but quickly took the lead when the field took the green. Lots of three wide racing in the midst of the pack, and the hard racing came to a head when Hamlin and Bowyer made hard contact, causing a tire rub on the No. 21 and causing him to slip back through the field. On lap 156 Bowyer finally lost the tire and brought out the race’s fourth caution. The leaders stayed on track. With 89 laps to go the field restarted and Keselowski was quick to take second from Harvick and go after Rowdy for the lead. He was able to take the lead from the No. 18 with 88 remaining. On lap 165 caution came out again, and once again it was for the No. 10 of Malsam. Almirola and Sadler, who had fallen to sixth and ninth respectively, elected to pit while the others stayed out. Harvick and Busch battled for second as Keselowski began pulling away from the field. Sorenson made it three wide briefly as he and Stenhouse challenged for eighth and ninth. With 77 laps left Hamlin made it by his teammate for third. Behind them Sadler got loose and bounced off Menard into the wall, causing Sadler to develop a tire rub and fall deeper into the pack. On lap 198 Harvick passed Keselowski for the seventh lead change of the night as Bowyer chased down Keselowski for the second spot. Caution came out on lap 203 when Bowyer punted the lap down car of Brian Scott. With 41 laps remaining Newman and Raines led the field to the green but Harvick sped by both of them to take the top spot. Sorenson made it three wide with Newman and Raines to send them further down in the pack. Busch restarted 20th after his pit road violation. Keselowski was on the leader’s bumper with 33 to go but was unable to make the pass, meanwhile Stenhouse got by Sorenson for fourth. Leffler, Allgaier and Busch all battled for the 12th spot as just 23 laps remained. Ahead, Harvick had started to pull away from the No. 22. With nine laps to go Bowyer got by Menard for seventh and began running down Hamlin for sixth. In the middle of lap traffic Keselowski was again closing in on the leader, and Sorenson began running down Stenhouse for fourth. Harvick caught a cluser of lap down cars with four laps to go and Keselowski ran right up to this bumper, though the No. 33 maintained the lead. Two laps remained and Keselowski tried to get by on the outside to no avail; coming off turn two Keselowski got into the back of Harvick but received damage himself and got a slight tire rub. Harvick managed to hold off the Penske Racing Dodge and collect his third Nationwide Series win of the season. The win tied Harvick with Mark Martin for the most Nationwide wins at Richmond. "I bounced it off the wall coming off two and it didn't even slow it down. At that point, the gloves are off and you gotta do what you gotta do. It never came to that, but I got a little aggressive with the throttle and got the thing sideways. It was too late to lift and I hit it pretty hard. "But it was good racing there at the end. I didn't want it to be that close, but it was that close." Series regulars Bayne and Stenhouse came home third and fourth, Sorenson fifth, Hamlin sixth, Bowyer seventh, Menard eighth, Busch ninth and Edwards came home tenth. It’s an off weekend next for the Nationwide Series, followed by the Dover 200 at the Dover International Speedway. The race begins at three p.m. Eastern time on September 25 on ESPN2. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
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