Kenseth Wins Second Chase Race at New Hampshire

LOUDON, NH – RIS – Matt Kenseth didn’t have the fastest car during the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but he had something even more important—fuel.  While Kevin Harvick was always running in the first position and leading more laps than anyone else, Kenseth was conserving fuel, so when Harvick’s Chevrolet sputtered, Kenseth went on to victory and punched his ticket to the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Harvick never slowed down to conserve fuel, his team firm in the belief he could stretch his way to Victory Lane.  His crew chief never cautioned him that he should conserve fuel. It was a gamble that backfired. Harvick ran out of gas, and now, almost out of chances to defend his Sprint Cup title.

"I ran as hard as I could to get as close as I could to him because I wanted to beat him," Kenseth said. "The faster he has to go, obviously, he burns more gas."

Harvick burned it all. Every last drop was gone.

Kenseth gave Joe Gibbs Racing its fourth straight victory, and 13th for the season.  Teammates Kyle Busch (4), Denny Hamlin (2), and Carl Edwards (2) added to the total.

Harvick had the dominant car and led the most laps until fuel woes hit and knocked him out with three laps left. He tumbled to 21st a week after he finished 42nd in the Chase opener and will surely have to win next week at Dover International Speedway to advance to the second round.

Harvick declined comment.

"Fast car. Great day. Bad ending," he tweeted. "Things haven't gone exactly to plan but I promise you one thing 'we will not quit'."

JGR is 2-for-2 in the Chase and continued to prove its Toyotas will be the ones to beat over the final eight races. Denny Hamlin, the winner last week at Chicagoland, was second for JGR. Chase drivers took eight of the top 10 spots.

The 16-driver Chase field will be cut to 12 after Dover.

"I was giving Kevin everything I had," Kenseth said. "I thought he had us beat. He had the better car."

Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Harvick and Clint Bowyer are the final four drivers on the brink of elimination. They would advance with a victory, but Jimmie Johnson stands in their way at Dover, where he has a track-record 10 victories.

Harvick was knocked out of the race last week when he connected with Johnson and blew a tire. He later got into an altercation with Johnson in the motor home lot and shoved the Hendrick Motorsports driver.

Harvick led 216 of 300 laps and heads to Dover -- where he is 0-for-29 -- with one of the biggest must-win races of his career.

Crew chief Rodney Childers had a lengthy post on Twitter that said the data showed Harvick had enough fuel in the No. 4 Chevrolet to last all 300 laps.

"It should have been a nonissue. Which is why we weren't worried," Childers wrote. "It looks like for some reason it must not have got full on our last pit stop of the race or the fuel cell bladder is coming apart. ... If anything showed we were taking a chance, we would have pitted."

Chevrolet is winless in 11 straight races, matching its longest drought since 2012.

Harvick isn't the only Chase driver whose championship hopes are on the rocks.

Kyle Busch was the first Chase driver to suffer serious damage when his right front tire blew and he hit the wall. Busch, who won the July race in New Hampshire, took the No. 18 straight to the garage.

"It's killed," he said over the radio.

Fourth in the standings entering the race, Busch dropped to 13th in points after he finished 37th.

"It's hard to leave the racetrack when you know you had one car that just had a real tough time today, and we care so much about those guys, too," Gibbs said.

Brad Keselowski had his shot at an automatic bid into the second round end when he was black flagged with 58 laps left after a review showed he jumped the restart while racing Greg Biffle for the lead. He stayed on the lead lap but sank to 25th after the penalty. He rebounded to finish 12th.

"It's an entertainment sport, not a fair sport," Keselowski said.

NASCAR officials vowed to crack down on restarts entering the Chase, and still had an issue last week when Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch battled for the lead. Gordon was spared a penalty when he appeared to jump the restart and pass Busch.

Cup series director Richard Buck said the restart rule was enforced fairly against Keselowski. Buck said it was a "clear-cut call" that Keselowski beat Biffle to the line in the restart zone. The restart rules also are reviewed every race at the drivers' meeting.

 "We listen to the garage, we listen to what they say," Buck said. "They wanted clarity, we gave them clarity on it."

Joey Logano finished third and Biffle, a non-Chase driver, was fourth. Edwards was fifth, followed by Johnson, Gordon and Martin Truex Jr.

Gordon set the Sprint Cup record with his 789th consecutive start.

