RELATED: Chase Bubble Watch | Complete results from Loudon

LOUDON, N.H. – Kevin Harvick‘s NASCAR Sprint Cup championship defense took another hard blow Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when the reigning champ’s race-leading No. 4 Chevy ran out of gas with three laps remaining in the Sylvania 300.

An understandably frustrated Harvick exited his car, walked quickly from pit road through the garage area staring straight ahead and refused to speak to anyone. His crew chief Rodney Childers also declined to talk to reporters in the garage following the race.

About a half hour after the race, Harvick posted on Twitter: “Fast car. Great day. Bad ending.”

Things haven’t gone exactly to plan but I promise you one thing “we will not quit” #itaintover

— Kevin Harvick (@KevinHarvick) September 27, 2015

It was gut-wrenching outcome for sure for Harvick, who finished 42nd in the opening race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff last week at Chicago after cutting a tire and getting into the wall. He badly needed a win at New Hampshire, or next week at Dover, Del., to advance to the next elimination round.

By all accounts, it looked like Harvick was on his way to Chase redemption. He qualified on the front row, and his No. 4 Ditech Chevy led a dominating 216 of the race’s 300 laps.

His car was so good that at various points during the afternoon he paced the competition by wide margins. He held a usually unheard of seven-second lead over third place and a 12-second lead over fifth place midway through the race.

WATCH: Harvick falters on fuel, Kenseth gets the win

Ultimately he was scored 21st after pitting for a quick splash of fuel.

Childers also took to Twitter about an hour after the race, reiterating what a good car Harvick had all day and explaining what happened.

Great car all weekend.. To our real fans that actually care.. Not the ones that are jackasses.. Here ya go.. pic.twitter.com/EaIRAUaKNT

— Rodney Childers (@RodneyChilders4) September 27, 2015

Harvick is now ranked 15th among the 16 Chase drivers. Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, who have won the first two races of the Chase, plus any third Chase driver who wins at Dover will advance to the Contender Round, along with the other drivers in the top 12. Harvick is now 23 points behind 12th place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Harvick has never won at Dover’s “Monster Mile” but has 13 top-10 finishes in 29 previous starts. He was runner-up in the race there in May and started on the pole in the 2014 Chase race there.

A solid day for Danica Patrick turned sour as Sunday’s event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway entered the final 100 laps when a heavy crash caused a red flag and ended her race early.
 
The Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet of Patrick, who was running on the fringes of the top 10, was turned sideways on Lap 203 after contact from the No. 31 Chevrolet of Ryan Newman. Newman and Jeff Gordon were in close quarters to her inside, and their tight battle spilled over into Patrick’s racing line.
 
Patrick’s car slid down off the Turn 1 retaining wall directly into the path of David Ragan‘s No. 55 Toyota, which careened off the rear deck of Patrick’s No. 10.
 

“I got really, really hit,” Patrick told her crew, who tried to explain to her that Gordon was at fault as much as Newman.

“It’s such a shame,” said Patrick, who finished 40th. “We were having a good race and the car was definitely pretty decent. We took two tires on that last stop and it was definitely a little bit too loose, but I was kind of waiting for it to come to me and Newman has always been super fair and I know that he was working to get by me. But, it sounds like maybe Jeff got into him, or something. It’s that time of year. It’s the Chase and people are racing hard and they want everything they can get, and maybe Jeff couldn’t see exactly where he was in relationship to the No. 31 (Newman) and me. But I did not get the good end of the stick.”

The contact and extensive spray of debris forced the race under red-flag conditions for 6 minutes and 4 seconds, after 204 of a scheduled 300 laps. The track was littered with impact-absorbing foam after contact pried open the right-side sheet metal on Ragan’s car.

Ragan, who wound up 41st in the 43-car field, said he had little chance to avoid Patrick’s car as it slid down into his path.

“I don’t know what happened to her, but typically when you hit the wall you hold onto the brakes, you lock it down — you try not to come back across the track.” Ragan said. “I saw her coming back down and I was trying. I didn’t want to lock my brakes up because I knew I would hit her, so I was trying to just get it as low as I could and just couldn’t get it as low as I needed to. Unfortunate to get involved in a wreck like that. I really hate it from our Michael Waltrip Racing Aaron’s Toyota team. We had a rocky start to the race with a loose wheel and unscheduled green flag pit stop, but we had kind of gotten back our mojo that last run and got back on the lead lap.

“Just one of those deals. I hate it for everybody that works on these race cars. We needed a good finish today, but I wish that she would have locked her brakes up and would have stayed up on the wall.”

Patrick was able to drive away from the crash, but reported to the infield care center on her own, primarily to check her carbon monoxide levels.

“I feel like for a month now I have been asking about it because sometimes after the race I get a headache,” Patrick said. “I just talked to the doctor in there and they said that could happen very easily from dehydration. It seemed like a little bit more than that to me, but it makes sense. We sweat like crazy in these cars. Just got to take my hydration game up a notch, I guess. I feel fine.”

RELATED: Get the full race results | Chase Bubble Watch

LOUDON, N.H. — Jimmie Johnson is no stranger to tire issues at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, running just 11 laps last summer in the July race at the “Magic Mile” before exiting early for two blown Goodyears.
 
The cut tire he endured two-thirds of the way through Sunday’s Sylvania 300 could’ve put the six-time Sprint Cup Series champion in a dire situation heading into the final race of the opening round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — but it didn’t.
 
The Hendrick Motorsports driver battled back from 23rd after the flat to regain his position on the lead lap — despite three cars being ahead of him for the beneficiary position — to muster an impressive sixth-place finish.
 
“Yeah, it was really weird … I went into Turn 3 and got on the brakes and the car traveled and slowed down,” Johnson said on pit road after the race. “It felt like something broke in the left-front, but they said there was a lug nut inside the wheel. I guess when I hit the brakes to slow down, a lug nut hit the valve stem and took the tire out.
 
“Fortunately some cautions fell in quick order to let us get back on the lead lap. We had a solid car and got up there to ninth or something and some guys ran out of fuel and got us to sixth. … We had to deal with a lot of adversity today and overcame and got a great finish.”
 
Johnson now sits in fifth place among Chase drivers — third among those who haven’t clinched a berth to the Contender Round via a victory — as the series heads to his best track, Dover International Speedway.
 
Winner of four of the past seven races and a record 10 overall at the “Monster Mile,” Johnson should have little problem advancing to the next round as long as he can stay out of trouble.
 
That said, with defending champion Kevin Harvick in 15th place and likely in need of a victory to move on, it would behoove “Six-Time” to keep his foot to the floor and do what he does best at Dover — win.
 
“You can’t put your guard down. You’ve got to go in and race,” Johnson said. “Dover is a great track for us. A victory could be a huge shot in the arm for our team and really get some good momentum going for us.
 
“We’ll go there and give 100 percent and hopefully it’s a trophy; if not, hopefully it’s an advancement to the next round.”