Matt Kenseth took advantage of Kevin Harvick’s empty fuel cell Sunday and won the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. But he last pitted at lap 212, while several drivers in the top of the order went in after a caution at lap 238 – a group that included Hamlin and Kenseth, members of the Gibbs roster also made up of Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.
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It was the fourth consecutive victory and ninth in the last 11 races for JGR, which saw Hamlin, victor of last weekend’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, finish runner-up after working in tandem with Kenseth to apply pressure on Harvick.
A strong performance is expected, and a podium of Johnson, Harvick and Kenseth appears to be a likely result. However, in the same vein, only race winners Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth are already locked into the next round, and conceivably anyone else in the top sixteen could see their season end next weekend. The victory locked Kenseth in to the second round of the NASCAR playoffs, along with Hamlin.
The 16-driver Chase field will be cut to 12 after next Sunday’s “AAA 400“ Dover global Speedway.
“Yeah”, he said, “I mean, obviously it’s what we prepare for”. “I was giving Kevin everything I had”.
“I started pressuring (Harvick) to make sure he burned more fuel”, said Kenseth. And best of both were second place vehicle. Harvick needs to win a race or claw back into the top-12 in the standings in the next two events to avoid elimination. He’s in jeopardy of not advancing unless he can pull a huge win at Dover next week.
“We had a pretty good race, really“, said Hamlin.
Kenseth won for the fifth time this season and stalked Harvick over the final tense laps that ended when the No. 4 Chevrolet had nothing left in the tank. He later got into an altercation with Johnson in the motorhome lot and shoved the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
Harvick was able to maintain his lead by winning the race off pit road.
Hamilton – who has that killer instinct – had absolutely no problem with taking Rosberg wide in Corner 1, muscling his way through to take a lead he would not surrender for the remainder of the 53-lap race.
The task will be a little tougher for Busch.
“It’s killed”, he said over the radio. Busch, who had to win his way into the Chase after a broken leg knocked him out of the first part of the season, is now in 13th place in the Chase standings. The reigning Sprint Cup champion was in control of the race, having led it for 216 of the 300-lap total distance, when disaster struck with two laps to go. Greg Biffle, Brad Keselowski and Harvick were the leaders on the restart, gambling their fuel would hold out. First, charging from 15th to the lead over the final 15 laps, then by surpassing fellow championship contender Ryan Newman on a restart with four laps remaining. He rebounded to finish 12th.
Keselowski fought back to 12th, but was understandably angry at race end; “my understanding is quite clear, this is an entertainment sport, not a fair sport” was his scathing comment to reporters post-race.
Busch was the first Chase driver to suffer serious damage when his right front tire blew and he hit the wall.
Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished sixth and seventh respectively, putting Jimmie fifth in points and Gordon in 10th. Harvick effortlessly circumvented lap traffic and was well ahead of Keselowski and Kenseth at the halfway point.
I dont use (the media) to make threats, Harvick said.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr., 19th on the speed charts, commended his team for its effort on Friday, acknowledging “It’s what we’ve been lacking here for a long time…the aggression we had here today is something we have to keep in mind”.
