Matt Kenseth wins second straight New Hampshire race

The Gibbs and Toyota partnership has won the last three races at Loudon, with Busch winning last July and Kenseth winning in September.

In 26 starts for auto owner Jack Roush from 2000 to 2012, Kenseth had no victories and only five top-five finishes and 12 top-10s. Then when you see them start missing the bottom or getting loose on the exits, then I went up there, tried to push them, and make them make mistakes.

“I was looking forward to coming here because we’ve ran really well here since I came to Joe Gibbs Racing”, Kenseth said.

Said crew chief Jason Ratcliff: “It seems like this is one of our better tracks”.

“I felt like we had probably the best vehicle all day”, Kenseth said. “We’ve got just a little bit of work to do to get our cars faster”. “It was a fun day”.

Stewart was mostly an afterthought for most of the race as Kenseth and his Toyota colleagues battered the rest of the field, with Kyle Busch leading 133 laps, Martin Truex Jr. “It felt to me like my first win at this track because we won it the right way”.

Kenseth no doubt earned it in front of a disappointing half-filled grandstands in a race with no sponsor.

Truex led 123 laps and was well positioned to win until a broken gear shifter hindered him over the final laps.

It didn’t include pole victor Jimmie Johnson, who repeatedly lost ground on restarts and came home 12th.

Earnhardt, 41, sat out Sunday’s race because he was not cleared to race. “This week I am personally trying some new things because I feel we have been stuck here at a fifth-place vehicle”.

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

For the first 13 years of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Loudon, N.H. hardly ranked high on Matt Kenseth’s list of happy locales to visit for events. NASCAR did not elaborate on why Stewart’s Chevrolet was included in the additional analysis.

“This track has always had a history of one lane prevailing over the others”, said Stewart. “Luckily, I had a good vehicle and could make up for it”. I thought possibly it was going to hurt me. He was working as late here as I was working late at Eldora. “It really paid off today”.

“These guys [on the team] did a great job”, Kenseth said. “He’s got veteran calls and veteran moves”. Alex Bowman had a tire failure and crashed while running eighth. In a 301-lap race, Toyotas led 299 go-arounds.

“I don’t need the spotlight on me anyway”, Stewart said. We just make mistake after mistake, and until we clean that up, we don’t have a chance to win races, putting ourselves in a hole every time we make a mistake. Look for him to bounce back this week.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 107.416 miles per hour.

Lead Changes: 13 among 6 drivers.

Johnson led the first lap after starting on the pole before Busch took the top spot.

The young driver was turning in an impressive effort as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s replacement until he, too, suffered a tire issue.