RACE REPORT.(Motorsports)

Byline: Al Pearce

The crowd rose as one when Tony Stewart made a gutsy pass for the lead in the final laps of the Cup race at Watkins Glen. Just as in 2002, 2004 and 2005, the two-time and defending NASCAR champion seemed poised to win on the famous road course in upstate New York.

Except that Kevin Harvick wasn't going to let him.

To the surprise of almost everyone, Harvick easily passed Stewart and motored away to his first road-course win. His Chevrolet led the final four laps over Stewart's Chevrolet, Jamie McMurray's Ford, Robby Gordon's Chevy and Carl Edwards' Ford, respectively. It was Harvick's second win this year and the seventh of his 200-start career, all for the resurgent Richard Childress Racing.

"I knew for two laps [before Stewart's pass] that I was a moving chicane,'' Harvick said. "Tony just flat-out drove around me in the inner loop. He bombed in there 200 feet deeper than I'd ever thought about. He was in the dirt, smoking the tires and I said, `I'm going to have to pick it up here.' I got more aggressive in the corners and he made a mistake getting on the frontstretch. I had a good corner and was able to get under him.''

The win moved Harvick to third in points and virtually sealed his spot in the 10-driver, 10-race, season-ending Chase for the Cup. Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth, first and second in points, also are virtual locks, along with fourth-place Jeff Burton and fifth-place Kyle Busch. But Mark Martin, Stewart, rookie Denny Hamlin and Jeff Gordon are bunched within 89 points of 10th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr., the dreaded "bubble driver.''

The 90-lap, 200-mile race had 10 cautions and 14 lead changes, nine of them during pit stops or while drivers stretched fuel mileage. "As soon as I got by, I couldn't keep the rear under me, braking or accelerating,'' Stewart said of his pass. "The only thing I could do [during Harvick's winning pass] was let him go and try to get back under him.''