Posted on by Staff Report

Steady Biffle leads rough outing; Hamlin next best

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is one of the most technical tracks on the circuit. Setups are at a premium, and one slight misfire on the 1-mile oval can set a driver back laps.

Even beyond that, other incidents come into play. Other drivers wrecking and fuel strategy, for example, are amplified in Loudon.

With that in mind, it was a pretty rough day for the Coca-Cola Racing Family on Sunday.

In the No. 16 Ford, Greg Biffle finished in 15th place, the best in the six-driver group. Every other driver ran into some sort of incident, although most were having pretty good days up until that point.

A roundup on the Coca-Cola Racing Family in order of how they finished at Loudon:

Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Recap: Biffle was the highest-placing Coca-Cola Racing Family driver because he stayed in the middle of the pack and avoided trouble. He started the race 22nd and, while never cracking the top 10, finished a respectable 15th. On this day, it was more than enough.
Quotable: Biffle was unavailable for comment.
His standing: Biffle is eighth in the standings with 545 points.
Outlook: Biffle is firmly entrenched in eighth place right now. It’d take a disastrous result (like finishing last) for either him or seventh-place Kyle Busch and ninth-place Brad Keselowski for the Biff to gain or lose spots in the next race, which is at Indianapolis following the last open week of the season.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Recap: For a while at Loudon, Hamlin looked like the Hamlin of old. His qualified seventh and had his No. 11 Toyota in the top five soon thereafter. Then it got bad. First, he was assessed a pit-road penalty due to a missing lug nut, putting him a lap down. He spent the next chunk of the race fighting to get back on the lead lap, which he eventually did and got into the top 10. When the final caution came, Hamlin elected to pit for fuel and fell to 19th. He avoided an out-of-fuel Tony Stewart on the green-white-checkered restart, but that set him back and he finished 21st.
Quotable: Hamlin was unavailable for comment.
His standing: Hamlin is 25th in the standings with 361 points.
Outlook: With seven races left before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, perhaps it’s time for Hamlin to put the brakes on the 2013 season and look forward to next year. He almost certainly won’t be driving for a title, but it could be a good time for his team to experiment.

Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: There was good, then there was bad for Stewart. The good is that, in the No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart put himself in position to win the Camping World RV Sales 301. He led 84 consecutive laps near the end of the race and, although he had given up the lead, was still running second. The bad was that, on the final lap after a green-white-checkered restart, Stewart ran out of Sunoco fuel and finished 26th, the last driver on the lead lap.
Quotable: “It’s hard to calculate how much you’re saving on the cautions. Thought we were about three quarters of a lap to the good before that last caution. Obviously, didn’t get as much gas saved as I thought we would. We had a good car all day. I was pretty excited because we were much better than we were yesterday (in practice). We got caught in traffic early on, but with some pit strategy, we got up front and stayed there. Track position was pretty important. We didn’t have the best car, by any means. Even the ones who had the best cars, it looked like they had trouble passing, so track position was key. We weren’t going to win the race, but if we hadn’t run out of fuel, we were going to run second.”
His standing: Stewart is 13th in the standings with 518 points.
Outlook: Stewart slipped out of the top 10 in the standings, but he still has a win to fall back on in the Wild Card chase. Still, his postseason hopes aren’t a lock. In fact, they’re up in the air with things so tight. The remaining tracks until the postseason, though, are ones where Stewart typically fares well.

Danica Patrick (No. 10)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Not only was Patrick involved in an on-track incident when she was spun by AJ Allmendinger, she later caused a wreck by misjudging her brakes. The result was sending Ricky Stenhouse Jr., her boyfriend, and Travis Kvapil into the wall.
Quotable: “What it felt like was either I misjudged the braking or everyone jammed up a little bit. I got sideways trying to slow down so that I didn’t drive up into the back of anyone. I just got sideways and there is nothing you can do. The worst part is that you know, obviously, I didn’t want to take anybody with me. I feel bad. What can I say? We were having a reasonable race and just didn’t mean to do it.”
Her standing: Patrick is 27th in the standings with 350 points.
Outlook: History will collide in Indianapolis when Patrick, as a female driver, takes the road at the Brickyard, one of the sport’s most iconic tracks. The wide, long track suits Danica’s abilities, too.

