Moments that changed the course of the 19th race of the 2014 season
KESELOWSKI DOMINATES FOR WEEKEND SWEEP
Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Camping World RV Sales 301 Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in a dramatic green-white-checkered finish.
This is Keselowski's third win this season and a Sprint Cup career-first at the New England track.
Keselowski also won Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series Sta-Green 200, which marks the first time a driver has swept the weekend at Loudon.
"This was a hard fought battle passing cars and trying to stay up front all day," Keselowski said. "We had a couple bullets to dodge and I am not thinking of anything else right now than how thankful I am to have a team and car that is clicking this well. Hopefully we can keep it going."
LOGANO KNOCKED OUT AFTER CONTACT WITH SHEPHERD
Joey Logano looked to be having a strong run in Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
He was riding in second place with Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski in the lead when the No. 33 car of Morgan Shepherd came from behind and spun out Logano.
Shepherd stretched his own record as the oldest driver to compete in NASCAR's top division at 72 years, 1 month and 23 days old. Shepherd set the record last July at New Hampshire at 71 years old.
Logano, clearly frustrated, said about the incident, "Slowest car on the race track took us out. Go figure. We had a pretty good AutoTrader Ford. We were just doing what we can to hang in there. We were obviously running second. Brad is really, really fast. He definitely is the car to beat right now. We were just doing what we can with strategy. Keeping our car up towards the front.
"Running some good lap times. Felt like we could have a Penske 1-2 again and then just to get taken out by the slowest car. I feel like there should be a driver's test before you get out in a (Sprint) Cup car and make sure you know how to drive before you drive one, but I don't know. I guess there isn't."
TIRE ISSUE ENDS JOHNSON'S DAY EARLY
Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and three-time 2014 winner Jimmie Johnson finished 42nd Sunday's Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after having early tire troubles.
Johnson started the race on the front row, next to polesitter Kyle Busch, but that is where the fun ended for him. On Lap 8, Johnson's left-rear tire went flat causing him to go to pit road.
Johnson returned to the track on Lap 11, but one lap down.
On Lap 14, Johnson suffered another tire going down and got into the wall between Turns 1 and 2 to bring out the first caution of the day. Johnson told his team over the radio that the tire just exploded. He also reported via radio that the car was "pretty tore up."
"The first one, I was able to drive the car all the way through Turns 1 and 2. Knew I had a flat and got down the back and came in. The other one just blew on the straight as soon as I hit the brakes so I'm not sure what caused it.
"I'm sure there will be a lot of speculation and, I'm sure, finger-pointing back to the teams or our team. But we've seen some issues here, especially with that particular tire over the last couple of days. We'll try to dig in and learn more, but I promise you one thing, it wasn't low tire pressure. I've been out here for two days running around and haven't had a flat."
Goodyear made the folllowing statement regarding the incident: "Tires failed in a manner consistent with low inflation pressure."