Harvick

HAMPTON, Ga. -- The day started with such promise for Kevin Harvick and his quest to catch points leader Matt Kenseth. Now, the chase is likely over.

Harvick finished 20th in the rain-interrupted Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 Monday, struggling over the last 100 laps after his Chevrolet was involved in a wreck with Dave Blaney. Kenseth rallied from early struggles to come home 11th, and his lead ballooned to 258 points over new second-place driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

One spot farther back is Harvick, who's now 262 behind Kenseth.

"It's over," was all Harvick said afterward.

When rained forced the race to be stopped Sunday, Harvick was leading and Kenseth was 21st. The spread got even greater when Kenseth's Ford got damaged in a chain-reaction accident on lap 46, and he dropped back to 37th.

But Kenseth steadily moved back toward the front, and he gained a break when Blaney spun in front of Harvick in Turn 3.

Harvick drove to the top of the track, but that's where Blaney ended up. The cars made slight contact, and Harvick's bounced off the wall. His crew tried to fix the damage with large sections of duct tape, but the handling wasn't the same.

Meanwhile, Kenseth had his own concerns. Teammate Mark Martin lost an engine in his Ford after 159 laps - his second failure of the weekend - and that left Kenseth worried about the one in his car.

"That was a motor that came out of our truck, so it's always a concern when any of your teammates break the same stuff that you're running," Kenseth said. "But, so far this year our stuff has been real reliable."

Elliott home finale?
If this was his last race at Atlanta, Bill Elliott went out in style.

Elliott, who hasn't decided if he's returning for his 28th season, stayed near the front for the entire race and finished fourth, his fourth straight top 10. The native of Dawsonville, Ga., -- about 100 miles north of the track - moved up a spot to ninth in the standings.

"It feels good to have a good finish here," Elliott said. "We got a little bit off on that one stop, but these guys came back and made it all back up. It was all them there at the end."

Team owner Ray Evernham said earlier in the weekend he would give Elliott all the time he needed to make a decision about next year. This is Elliott's third season with Evernham.

"Everything has come together," Elliott said. "We're making good, solid decisions, and we're getting good, solid finishes. We just need to keep digging."

'Lucky Dog' confusion
The new policy by NASCAR to let the first car one lap down make up that distance during a caution led to mass confusion when Ricky Rudd spun off Turn 4 on lap 104.

With the field in the middle of green-flag stops, the yellow flag didn't come out immediately. Some drivers, including eventual winner Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Spencer, slowed down, while leader Kurt Busch stayed in the throttle.

That left Spencer a lap down when the caution finally fell, and initially his crew was told he would be the recipient of the "lucky dog" rule. He pitted with the lapped cars and took four tires, but NASCAR changed its decision and gave a lap back to Kevin Harvick instead.

So Spencer, who would've been on the tail end of the lead lap for the restart, now was mired back in traffic, a lap down.

"(Busch) had no right to do what he did," said Spencer, who was suspended for a race in August after he punched Busch in the nose. "It took me 125 laps to get it back, and that really hurt.

"He went by us at 160 mph and we were running 70. It was just a poor call on his part."

Busch was penalized for not slowing down quick enough.

Nemechek, Burton shine
Joe Nemechek and Ward Burton made rousing runs in their debuts with new teams, with Nemechek finishing 10th and Burton 13th.

They were two of four drivers getting a head start on 2004 by jumping in their new rides for the final four races of this season.

"These guys are easygoing, but at the same time they're very smart and get the job done," Nemechek said. "I'm just here to fill in a piece of the puzzle, and if they keep giving me cars like this, we'll be running in the front."

Burton's run came after he crashed his primary car in practice Saturday morning, and that forced him to start the race at the rear of the 43-car field. He responded with the team's best finish of the season.

"That was just what the doctor ordered," Burton said. "This was our first time out and we were in a backup car, so we've got to be pretty proud of that. We can whip those guys if we keep working hard."