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: It was a tough week all the way around for Newman. First, he learned that Stewart-Haas Racing was bringing on Kevin Harvick, leaving Newman without a ride for 2014. Then the driver actually began the race and didn’t fare much better. A four-car incident on Lap 226 (of 302) dinged Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet enough to send him out of the race in 39th place.
Quotable: “We just got whacked by a bunch of guys — the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) hit me first, the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) hit me next and then I guess it was Kurt (Busch) who went underneath three-wide and bypassed the No. 20 (Matt Kenseth, who) came and clipped us and knocked us into the fence and took himself out. That was the best I could tell. I don’t know. I guess the No. 20 had a little influence on it. We kind of were in a bad spot, having a little bit older tires. We didn’t have the greatest car, but have to thank WIX Filters for jumping on board and sponsoring us. That is not the press we wanted to give them, but just a lot of disrespect from a bunch of guys on restarts. What comes around goes around.”
His standing: Newman is 19th in the standings with 487 points.
Outlook: Newman is out of the postseason picture for now, and his spot in the standings is more dire than it was two weeks ago. Seven races remain in the race to the Chase, and the veteran certainly needs at least one win to get in — and maybe two.

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford

Recap: For the second consecutive week, Joey Logano blew a tire. For the second consecutive week, it resulted in a 40th-place finish. Those consecutive four-point showings dropped Logano from 10th in the standings to 18th.
Quotable: “We had a tire failure. That is two weeks in a row. I don’t know. It is the same thing that happened to the 1 car (Jamie McMurray) in practice. The left rear tire blew out. It is something they need to look into because that is two cars this week and I am surprised it happened. It isn’t like we touched anyone and rubbed it to make it go down, it just blew out. It is unfortunate for our Shell Pennzoil team. That is two weeks in a row we are going to have probably 43rd-place finishes. I am just mad right now.”
His standing: Logano is 18th in the standings with 487 points.
Outlook: All the work Logano and his team put forth in getting into the top 10 was undone by issues beyond their control. Don’t count him out yet, though.

Posted on by Nascar

Recent strength and close points standings give No. 31 team hope

LOUDON, N.H. — Jeff Burton is 17th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series points standings and winless in 2013.
 
He is, in fact, winless since 2008, a span of 168 races.
 
That doesn’t mean that he and his Richard Childress Racing team think they’re out of this year’s playoff picture, the 10-race Chase For The Sprint Cup that begins Sept. 15 at Chicagoland Speedway.
 
Six drivers and a deficit of 25 points stand between the 45-year-old Burton and 10th place in the standings, the initial cutoff for the Chase field.
 
Two of those drivers, Martin Truex Jr. and Tony Stewart, each have one Sprint Cup victory this year, putting them in the driver’s seat for the two Wild Card positions that will round out the 12-team Chase lineup.
 
Burton’s been around, with more than two decades in Cup, so he knows just how difficult the task ahead will be. He’s a realist. But he also knows what his team can achieve.

"Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we are the class of the field, but we are definitely making progress…"

— Jeff Burton

Sunday’s third-place finish in the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway vaulted Burton four points positions, from the periphery of the Chase picture into something a bit more legitimate.
 
Burton said he thinks the Chase is more than a possibility, but even he uses the term “long shot.”
 
“We have been running a lot better the last two months,” said Burton, after he gained 11 spots on the track during the final 70 or so laps at NHMS.
 
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we are the class of the field, but we are definitely making progress and we feel like we are starting to build on something — and we understand what we’re looking for now.”
 
Others may scoff the mentions of Burton and Chase contention, but Burton’s a believer. Sometimes long shots pay off.
 
“We don’t think we are out of the Chase. I know everybody else in the world does, but we don’t,” he said. “We feel like we can still do it.
 
“There’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen between now and Richmond (the final regular-season race). It’s so competitive, so tight. Today is a good example: Everybody is racing each other that’s racing for those spots, and if we can knock off some — get on one of those streaks that I used to get on, we can make it and we intend to.”
 
Given the ebb and flow of the points picture this year, it could happen. A week ago, Kurt Busch gained five spots and Tony Stewart six to find themselves in the top 10.
 
On Sunday, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne were the ones on the move, dispatching Busch and Stewart. While no positions in the top eight changed, there was movement at eight of the 10 spots between 11th and 20th.
 
And Burton says his team has the potential to continue to improve. A four-race stretch from Charlotte through Michigan saw the South Boston, Va., native finish 12th or better, due in part to changes that were “completely different than we had done going into any other race.”
 
