[media-credit name=”Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”234″]
[/media-credit]After Denny Hamlin ran out of gas on the final lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, he then guaranteed a win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“If you’re going to say something like that, you’ve got to run extremely well. This team just gave me a great car this weekend and it was just untouchable here. That’s all I can say is it was easy to drive. Didn’t handle the greatest, but had great speed. This is what you dream of as a race car driver to have cars like these.” Hamlin said.
Hamlin kept that promise and came from the 32nd starting position to the lead before the 100th lap had been made.
Hamlin led 193 of the 300 laps in route to his fifth win of the season and the 100th win all-time for Joe Gibbs Racing, becoming only the sixth team in NASCAR Sprint Cup history to reach 100 victories.
Jimmie Johnson had the second best car of the day. Johnson finished second and took over the series points lead by 1 over Brad Keselowski, who finished 6th.
“We had a great race car, just not an amazing car like the No. 11 had. We were best in class today; did a great job. We really expected the No. 11 to be tough here today, and he was. I was telling the guys on the radio on the way in, to only leave seven points on the table in two races is pretty good. We missed that win last week, and this week, and we didn’t lead the most this weekend, but it is probably seven total.” Johnson said.
“We’d like to be just a little bit faster than where we were today but this is what a championship team does. They take weekends where they’re not the best and they make something out of it. Probably could have got a top five or so if that last yellow wouldn’t have come out but ended up sixth so we can’t complain.” Keselowski said.
Jeff Gordon rebounds and finished third. But he only gained two points on the leaders. Gordon remains 12th in the standings, 45 points behind.
“There is no doubt we can get ourselves back into this. We’re a strong team, with fast race cars. We just have to consistently put those results together that we’re capable of, and who knows where we can get to in the points.” Gordon said.
Clint Bowyer finished 4th, Kasey Kahne 5th, Keselowski 6th and Tony Stewart finished 7th.
“Our 5-hour Energy Toyota was, like I said, solid, but we needed a little bit more. I fought loose in and off most of the day. Never really did get our rear grip where we needed it. It was a solid finish and kept us in the game going to Dover.” Bowyer said.
After battling handling issues all race long, Kevin Harvick finished 11th and moved up two positions, to eighth in the standings, 31 points behind.
“This was a solid points day for the Budweiser Chevrolet team. We struggled to find the perfect setup for the car today, but the crew didn’t give up and as long as we continue to produce consistent results we should be in a good position as we approach the end of the season.” Harvick said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 13th, 26 points behind.
The worst finishers at New Hampshire were Roush teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth along with Michael Waltrip Racings (MWR) Martin Truex Jr.
Kenseth finished 14th, four spots better than last week but and remains in the 11th position, 35 points behind.
“On a long run we had about a 10th-place car, which is probably a little bit better than we usually do here. But on short runs we weren’t very good at all and then we got that caution there at the end and that didn’t work in our favor. We were a little bit better on a long run, but weren’t that great overall and was maybe a 10th-place car.” Kenseth said.
Truex Jr. finished 17th and drops on spot to 10th, 34 points behind.
Biffle finished 18th and drops one spot in the standings to 9th, 33 points behind.
“We were doing really well in the middle part of the race and I thought, ‘Man, we’ve got something. We’re going.’ We got up to 10th and then just went straight backwards. I don’t know what happened.” Biffle said.
Official Chase Standings/Stats
After race 2 of 10
Sylvania 300, New Hampshire
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php
| Pos. | Driver | (+/-) | Wins | Top-5 | Top-10 | Bon. | Avg St | Ave Fin | Laps | Ttl Laps | Points | Bnd |
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10.5 | 2 | 567 | 567 | 2096 | 0 |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | -1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 3.5 | 567 | 567 | 2095 | -1 |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 20 | 8.5 | 567 | 567 | 2089 | -7 |
| 4 | Tony Stewart | -1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 6.5 | 567 | 567 | 2086 | -10 |
| 5 | Kasey Kahne | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 567 | 567 | 2081 | -15 |
| 6 | Clint Bowyer | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10.5 | 7 | 567 | 567 | 2081 | -15 |
| 7 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 10.5 | 567 | 567 | 2070 | -26 |
| 8 | Kevin Harvick | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25.5 | 11.5 | 567 | 567 | 2065 | -31 |
| 9 | Greg Biffle | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17.5 | 15.5 | 567 | 567 | 2063 | -33 |
| 10 | Martin Truex Jr. | -1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13.5 | 13 | 567 | 567 | 2062 | -34 |
| 11 | Matt Kenseth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 566 | 567 | 2061 | -35 |
| 12 | Jeff Gordon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 19 | 490 | 567 | 2051 | -45 |
*Note: These stats consist of only the final 10 chase races.
(http://www.speedwaymedia.com/cup/chase.php)
Biggest loser(s) after race 2: Martin Truex Jr. and Matt Kenseth. Kenseth lost nine more points to the series lead. Truex Jr. dropped one spot in the standings and also dropped 13 more points from the lead.
Biggest gainer after race 2: Kevin Harvick gained two positions in the standings, yet lost 7 points to the lead.
Biggest movers after race 2 (+/-): Not much movement this week, but Johnson and Hamlin both place themselves atop the list.
