Kyle Busch continues winning ways

Under normal circumstances three victories would have secured Busch a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Hunter-Reay held off the field on a late restart to give Andretti Autosport its sixth consecutive win on Iowa’s 0.894-mile oval and its seventh in nine series races at the track. – Denny Hamlin nudged Austin Dillon out of the lead and raced to his second NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season.

Brad Keselwoski led the most laps.

Keselowski was second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

With Kyle Busch picking up another win, here are the updated points standings after New Hampshire.

Two significant moves set in motion Busch’s drive to victory Sunday. Keslowski would dominate the through the midpoint of the race. While he made that pass, Kevin Harvick passed Edwards for the fourth position.

Kurt Busch and Earnhardt Jr. battled for second behind Keselowski for several laps before Kyle Busch got by both of them for the second position.

He pitted during a green-flag run when drivers were reporting oil on the track. However, Busch fell a lap down in the process. “Besides all being closer together, you could have put on a better race, but I thought that the finish – I thought the excitement around the race was pretty good”. Edwards will lead the field to green for the first time since 2013 and for the first time for JGR. “To come back in 11 races and do what he did is so impressive”. “They were telling me the 38 (David Gilliland) was in the lucky dog spot and once I got there, I was like ‘OK, what else do I have to do to get back on the lead lap.’ I figured it was the four (Harvick) still and it was”. “That’s a milestone of a great business, a partnership with New Hampshire and the region and for us, to be able to be here as the host of the party, it wouldn’t have happened without some special people, the Bahre family”. Had it come down with Busch a lap down, he would have started at the tail end of the field.

And what do Busch’s playoff prospects look like now, eight races since the comeback began? “Three out of the last four races, Kyle Bush has won”.

The race was relatively clean with only a few cautions and no major wrecks. Also debris cautions on lap 22 and 117, and Ryan Blaney was nabbed coming off pit road too fast after his stop to fix a loose wheel. Bowman quickly exited the auto as the flames engulfed the engine compartment. He finished 42nd.

“We’ve had some struggles over the last couple of months”, Keselowski crew chief Paul Wolfe said. “It’s certainly the right thing to do is to win races and to gather those points, but to do it in the fashion we have been – just winning these things, that’s just spectacular and that’s awesome”.

When Kyle Busch returned following an 11-race absence recovering from serious leg injuries, he faced a deficit of 179 points to earn Chase for the Sprint Cup eligibility.

The win still leaves Busch more than a race out of the top 30 in points. He is now 58 points out of 30th with 7 races remaining to qualify.

“What I was racing for at that time was my life, to get back on the lead lap”, said Busch, who seems to at least be racing for his career these days. “The vehicle didn’t drive very good all day, and we’ve worked hard trying to fix it and just couldn’t get it any better, really”.