“And from then on, we’ve been (on) go,” he said. “I won’t go into specifics about what we did, but it taught us what we could do to be better and since then we have been pretty good.
 
“Now, again, we have not been the best car but we have been a solid top‑10 car.”
 
The team, headed up by crew chief Luke Lambert, is young and unproven. Lambert had only 17 races under his belt at the Cup level before the start of the season. And the team engineers, for the most part, are no more experienced.
 
That newness, combined with a sluggish start to the year, had the group playing catch-up early on.
 
“And if there was a wreck on the race track, I was in it,” Burton said. “I couldn’t miss a wreck to save my life.”
 
But now, he said, “we are starting to learn each other.”
 
“We have a lot of things going on; it’s not one thing, but I think the main thing is just having time together and understanding each other.”

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

Posted on by Staff Report

See the entry list for this weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway

Click here to see the entry list for this weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway.

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

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Shared Michael Waltrip Racing ride has No. 55 car in hunt for Owners’ Championship

Related: Owner standings | Driver standings

FULL SERIES COVERAGE

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For the first time since the Chase for the Sprint Cup format was introduced in 2004, there’s a distinct possibility that there might be different players in the drivers’ and owners’ championships.

With Brian Vickers’ win at Loudon, the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota — driven by Mark Martin, team owner Michael Waltrip and Vickers this year — moved into the second provisional wild card spot for the owners’ Chase, two points ahead of Tony Stewart’s No. 14 car (owned by Margaret Haas).

Since the three drivers all run part-time schedules, they’re not a factor in the drivers’ championship, but the car could win the owners’ title since it’s active in every race.

MWR executive vice president Ty Norris said MWR and No. 55 crew chief Rodney Childers have had their eyes on the owners’ prize for a long time.

“Rodney Childers deserves to run for a championship as a crew chief,” Norris said. “About a year and a half ago, we told him that we were going to run Mark Martin in 24 races and Michael in the speedway races, and we were not even sure who was going to drive the other races at that point. And Rodney has everybody knocking on his door, always, and we respect that. But he made the choice to stay, and that was a big choice for our organization.

“One of the very first things we talked about was racing for an owner’s championship; let’s shake up the system. We’ll have multiple drivers but if we can win some races and be in a situation where we can run for an owner’s championship, that can be just as remarkable as running for a driver’s championship.”

During the first nine years of the Chase, no car has been eligible for the owners’ title without a full-time Chase driver behind the wheel. That could change this year.

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

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Part-time driver breaks years-long winless streak

Related: Race results | Standings

LOUDON, N.H. — Surprise! The Michael Waltrip Racing driver almost everyone expected to win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway wasn’t in Victory Lane.
 
But his part-time teammate was. Making the most of his limited stint in MWR’s No. 55 Toyota, Brian Vickers solidified his claim to a permanent seat in the car with a stunning victory at the Magic Mile.
 
In a green-white-checkered-flag finish, Vickers sped away from Kyle Busch in overtime and took the checkered flag .582 seconds ahead of Busch to win Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301.
 
And he did so despite losing a lap because of a pit road penalty incurred when he drove away from his pit stall with a wrench on the deck lid of the 55 Camry — a lap he later regained with a wave-around just past the midpoint of the race.

The victory was a strong signal that Vickers has come all the way back from blood clots in his legs and lungs that threatened his life and sidelined him for the second half of the 2010 season. After recuperating, Vickers ran a full Cup season for Red Bull Racing in 2011 but lost his ride when Red Bull left the sport.
 
The third victory of Vickers’ career was his first since August 2009 at Michigan. Jeff Burton ran third — his first podium finish since July 2012 at Daytona — followed by pole-sitter Brad Keselowski and Aric Almirola. Series leader Jimmie Johnson, whose qualifying time was disallowed because of a ride-height violation on Friday, rallied to finish sixth.
 
In the closing laps, Vickers tried to avoid thoughts of what a win would mean for his career, but as he walked to Victory Lane, the importance of his accomplishment began to register.
 
"It was difficult not to think about that those last 50 laps or 30 laps or whatever it was," Vickers said. "I just tried to live in the moment as much as possible, turn by turn and not think about the past or the future or what could or couldn’t happen.
 
