Kenseth takes advantage of Harvick's empty tank, steals New Hampshire win

When the #4 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet of dominant Kevin Harvick ran out of fuel with a handful of laps to go in Sunday's Sylvania 300 in Loudon, New Hampshire, Matt Kenseth was lurking behind him in second place. Kenseth wheeled his #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota past Harvick's sputtering car to steal the win and become the second driver to advance to round 2 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with a win, after his teammate Denny Hamlin (#11) won last week at Chicagoland. Harvick, who ended Chicagoland 16th on the Chase grid thanks to his restart incident with the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, then moved up a spot after Clint Bowyer's (#15) penalty earlier this week, was looking to put the incident behind him with a win that would have locked him, the defending series champion, into the 12-driver Contender round after all. He now has to avoid misfortune next week at Dover.

Aside from Harvick, the #2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski and the #88 Hendrick Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. had strong runs throughout most of the 300-lap race. Keselowski was penalized after it was ruled that he jumped a restart with about 50 laps to go; he worked his way up to 18th by the checkered flag. Restarting next to Keselowski that time was the #16 Roush Ford of Greg Biffle, who last pitted on lap 206, a full six laps before Harvick's last pit at the time he ran out, and pulled off an upset fourth-place finish behind Kenseth, Hamlin and the #22 Penske Ford of Joey Logano. Earnhardt lost several positions after his and many other drivers' pit strategies were messed up on lap 206 when Danica Patrick (#10) spun and collected the #55 Toyota of David Ragan, prompting a red flag for cleanup. Earnhardt got back up to 7th place, then settled into 12th behind the #78 Chevrolet of fellow Chaser Martin Truex Jr. Approaching the white flag, Earnhardt had to pit and ultimately finished in 25th place, leaving him 12th on the Chase grid only one point ahead of the cutoff.

Meanwhile, in 13th one point below the cutoff is Kyle Busch, whose #18 Gibbs Toyota hit the wall around lap 181, sending him to the garage and in danger of being eliminated next week, after his impressive comeback from his Daytona injury with four wins in five races during the summer. The fourth Gibbs driver, Carl Edwards (#19), started on the pole, got a tire rub about halfway through the race, and worked his way up to a fifth-place finish thanks to the timing of some of the cautions and the pit strategies of other drivers. The other two drivers up for elimination heading into Dover are Bowyer and Paul Menard, of the #27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Race Results:

1. (13) 20-Matt Kenseth - Toyota - 300 laps, led 27 laps
2. (7) 11-Denny Hamlin - Toyota - 300 laps, led 21 laps
3. (8) 22-Joey Logano - Ford - 300 laps
4. (25) 16-Greg Biffle - Ford - 300 laps, led 12 laps
5. (1) 19-Carl Edwards - Toyota - 300 laps, led 19 laps
6. (5) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 300 laps
7. (10) 24-Jeff Gordon - Chevrolet - 300 laps
8. (21) 78-Martin Truex Jr. - Chevrolet - 300 laps
9. (12) 5-Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 300 laps
10. (9) 31-Ryan Newman - Chevrolet - 300 laps