Matt Kenseth's crew hurries to replace a tire damaged when a lodged lugnut caused the right front wheel to quit turning. Credit: Autostock

Former Cup champions dodge misfortune

LOUDON, N.H. -- The teams of former Cup champions Rusty Wallace and Matt Kenseth were in position to take serious blows to their 2005 hopes Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

But both rebounded to finish in the top six in the Chase's opening race, the Sylvania 300, which insured they left New Hampshire in the top five in the standings.

Inside the Chase Point standings after Loudon Pos. Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 5,230 -- 2. G. Biffle 5,210 -20 3. R. Newman 5,190 -40 tie R. Wallace 5,190 -40 5. M. Kenseth 5,180 -50 6. J. Johnson 5,177 -53 7. M. Martin 5,176 -54 8. J. Mayfield 5,135 -95 9. C. Edwards 5,121 -109 10. Ku. Busch 5,088 -142 • Results, click here • Standings, click here Final lapsNewman and Stewart battle for the checkered flag Second placeTony Stewart on his runner-up finish at Loudon Sylvania 300Complete race video highlights from New Hampshire Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Kenseth, who scrambled into the Chase on the strength of four consecutive top-10 finishes in his No. 17 Ford, added a fifth when he ended up third behind fellow Chase contenders Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart.

That bumped him up four spots in the points, from ninth to fifth, 50 points behind Stewart. When a lug nut jammed in a front brake rotor on a pit stop a little over a third of the way into the race, that wasn't what Kenseth expected.

"The DeWalt guys did a great job," Kenseth said. "We had great pit stops [and] came back from that problem and didn't really tear anything up."

Kenseth fell to 25th at Lap 120, but was back in the top five by Lap 200 and, with the exception of a green-flag pit cycle, ran among the leaders the rest of the way.

"We were able to work our way back through there through pit strategy and having a good car," Kenseth said. "I'm happy with our performance the last couple of months -- it's been much better.

"[Sunday] we had a good, solid car -- nothing for Tony [Stewart, who led a race-high 173 laps] -- but we've been having decent cars and we haven't been having terrible luck.

"When we do have bad luck it's worked out OK -- like catching that lug nut under caution instead of green [because] if that would've been under green we would've been done."

Wallace's No. 2 Dodge team was penalized a lap for pitting outside his pit box and was back in 31st at Lap 160. But he raced hard enough to get his lap back, made it back into the top 10 in just 40 laps and ended up satisfied to lose only one spot in the standings, back to fourth.

Rusty Wallace was penalized one lap for a pit box violation. Credit: Autostock

Actually, Wallace is tied for third with teammate Ryan Newman, but under NASCAR's scoring system Newman gets the higher spot based on his one victory (Sunday at Loudon) this year.

"We brought it home in sixth place, but we thought we had a better car than that," Wallace said. "I just got behind early and that was about it.

"We had a lot of challenges [Sunday] but I was able to get back from them, and that was good."

Wallace raced in the top 10 for the first 100 laps, fell back for 100 and then was competitive when he needed to be, as he kicked off the final 10-race stretch of his career. He's now 40 points behind Stewart.

"We needed a top-five or a top-10 to kick it off and we had a top-10, which is good," Wallace said. "That was a drag race, wasn't it?"