"But once it was over, it was… I think it was a sigh of relief with everything that had happened, to finally, clinch another victory after so long and after so much, and it was a lot of thankfulness. I don’t know if that’s the best… that’s definitely the feeling I have. I just don’t know if that’s the right word to articulate it.
 
"Just thankful for everything that had happened and everything that didn’t happen; that I was able to get back into a race car, and that I had the support of family and friends to get through everything and to get back in the car."
 
Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon completed the top 10. Tony Stewart led 84 laps but ran out of fuel on the next-to-last circuit and finished 26th. Pre-race favorite Clint Bowyer, a two-time New Hampshire winner and the MWR driver expected to be first to the checkered flag, wound up 13th but held second place in the series standings, 56 points behind Johnson.
 
Though Busch had one of the strongest cars in the field, he wasn’t brimming with confidence when he lined up in third in the inside lane for the final restart on Lap 301.
 
"We didn’t have a chance," Busch said. "Vickers taking the outside (lane for the restart) was going to be the car to beat, and Tony obviously running out of gas there–almost wrecked with him. Just wish the race was two laps longer maybe and Vickers would have run out and maybe we would have been able to win the thing. "
 
Stewart was leading and in full fuel-conservation mode when contact between the Chevys of Paul Menard and Gordon sent Gordon spinning in Turn 2 on Lap 258. NASCAR called the 11th caution of the race because of the accident, leaving Stewart and Busch to restart side-by-side on Lap 263.
 
Stewart held the top spot for 24 laps, but Vickers showed his muscle late in the race, passed Kyle Busch for second on Lap 283 and powered past Stewart on the frontstretch four laps later. Vickers was cruising toward his first victory in four years when NASCAR called a caution on Lap 297 of 301 and sent the race to overtime.
 
But the caution only forestalled Vickers’ triumph for one extra lap, as he beat Busch to the finish in the two-lap Sprint.
 
Notes: With his fourth-place finish, Keselowski gained four spots to ninth in the Cup standings… The No. 55 MWR Toyota, which has been driven by Mark Martin, team owner Michael Waltrip and Vickers this year, moved into a wild-card position for the owners’ Chase… Running out of fuel cost Stewart three positions in the standings. He’s now 13th but holds the second provisional wild card spot… Vickers is the 11th different winner in the last 11 Cup races at New Hampshire.

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

Posted on by Holly Cain

Five-time drives through the pack after starting in the rear

RELATED: New Hampshire results | Updated standings

LOUDON, N.H. — It was the first time in Jimmie Johnson’s historic 12-year premier series career that the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion would start a race from the 43rd and very last spot on the grid.

But all that did was make his run up through the field Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway all the more dramatic.

On a track and in a race that puts passing at a high premium, Johnson overtook 37 cars to finish sixth and take his biggest championship lead of the season — a hefty 56 points over second place Clint Bowyer — heading into the off-week.

Johnson’s No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet was relegated to the last starting position after it failed post-qualifying inspection. Officials found the front of his Chevy too low — a minor infraction according to his crew chief Chad Knaus, who immediately accepted responsibility for the oversight and promised the team would put it behind them and overcome.

That’s exactly what happened.

"We just had a hole to dig out of and we did a nice job of climbing out of it."

— Jimmie Johnson

“We had a mistake that we made, that hurt us in qualifying,’’ Johnson said after climbing out of the car Sunday. “We knew we had a fast race car and proved that again on Saturday (in practice) and were very confident coming into today.

“We just had a hole to dig out of and we did a nice job of climbing out of it."

And Johnson wasted no time digging.

He passed seven cars in the opening four laps and cracked the top-20 — an improvement of 23 positions — by lap 50 of the 301-lap event. He broke into the top-10 by lap 165 and ran there the rest of the race picking off cars and avoiding accidents all around him.

“The cautions didn’t work out for us,’’ Johnson explained of having to improvise strategy. “We pitted on the second or third caution and the cautions didn’t fall right, after that for us to take advantage, which is fine.

“We just had to do it the old-fashioned way and drive up through there and pass a lot of cars and we were able to get pretty far up there.’’

It was enough to impress Knaus as well, although the veteran crew chief conceded he expected as much knowing how fast the car was. And how good Johnson is.

“We never got the track position we wanted to try to obtain,’’ Knaus said. “But Jimmie did a fantastic job and we made the best out of a bad situation and that’s really all you can do. That’s what we wanted to do, to make today a non-issue and that’s exactly what we did.

