Kenseth pulls away late to win Cup race at New Hampshire

“I don’t think I’ve gotten out of a Cup vehicle with a smile on my face in a while”, he said. “Jason (crew chief Ratcliff) made great adjustments today”. Really, I felt like we had probably the best vehicle all day. “It was a fun day”.

Kenseth started 18th but quickly made his way into the top 10 and was chipping away with a strong Toyota Racing Development vehicle, which at one time owned the top-five spots in the 301-mile race.

“These guys [on the team] did a great job”, Kenseth said. “The auto came to us in the end like we’d hoped and we got a good finish out of it”. We’re going to get everything we can get out of it and take whatever we can get.

Stewart ended up second after he passed Logano with four laps to go. Stewart finished 2nd followed by Logano, Harvick, Biffle, McMurray, Newman, Kyle Busch, Hamlin and Stenhouse, Jr.

Truex Jr. led five times for 123 laps and appeared to be the favorite until a broken shifter forced him into a 16th place finish. He won in May at Dover as he held off Kyle Larson and joins Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards as drivers with two wins this season.

Bowman enjoyed perhaps the final race of his Sprint Cup career, running inside the top 10 and seemingly in position for his best finish in 72 starts.

LOUDON, N.H. >> Matt Kenseth pulled away down the stretch to win the Sprint Cup race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. To that point there had only been three cautions for 20 laps.

Busch, who led a race-high 133 laps, finished eighth.

Stewart, however, was delighted with the effort of his team.

The Chase continues to be a growing factor in the NASCAR season, with only seven races left until the post season starts.

He noted that Scott Dixon snatched the IndyCar title away from teammate Juan Pablo Montoya past year with a strong late surge all the way through Sonoma. “I’ve had that happen here before and gotten passed by four cars off Turn 2”. It really paid off.

Alex Bowman subbed for Dale Earnhardt Jr in the #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, as Earnhardt was suffering from reported concussion-like symptoms.

The right front tire went completely flat on the frontstretch, sending Bowman into the outside wall. Hamlin led five laps and was ninth.

The spate of late cautions also gave Logano a chance to move forward.

“It used to be one of my worst places and now I feel like it’s one of our better places”, he said. “We tried some new things, and apparently they didn’t work, so we aborted the mission in the middle of the race and got some speed back in the 22 – but not enough to beat the 20”.

Lead Changes: 13 among 6 drivers.

None of them figured to be a factor in the race as Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. dominated the first 255 laps of the 301-lap race at the 1.058-mile oval.