The first race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Cup delivered some great drama and kept the viewers wondering just who would do what by day’s end.
The Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Loudon) was an exciting race to watch this weekend. The pack found itself getting three wide repeatedly and we watched good racing throughout the field. Yet contenders were plagued with loose wheels and spinning competitors.
As the laps wound down, everyone was hoping Tony Stewart would run out of gas. It looked to be the only way to catch him as Clint Bowyer’s team asked him to save fuel late in the running. It turned out to be a good call from the team.
The closing 10 laps watched Denny Hamlin charging forward as he was given the green light on fuel lasting the run. This was Tony Stewart’s race to lose. Jeff Burton & Tony Stewart ran out of gas with less than 2 to go, giving the win to Clint Bowyer & Denny Hamlin a 2nd place spot. Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick round out the top 5 spots!
Top 15 finishing spots in the Loudon race: 33, 11, 1, 88, 29, 24, 00, 39, 18, 77, 99, 43, 2, 9, 31
Here’s how the Chase Contenders finished in the race:
| FIN | DRIVER |
| 1st | Clint Bowyer |
| 2nd | Denny Hamlin |
| 5th | Kevin Harvick |
| 6th | Jeff Gordon |
| 9th | Kyle Busch |
| 11th | Carl Edwards |
| 13th | Kurt Busch |
| 15th | Jeff Burton |
| 17th | Greg Biffle |
| 23rd | Matt Kenseth |
| 24th | Tony Stewart |
| 25th | Jimmie Johnson |
- Unofficial results for the Sylvania 300,
And per the live Point Standings page on NASCAR.com, here’s how the points looked at the end of the race for the Chase Contenders:
| Rank | +/- | Driver | Points | Behind | Led |
| 1 | – | Denny Hamlin | 5230 | – | 0 |
| 2 | 10 | Clint Bowyer | 5195 | -35 | 176 |
| 3 | 3 | Tony Stewart | 5180 | -50 | 99 |
| 4 | -1 | Kevin Harvick | 5176 | -54 | 0 |
| 5 | -1 | Kyle Busch | 5160 | -70 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | Jeff Burton | 5150 | -80 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 | Jeff Gordon | 5147 | -83 | 3 |
| 8 | -6 | Jimmie Johnson | 5138 | -92 | 0 |
| 9 | -4 | Kurt Busch | 5138 | -92 | 0 |
| 10 | -1 | Carl Edwards | 5129 | -101 | 3 |
| 11 | -4 | Greg Biffle | 5119 | -111 | 0 |
| 12 | -1 | Matt Kenseth | 5091 | -139 | 0 |
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As you can see, right now now one is out of this contention for the championship. Though for Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson just took their mulligans and they can’t slip up in any other race. In the meantime, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer sent messages about their preparedness to pounce on the rest of the field while Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon finished well, doing what they’ve been doing all year long and pulled off sound finishes.
Clint Bowyer winning the Sylvania 300 gave Cheerios its first NASCAR victory
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Below are momentary recalls from the race, as I was watching it.
The New Hampshire race charged to the green flag. Tony Stewart took the lead early on while some of the Cup contenders found themselves getting three-wide as Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Jimmie JOhnson charged through the field. At one moment, the in-car camera showed what Harvick was looking at as he hurtled down the frontstratch, giving Jimmie Johnson a nudge. THe competition was surprisingly aggressive and made for a great and exciting start.
Lap 26 brought our first caution when Scott Speed found himself turned into the wall, ending his day.
After the pit stops, Stewart took 4 tires and found himself restarting 14th as Clint Bowyer led the pack to the restart.
Menard and Ambros brought out the lap 40 caution.
Lap 79, we had Bowyer, Edwards, McMurray, Allmendinger & Keselowski leading the pack.
Lap 138 had Bowyer, Edwards, McMurray, Johnson and Burton holding down the top 5 spots.
Lap 147 had a yellow flag for debris and as they came back to the green flag, Bowyer led the crazy pack!
With less then 90 to go, Edwards spun Hamlin in front of most of the field and amazingly, no one plowed through Hamlin. This wasn’t an intentional tap out… just hard racing.
The restart had Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer lead the pack to the green restart. One of the better cars of the day, Jamie McMurray, was penalized for speeding, so he will need to work his way back up to the front.
I’m not sure if I’m being more sensitive to it, but there seem to be an awful lot of donut rings on a lot of the cars in the field today.
Now another yellow on lap 221 as Kurt Busch spins after some fender snuggling with Jeff Burton, and a lot of victim spins started taking place, one of which was Jimmie Johnson & Kyle Busch. Again, another wreck where everyone was zigging and zagging and no one got plastered… amazingly.
Stewart, Bowyer, Burton, Reutimann and McMurray lead the pack to the green.
Then Kenseth gets put in the wall as Keselowski slips up into the No. 17. Ouch!
(Chicago 20, Dallas 17, with 8:16 left in the 4th!)
Stewart, McMurray, Burton, J. Gordon lead the pack as Bowyer spins the tires and away they go, spreading out to 3-wide in spots. Johnson is mired in the middle of the pack in 22nd and Hamlin is 10th.
The 8th caution sees Joey Logano and Elliott Sadler turned around and watching the cars behind them! Joey was taken out by Kurt Busch and Sadler found himself tapped out by Jimmie Johnson.
Kurt is not going to be very popular after the race is said and done.
McMurray led Stewart, Bowyer, Burton and Earnhardt Jr to the flag and into the first turn after one of the last green flag restarts.