“We didn’t need to win, but we didn’t need to lose and we came out today with a solid finish, a solid day.’’

It was Johnson’s fifth top-10 in the last six races, which also included a pair of victories at Pocono and Daytona. And it was a strong message to the competition that even when faced with great adversity, this team still finds a way to get it done.

“All in all it was a great day for the Lowes’ team,’’ Johnson said. “I’m proud of the effort these guys put in, looking forward to the off-week and getting to Indy.

“It wasn’t easy at all. We just fought through the day."

And if Johnson couldn’t win, he was genuinely happy for the day’s victor, his long-time friend Brian Vickers.

“He’s been through a long road of challenges and made it through it all and I’m very proud of him,’’ Johnson said. “I’m heading over to victory lane to dump Gatorade on him."

 

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

Posted on by Holly Cain

Wreck involving Danica Patrick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ends day for Danica

LOUDON, N.H. — For the second time this season, NASCAR’s two-person Sprint Cup Series rookie class — the sport’s most famous racing couple Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – were involved together in a high profile incident.

While Stenhouse was involved in a chain-reaction accident that crashed Patrick at Charlotte in May, on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway it was Patrick issuing a good-natured “I’m sorry.’’

Patrick was apologetic after her Chevy slid into Stenhouse’s Ford in Turn 1 with 62 laps remaining in the race while they were running mid-pack. The contact also collected Travis Kvapil and brought out the 10th caution of the day.

Standing by her wrecked No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in the garage afterward, Patrick explained to reporters what happened and took responsibility for the situation.

“I’m not sure if I misjudged the braking zone or if they stopped really quick in front of me,’’ said Patrick, who was credited with a 37th place finish in her New Hampshire Cup debut.

“At the end of the day, it was me that was sideways, so I’m sorry. I feel bad. What can I say? We were having a reasonable race and just didn’t mean to do it.”

"At the end of the day, it was me that was sideways, so I’m sorry."

— Danica Patrick

It ended the afternoon for Kvapil, but Stenhouse was able to continue after the accident and finished 34th — albeit 27 laps down.

In talking about the situation, Stenhouse never referred to Patrick by name, instead only by car number. But he chalked the whole incident up to an honest mistake and his demeanor after the race was calm and understanding.  

“I haven’t seen a replay of what happened but (crew chief) Scott (Graves) said the 10 (Patrick) might have got into me, or the 93 (Kvapil) or somebody. I thought it was the 93,’’ Stenhouse said.

“It’s not the first time you get crashed on accident. I have crashed people on accident as well. It is part of it. It is the first crash we have had in a long time so we are pretty lucky that we have been making it to the end of these races. It is kind of what has kept us where we are in points. We didn’t have a good car anyway today.”

It’s not the first time Stenhouse and Patrick have collided on-track either and both have always candidly said it’s to be expected because of the nature of the sport.

Patrick joked that it was a quiet ride home after their run-in at Charlotte, but that they were sharing a beer by the end of the night — essentially chalking it up to a racing inevitability.

They also both realize that because of the unique situation their romantic relationship creates, the spotlight will shine more brightly.

"I understand it’s interesting," she said after Charlotte. "I’m sure I would want to know how that all went down after the race too. We’re an entertainment sport, so I get it."

This time, it looks like Stenhouse — a two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion — will have the chance to take the higher road. And he’ll have plenty of time for the opportunity since the series heads into a rare off-week.

The couple had plans to attend the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles this week and later Patrick was to be in a wedding in Indianapolis, where the series will next race, July 28.

“It is just part of it,’’ Stenhouse said allowing a smile. “Like I told these guys, I have been wrecked before and wrecked people myself.

“I didn’t have good brakes and I was complaining about it all race. I don’t know if anyone else was having problems with it. In practice we had some problems of getting in the brake and it darting left pretty quick with the front end suspension and the way the geometry is.

“It is all part of it. We will take the weekend off and go to Indy.”

 

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

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Top-three finish for New Hampshire Motor Speedway vet has him thinking Chase

Related: Results | Standings

Three up

Three down

In the green

 

Brad Keselowski (Change: 13th to 9th)

It’s too soon to say that Keselowski is “back”, but he’s at least in possession of a Chase spot, whereas he wasn’t heading into the race. New Hampshire isn’t historically one of his better tracks, so a fourth-place finish is huge for the reigning champ, who is still trying to get his mojo going in 2013.

