LOUDON, N.H. -- The good citizens of the Granite State have a disposition to match their nickname. This is an industrious, conservative place, a lone red state in a sea of blue, a region where lights in the country are out early in the evening and not much in the city stays open past 10 p.m. The people here work hard, respect peace and tranquility, and expect everyone else to do the same. Come to New Hampshire looking to cause trouble, and you'll stick out like a visitor in a New York Yankees cap.

No wonder so many races at the recently re-christened New Hampshire Motor Speedway have been testaments to positioning, consistency and assiduousness, qualities that would hearten a Quaker. Jeff Burton leading wire-to-wire in 2000. Ryan Newman winning an event with just three cautions in 2002. Clint Bowyer leading 222 of 300 laps this past September. Recent events at the so-called Magic Mile have seemed less magical than grounded, with winners getting out front, staying there, and taking Victory Lane with all the flash and finesse of maple syrup.

And then came Sunday, which seemed to be going according to script as Tony Stewart turned lap after lap -- 132 of them, in total -- with his orange racecar in front. Then there was one accident. Then another. And suddenly there were accusations and harsh words and gambles and disappointments and stunned crewmen and bent fenders and buckets upon buckets of pouring rain. And then there were the boos, lusty ones from the remaining fans who stood there soaked against the catchfence, a sure sign that the Lenox 301 had come to a strange and premature conclusion and one of the Busch brothers had won (read more).

It wasn't even the expected one. Kyle Busch, the Sprint Cup points leader and winner of a series-best five races this season, went out after Juan Montoya punched a retaliatory hole in Busch's racecar (watch video), a transgression that earned the Colombian a two-lap penalty for rough driving (but likely no further sanctions, according to NASCAR). No, the one celebrating in the makeshift Victory Lane (watch video) in the otherwise empty Nationwide Series garage was older brother Kurt, who hadn't really been close to a win since pushing Penske Racing teammate Newman across the finish line in the Daytona 500.

"I felt like we were a bit more competitive. I made a joke in practice -- we passed somebody!" Busch said. "So it's been a long year of just trying to get Penske Racing back to form. We started off with a bang at Daytona. But we feel like we've got all the right people. I love [crew chief] Pat Tryson, all the guys underneath him. I like all the guys back at the shop. We can't quite put our finger on what we need."

How about a little chaos? It all erupted in a tumultuous final 12 laps, and it was all interrelated (Lap-by-Lap). Dale Earnhardt Jr., running in the top 10 all day, drops down to pit and gets run over by Jamie McMurray. Everybody knows the rain is coming -- the National Weather Service has placed the area under a severe thunderstorm warning, and the radar screen flashes more green than Pacman Jones in a nightclub. But dark clouds don't matter to the eight drivers, led by Busch, who stay out on the ensuing caution. They're trying to win it on fuel, and believe they can make the distance regardless of whether the racetrack is wet or dry. The first guy with four tires and fuel is Stewart, who restarts a distant 14th.

Smoke never has a chance. One lap after the restart, Bowyer and Sam Hornish go spinning. Further ahead, Montoya plows into Busch the younger, but takes some damage himself when the spinning No. 18 car nicks him. And then suddenly the rain starts to fall, and drivers like Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley find themselves at the front of the field, and a race weekend that started with rain and Patrick Carpentier winning the pole position comes to a fitting conclusion. It almost seems as if new track owner Bruton Smith, that billionaire car salesman with a flair for flamboyance and drama, has rubbed off on this once-stolid racetrack deep in the New England woods.

"I had a vision that this could happen," said Waltrip, the unlikely runner-up. "You look at the way racing goes these days, it's just different than it used to be. You get track position and you can look like a hero."

Strange heroes, indeed. Of the top-seven finishers Sunday, the highest in points coming to New Hampshire was Martin Truex Jr. in 17th. Busch won despite a brake duct dangling from his car's undercarriage in the final laps. Waltrip finished second despite starting last after changing an engine Friday. Yeley placed third after failing to qualify for last weekend's event on the road course at Sonoma. Fifth-place Elliott Sadler came from a lap down. None of the top-three finishers started in the top 25, even on a racetrack where track position is considered so vital.

"It's a heck of a way to win it," said Truex, "but we're happy to get a fourth."

And then there was the other end of it. Stewart, standing in the pouring rain without an umbrella, commiserating with a teammate in the garage area, his black hair slicked to his head. Earnhardt, suffering his first consecutive finishes outside the top 10 this season, his car severely damaged because of a gap in communication (watch video). "I never saw the 88 until I hit him," McMurray claimed. "Typically when guys pit like that, the spotters all get together and wave their hands and whatnot, and the spotter never said anything." Jimmie Johnson, fortunate to come in ninth after he and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon had been among the class of the field.

"We had a great car [Sunday]. I think everybody saw it," said Chad Knaus, Johnson's crew chief. "We've had great cars the last six or eight weeks, but there is always something weird that happens to take us out of it. ... With this car, and the way the speeds stay consistent, and everybody running the same speed, it's just all about track position. So pitting near your window and just staying out there makes for a lame race."

Tell that to Busch, the 2004 series champion, mired in an uncharacteristically poor season. Sunday marked only his second finish inside the top 10 since Daytona. His teammate Newman is threatening to leave the Penske fold unless performance improves. A fuel-mileage, rain-shortened victory can't be what he had in mind. But Busch will take it. After all, the Las Vegas native knows full well that gambling is part of the game -- even in a resolute place like New Hampshire, where the state lottery or a little church bingo is about as far as most residents are willing to go.

"You've got to have strategy," Busch said. "You have to have a fast car. Where we are in points, we've got our backs up against the wall. So we gambled a little bit, and it paid off."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.