BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Ryan Newman led 119 of 125 laps Saturday in the NAPAOnline.com 250 and claimed his first NASCAR Busch Series victory.

Newman passed pole-sitter Jimmy Spencer on the second lap and steadily pulled away from the field. He briefly lost the lead to Kevin Harvick after a restart on lap 52 but stayed out front after passing Harvick five laps later.

Newman beat Harvick to the checkered flag by just over a second. Tony Raines finished third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Mike McLaughlin.

"Yesterday, I knew we had a good car. Just how good it was going to be and what the competitors did overnight to make theirs better was going to be the key," Newman said.

"Fortunately, we did our homework, pretty much started the race the same way we ended (practice) and just had a great car all day."

Harvick's finish left him with a 236-point lead over Jason Keller in the Busch Series standings.

Harvick was a little disappointed, though.

"It's pretty pathetic when a guy outruns the rest of the field by four or five car lengths down the straightaway like that," Harvick said. "I can beat Ryan but I can't beat (car owner) Roger (Penske). That thing had some steam."

Newman's first win came in just his ninth series start. He's running a combination of Busch, Winston Cup and ARCA events this season in preparation of a full-time Winston Cup ride with Penske's team in 2002.

Although he's been fast all season, Newman has had his share of problems finishing races. He crashed while leading the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in May, and crashed while chasing down eventual winner Johnson in the Sam's Club-Hills Bros 300 at Chicagoland Speedway in July.

He had no such problems Saturday.

"That was something that we had struggled with so far this year, so it was really great to be able to pull one off," Newman said.

Mike Skinner, making his return to competition after missing four weeks with an injury, was sixth. Elton Sawyer, Keller, Tim Fedewa and Jeff Burton rounded out the top 10.

Skinner helped start the event's only accident, tapping Kevin Lepage in the second turn on the seventh lap. Lepage spun in front of Greg Biffle, who then slid down the track in the path of Randy LaJoie. No one was injured, and Skinner and LaJoie continued.

Biffle finished 43rd and fell 304 points behind Harvick in the standings.