Brooklyn, Mich. ? Pit strategy and rain helped Kevin Harvick win the shortened Cabela’s 250 NASCAR Busch Series race Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.

The race was scheduled for 125 laps but called after 110.

Reigning Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart, making his first Busch start since 1998, dominated most of the day, leading 82 of the first 100 laps.

With the leaders apparently needing to pit before the end of the race, Stewart gave up the lead to Harvick when he putted on lap 101. Stewart came out of the pits 17th and had worked his way to 11th by lap 109, when rain began pelting the 2-mile oval.

NASCAR officials red-flagged the race at the end of the 110th lap and tried to dry the track, but more rain forced them to call it an official race about 40 minutes later.

“We tried to play the strategy out there at the end,” said Harvick, a Winston Cup regular. “Tony probably had the best car. I think everybody was going to pit. We’d have had to pit, too.”

Harvick, the 2001 Busch Series champion, led only the last 10 laps. He averaged 140.850 mph in a race slowed by 13 caution laps.

Pole-winner Kasey Kahne wound up second, followed by Bobby Hamilton Jr., David Green and series leader Scott Riggs.