Rookie unlikely Busch race winner

SPARTA, Ky. — Rookie David Gilliland became the first non-Nextel Cup driver to win a Busch Series race this season, passing J.J. Yeley with 10 laps to go and holding on to take the Meijer 300 on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

Gilliland, making his seventh career start in the series, won despite a sluggish pit stop on the 50th lap that dropped him from second to 19th.

Nextel Cup drivers won the first 16 Busch Series races of the year.

Yeley, a Nextel Cup driver also seeking his first Busch Series victory, finished second for the second time in his career. His Joe Gibbs racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, finished third after starting from the pole.

Gilliland's victory came on a dismal day for several Cup drivers, who had to shuttle this weekend from Michigan, home of Sunday's Nextel race.

Carl Edwards, winner of two of his last three Busch races and the defending race champion at Kentucky Speedway, pulled off the track with transmission problems on the first lap. He was only able to finish 174 of the 200 laps.

Points leader Kevin Harvick collided with the wall on the second lap, forcing him to pit twice to replace a front quarter-panel and all four tires. But he remained on the lead lap and quickly fought his way back among the leaders before fading to sixth.