Kevin Harvick made it three straight Busch Series victories on the Richmond track, and moved closer to clinching his second series championship.

Harvick led five times for 154 laps in his sixth victory of the season, and will leave Richmond International Raceway with a 619-point lead and just seven races left on the schedule. That means he could skip three of them entirely and still have the lead.

The victory in the Emerson 250 was the 23rd of Harvick's Busch career, fourth all-time, and the fourth of his career on the .75-mile, D-shaped oval.

He has 25 top-10 finishes in 28 Busch races this season.

``This thing here is doing the job, and I'm just getting to ride it,'' he said of his car.

Harvick has led the points race since the second race of the season as he drives toward a second championship to go with the one he won for Richard Childress in 2001.

Harvick went ahead to stay when he passed Scott Wimmer with 59 laps to go, but in a race filled with fits and starts because of a record-tying 14 cautions, he never needed long to assert his dominance over the field. The cautions consumed 66 laps.

Greg Biffle finished second, .925 seconds behind, and Matt Kenseth was third.

The race was a good start to the weekend for Harvick, who is third in the Nextel Cup standings and needs to finish just 40th in Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 to clinch a spot in the 10-race Chase for the championship, which begins next week.

It was a more ominous start for teammate Jeff Burton, who quit after 124 laps when his brakes went, and had to be hoping the bad luck won't carry over to Saturday.

Burton will start the Chevy 400 on the outside of the front row, but 10th in points and clinging to a 30-point lead over Kasey Kahne in the final race for the top 10 drivers to earn a spot in the Chase.

Paul Menard was fourth, the highest among Busch Series regulars, and Reed Sorensen was fifth.