Kyle Busch wins at New Hampshire

Kyle Busch drove his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory for the second weekend in a row at New Hampshire Saturday night, continuing a streak of strong performances since returning from an 11-race absence due to injuries.

At New Hampshire, Busch led a total of 96 laps, including the final 49.

Carl Edwards said after Friday’s first practice session, when he was fourth fastest, that he hasn’t had a car that good at New Hampshire in a long time.

Joey Logano, who finished second last week at Kentucky Speedway, will start second.

Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. sounded anxious after watching Busch, Keselowski and Logano all finish ahead of him Sunday. Kenseth finished sixth, Edwards started from the pole and was seventh, and Hamlin 14th. “But I will say our team did an amazing job of fixing it”, Gordon said.

“We had a real bad thing happen to us at Daytona”.

Larson had eight top-five and 17 top-10 finishes last season, and his blistering results in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship had him hopeful he would emerge as a championship contender in 2015.

At 58 points outside the Top 30, Busch is now considered a lock to make the Chase field.

“It’s a total team”, Gibbs said. Edwards hasnt been a title threat since 2011 when he lost the title to Tony Stewart on a tie-breaker.

Nothing seems preposterous these days for Busch, whose dormant-to-dominant run over the past two months has not only made him a regular in victory lane, it has steamrolled him toward the cusp of a berth in the postseason Chase. “It’s so much fun to win these races and to win with this group of guys – Adam Stevens (crew chief) and this bunch, all my pit crew since 2008, they deserve all this”.

Reed Sorenson was the only auto to fail to qualify for the 43-car field.

On the other hand, the last Team Penske win was in March. “He said he couldnt promise me that and so Im not running.

The rest of the top 10: Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne was ninth and Keselowski 10th. “We hope to continue that one here this weekend at New Hampshire”.

It could be if NASCAR decides to use a package responsible for a race that drew nothing but rave reviews from the drivers.

Stucker said Goodyear tested a softer tire with the lower-downforce package at Chicagoland. “It’s not the starting spot we wanted, but I think our race auto will be pretty good”. “Youre supposed to be able to adapt.”.

“I dont know if its a horsepower thing, or whatever, ” Larson said.

“I guess both of us can take fault with that”. Rob Ninkovich of the New England Patriots was the Official Pace auto Driver, a role previously fulfilled by Patriot Julian Edelman last July. “So we’d have to kind of sit down and see what our options might be”.

The most significant incident of the day was a clash on pit road between Hendrick’s Jeff Gordon and Michael Waltrip Racing’s Clint Bowyer.

“By the way, slow it down Kyle Busch!” he wrote.

“I think everybody has the same goals to make the Chase and to get those wins and to be top-30”, Busch said. “Its not always cheap especially with four teams.

“We strongly support this initiative for the safety of our guests and for the well-being of minors”, he said. It gets a little challenging sometimes.”.