Other Chase results saw Ryan Newman in 10th, Jamie McMurray 14th and Menard 15th. Kurt Busch ran out of fuel and was 19th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 25th, and Bowyer 26th. Earnhardt is barely hanging on in 12th place, only one point ahead of Kyle Busch. 

Even though Harvick dominated on the afternoon, the race was competitive with 16 lead changes among seven drivers.  There were nine cautions for 41 laps. 

Unofficial Race Results: 19th Annual Sylvania 300

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Lap, Pts, BPts, Status, TLd, LLd
1) 13, Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, 300, 47, 4, Running, 3, 27
2) 7, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, 300, 43, 1, Running, 1, 21
3) 8, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 300, 41, , Running, ,
4) 25, Greg Biffle, No. 16 Kleen Performance Products Ford, 300, 41, 1, Running, 1, 12
5) 1, Carl Edwards, No. 19 Sport Clips Toyota, 300, 40, 1, Running, 1, 19
6) 5, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Pro Services Chevrolet, 300, 38, , Running, ,
7) 10, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet, 300, 37, , Running, ,
8) 21, Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet, 300, 36, , Running, ,
9) 12, Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, 300, 35, , Running, ,
10) 9, Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 300, 34, , Running, ,
11) 27, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, 300, 33, , Running, ,
12) 4, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Miller Lite Ford, 300, 33, 1, Running, 4, 4
13) 14, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford EcoBoost Ford, 300, 31, , Running, ,
14) 23, Jamie McMurray, No. 1 FLIR Chevrolet, 300, 30, , Running, ,
15) 20, Paul Menard, No. 27 Sylvania/Menards Chevrolet, 300, 29, , Running, ,
16) 33, Trevor Bayne, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford, 300, 28, , Running, ,
17) 6, Kyle Larson, No. 42 Target Plaid Chevrolet, 300, 27, , Running, ,
18) 19, Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 300, 26, , Running, ,
19) 3, Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, 299, 25, , Running, ,
20) 29, Sam Hornish Jr., No. 9 Shaws/Smithfield Ford, 299, 24, , Running, ,
21) 2, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Ditech Chevrolet, 299, 25, 2, Running, 6, 216
22) 16, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Cheerios Chevrolet, 299, 22, , Running, ,
23) 30, AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Bush's Chili Beans Chevrolet, 299, 21, , Running, ,
24) 28, Cole Whitt, No. 35 Taco Bell Ford, 299, 21, 1, Running, 1, 1
25) 11, Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, 299, 19, , Running, ,
26) 26, Clint Bowyer, No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota, 299, 18, , Running, ,
27) 31, Brett Moffitt #, No. 34 Dockside Logistics LLC Ford, 298, 17, , Running, ,
28) 34, David Gilliland, No. 38 MDS Transportation Ford, 297, 16, , Running, ,
29) 38, Michael Annett, No. 46 Switch Hitch Chevrolet, 297, 15, , Running, ,
30) 35, Matt DiBenedetto #, No. 83 Cosmo Motors Toyota, 297, 14, , Running, ,
31) 40, Josh Wise, No. 26 Maxim Toyota, 297, 13, , Running, ,
32) 37, Ryan Preece, No. 98 Mohawk Northeast Inc Chevrolet, 296, 12, , Running, ,
33) 41, Jeb Burton #, No. 23 Bullhorn Toyota, 295, 11, , Running, ,
34) 39, BJ McLeod(i), No. 33  Chevrolet, 293, 10, , Running, ,
35) 42, Jeffrey Earnhardt(i), No. 32 Arundel Ford/Weirs GMC/Bangor Truck Equipment , 292, 0, , Running, ,
36) 43, Timmy Hill(i), No. 62  Ford, 284, 0, , Running, ,
37) 17, Kyle Busch, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota, 262, 7, , Running, ,
38) 32, Landon Cassill(i), No. 40 Interstate Moving Services Chevrolet, 242, 0, , Running, ,
39) 24, Justin Allgaier, No. 51 AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet, 236, 5, , Accident, ,
40) 22, Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet, 203, 4, , Accident, ,
41) 18, David Ragan, No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, 203, 3, , Accident, ,
42) 36, Alex Bowman, No. 7 Nikko RC/Toy State Car Chevrolet, 117, 2, , Accident, ,
43) 15, Aric Almirola, No. 43 Smithfield Ford, 35, 1, , Accident, ,

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, # = Rookie
Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led.
Average Speed: 106.480 MPH
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 58 Mins, 51 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 8.941 Seconds
Lead Changes: 16 among 7 drivers Cautions: 9 for 41 laps

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