 

Jeff Burton (Change: 21st to 17th)

Jeff Burton still believes he’s capable of making the Chase, and he’s racing like it. As a veteran of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his third-place finish shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the fact that he’s in 17th place and 25 points out of 10th should.

 

Aric Almirola (Change: 19th to 16th)

It’s been easy to count Almirola out as a legitimate Chase contender over the past month (maybe even longer), but his shocking fifth-place Loudon finish has him back in the middle of Wild-Card contention. But will he get the win he needs to make it worthwhile?

 

Kasey Kahne (Change: 12th to 10th)

Kahne was on thin ice heading into the race, sitting in 12th place while holding onto the final Chase spot. As the defending race winner, he came into Sunday as a favorite, and while he didn’t quite deliver a repeat, his 11th-place finish was enough to move back into a non-Wild Card spot.

 

Jeff Gordon (Change: 14th to 12th)

Gordon is in a bit of a unique position, in 12th place but not currently in a Chase-eligible spot because of Tony Stewart’s lone victory. Still, he’ll enjoy the move up from 14th, which ties him with Martin Truex Jr. (who also has a victory) and has him just two points behind 10th-place Kasey Kahne.

 

Jamie McMurray (Change: 17th to 15th)

With his 12th-place Loudon finish, McMurray didn’t exactly set the world on fire coming off a seventh-place Daytona finish, but it does move him up to 15th. With just 25 points separating him from a non-Wild Card spot, the book can’t be closed on McMurray’s Chase chances.

In the red

Kurt Busch (Change: 9th to 14th)

Much like Stewart, Busch was the running with the class of the field all day, leading the most laps (104) of any driver before running into an unfortunate circumstance when he and Ryan Newman were wrecked from contact with Matt Kenseth. Busch falls out of a Chase spot, and has never won at the upcoming Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

 

Joey Logano (Change: 15th to 18th)

New England native and former New Hampshire winner Logano struggled right out of the gate on Sunday after his tire blew five laps in. It’s hard to recover from a catastrophe like that, and while he did come back out to run 211 laps and finish 40th, it’s hard not to count the 18th-place Logano out of contention.

 

Ryan Newman (Change: 16th to 19th)

Some expected Newman, potentially inspired by “current events,” to come out to New Hampshire, where he has a career-best three wins, and tear it up. His day was ended after a wreck with Kurt Busch, but even then he wasn’t making much noise. In 19th, his season is headed in the wrong direction.

 

Tony Stewart (Change: 10th to 13th)

What a heartbreaking race for Stewart, who led 84 laps (second only to Kurt Busch’s 102) and was second on the final restart before running out of gas on the green-white-checkered overtime finish. With his disappointing finish of 26th, Stewart drops five spots and only holds onto a Chase spot because of his lone victory.

Missed chances

 

Kyle Busch (No change)

It’s hard to complain about a second-place finish, especially as the first Cup driver to get the checkered in the field, but Busch wouldn’t have minded getting his third victory of the season. It would have put him in elite company with Jimmie Johnson (four wins) and teammate Matt Kenseth (four) as the only drivers with at least three wins. And he’d be in fifth place, not seventh.

 

Clint Bowyer (No change)

With two Loudon victories to his name, Bowyer really needed to add a third on Sunday but fell quite short. His 13th-place finish kept him in second place behind Jimmie Johnson, but he’s one of just three drivers in the top 10 without a victory and you have to figure sooner or later, it could come back to bite him.

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Kurt Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa

 

Posted on by Staff Report

Moments that changed the course of the race at the Magic Mile

BLOWN TIRE COSTLY FOR LOGANO
For the second consecutive week, Joey Logano fell in the standings – from 10th before Daytona to 18th after New Hampshire. A blown tire on the fourth lap led to the first caution of the day and relegated Logano to a 40th-place finish.

UPS

“It isn’t like we touched anyone and rubbed it to make it go down; it just blew out,” Logano said. “It is unfortunate for our Shell Pennzoil team. That is two weeks in a row we are going to have probably 43rd place finishes. I am just mad right now.”

Logano sits 36 points out of the top 10 and only 11 points ahead of 21st place as he attempts to climb back into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup contention with only seven races left in the regular season.

