Bowyer wins as Stewart runs out of gas

Coming into the first chase race, not many had Clint Bowyer pegged as a true contender. Following the race on Sunday at New Hampshire, however, that may have changed.

After leading over one hundred laps through the first three-quarters of the race, Bowyer found himself back in the fifth position. As the final 50 laps unfolded, Bowyer — while saving fuel — picked his way up to the second position and began his pursuit of Tony Stewart.

[media-credit id=2 align=”alignright” width=”255″][/media-credit]On the final lap, Stewart ducked down to the bottom as his Chevrolet finally ran out of gas, allowing Bowyer to cost around to victory.

With the win, Bowyer broke his 88-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup Series and jumped up ten spots to second in the points standings, trailing Denny Hamlin (who finished second) by 35 points going into the second week of the ten-race chase.

Non-chasers Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt finished third and fourth, respectively. They joined Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, David Reutimann, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. in rounding out the top-ten finishers for the Sylvania 300.

Seven chasers finished outside of the top-ten, including three who finished outside of the top-20.

After running out of gas, Stewart finished 24th. Matt Kenseth finished 23rd and Jimmie Johnson finished 25th after both were involved in on-track accidents during the final half of the race.

The largest mover in series points was Bowyer. However, No driver dropped more than Johnson or Stewart. Behind Hamlin and Bowyer, Harvick and Kyle Busch held their third and fourth place points position. Gordon gained three spots and not sits in fifth, trailing Hamlin by 75 points.

Kurt Busch dropped one spot to sixth after finishing 13th. Johnson, who came into the race ten points behind Hamlin in second place is now seventh in the standings, and trails by 92 points.

Carl Edwards gained one spot and is now eighth, 95 points behind Hamlin. Greg Biffle lost two positions and sits ninth in the standings.

Jeff Burton stays in the tenth points spot, despite running out of fuel with one lap to go and finishing 15th.

Stewart is now 11th after a five spot drop and Kenseth is 12th and trails Hamlin by 136 points.

Note: Bowyer is used to starting off Chases with Victories. He won the 2007 race at New Hampshire to solidify his spot inside of the elite Chase field.

UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS

Pos.	St.	No.	Driver	Make	Pts.	Bon.	Laps
1	2	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	195	10	300
2	22	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	170	0	300
3	4	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	170	5	300
4	32	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	160	0	300
5	27	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	155	0	300
6	17	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	155	5	300
7	7	0	David Reutimann	Toyota	146	0	300
8	24	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	142	0	300
9	9	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	138	0	300
10	15	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	134	0	300
11	10	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	135	5	300
12	6	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	127	0	300
13	12	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	124	0	300
14	21	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	121	0	300
15	13	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	118	0	300
16	5	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	115	0	300
17	14	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	112	0	300
18	1	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	114	5	300
19	20	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	106	0	300
20	16	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	103	0	300
21	19	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	100	0	300
22	11	6	David Ragan	Ford	97	0	300
23	33	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	94	0	300
24	3	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	96	5	300
25	25	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	88	0	300
26	29	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	90	5	300
27	37	83	Reed Sorenson	Toyota	82	0	300
28	8	98	Paul Menard	Ford	79	0	300
29	26	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	76	0	298
30	23	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	73	0	298
31	30	36	Dave Blaney	Chevrolet	70	0	297
32	40	38	Travis Kvapil	Ford	67	0	295
33	39	37	David Gilliland	Ford	64	0	295
34	41	34	Tony Raines	Ford	61	0	295
35	31	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	58	0	256
36	28	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	55	0	213
37	42	71	Andy Lally	Chevrolet	52	0	138
38	18	13	Casey Mears	Toyota	49	0	93
39	43	9	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	46	0	89
40	35	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	48	5	60
41	36	55	Mike Bliss	Toyota	40	0	55
42	34	164	Landon Cassill	Toyota	37	0	40
43	38	46	Michael McDowell	Dodge	34	0	29