VICKERS SAVES FUEL TO GET TO THE FINISH
Tony Stewart was leading and in full fuel-conservation mode when contact between the Chevys of Paul Menard and Jeff Gordon sent Gordon spinning in Turn 2 on Lap 258. NASCAR called the 11th caution of the race because of the accident, leaving Stewart and Busch to restart side-by-side on Lap 263.

Stewart held the top spot for 24 laps, but Vickers — who stayed out with Stewart at lap 219 — showed his muscle late in the race, passed Kyle Busch for second on Lap 283 and powered past Stewart on the frontstretch four laps later. Vickers was cruising toward his first victory in four years, when NASCAR called a caution on Lap 297 of 301 and sent the race to overtime.

But the caution only forestalled Vickers’ triumph for one extra lap, as he beat Busch to the finish in  a two-lap sprint. Vickers, however, did not have enough Sunoco Green E15 to celebrate his first win in nearly four years.

“I’m pretty sure we ran out of gas but either way, it shut off or wouldn’t start, and it was the end of my burnout but it was a special burnout,” Vickers said.

STEADY JOHNSON CLIMBS FROM LAST TO SIXTH
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson, whose qualifying time was disallowed because of a ride-height violation on Friday, rallied from the 43rd starting position to finish sixth.
“It was tough it wasn’t easy by any means,” Johnson said. “You had to make quick work of people on the restarts and then we all kind of fell in line.

“You would have to wait for the guy in front of you to bobble and make a mistake. These guys are all pretty good out there. There were not many opportunities to get.  We just fought through the day and got our Lowe’s Chevrolet to sixth.”

NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.

Posted on by Nascar

No. 78 team’s promising day ends early after run-in with Newman, Kenseth

RELATED: New Hampshire results | Updated standings

LOUDON, N.H. – In what was perhaps his best performance to date behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet, Kurt Busch finished a very unsatisfying 31st.
 
He has had better finishes this year, for certain, but never has Busch seemed closer to a return to the winner’s circle.
 
Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, led 102 laps of the 302 that made up Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Through the season’s first 18 events, he had led a total of 160.

"We took a hit in the points, but we’re still in the Chase hunt — that’s the good news."

— Kurt Busch

It was a race that saw him battle younger brother Kyle Busch early, and race his way back through the field on at least two occasions when pit stop strategy dropped him out of the top 10.
 
But the day took a turn for the worse on lap 225 when Busch, 34, was involved in a four-car incident in Turn 1. Racing for the eighth position, Busch shot inside of Matt Kenseth and pulled up in front of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, only to have the back end of his Chevrolet spin around.
 
Ryan Newman, running on the outside, was collected in the spin while Kasey Kahne, running behind Kenseth, got into the back of the JGR driver.
 
Newman’s Stewart-Haas Racing entry was too severely damaged to repair, and he finished 39th, done for the day after 225 laps. The cars of Kenseth (ninth) and Kahne (11th), meanwhile, seemed no worse for wear.
 
“I just got hit from behind,” Busch said while waiting for his crew to make repairs to his car. “There was three-wide action, everybody’s going hard …
 
“The car gets light when there is no air on the rear spoiler back there.”
 
Newman said older tires on his car put him “in a bad spot” but that “I guess it was Kurt that went underneath three-wide and bypassed (Kenseth) … and clipped us and knocked us into the fence and took himself out. That was the best I could tell.
 
“I guess (Kenseth) had a little influence on it.”
 
Kenseth said there was nothing wrong with Busch’s move to make it three-wide in the turn, but he though Busch was going too fast to make the corner without incident.
 
“I got out of (the gas) as much as I could get out of it; he went sliding past me,” Kenseth said. “I don’t think he hit me on the way by but we were pretty darn close.
 
“He just went sliding up past me and cleaned out the 39. It’s a good thing I lifted because all three of us would have been in the fence. I had to stop. That cost us all our track position, which here is everything.”
 
A seven-week run packed with five top-10 finishes had carried Busch into the top-10 in points, and made the team one of the season’s first-half surprises.
 
Sunday’s finish, however, dropped him from ninth to 14th in the standings.
 
“We took a hit in the points, but we’re still in the Chase hunt — that’s the good news,” he said. “But we need to have more consistency and can’t have these kinds of finishes with only seven races remaining before the Chase.”

READ MORE:

READ: Danica, Ricky
tangle at Loudon

READ: Standings Shuffle:
Burton in the mix

WATCH: Busch,
Newman wreck

READ: Complete coverage
from New Hampshire, Iowa