|
 It was the fourth straight win for Joe Gibbs Racing and the ninth
for the team in the past 11 races.
"The thing about rolls and momentum, it can stop at any given
moment, so you have to enjoy it while it's here," Kenseth said.
"I've been enjoying driving the car and working for Coach (Joe
Gibbs, team owner) and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and this whole
group. It's been awesome, and I think we still have some more
coming. It feels good."
JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards finished second and
fifth to give the team three finishers inside the top five. Joey
Logano took third and Greg Biffle was fourth.
"We'll take it," Logano said. "It was a blue-collar day. It maybe
wasn't the fastest car and maybe not even a top-five car at times,
but we did a good job working on it. Todd (Gordon, crew chief) made
some great calls and had some great pit stops and executed the race
as good as we can with the car we had."
Kenseth took the lead for the final time when Kevin Harvick ran out
of gas just shy of the white flag and the final lap.
"We had to be there to win," Kenseth said. "These Dollar General
guys did a great job today. We didn't pit that one time and I was
like, 'Ahhh,' and Jason was like, 'It's fine, relax.' We made it to
the front faster than we thought.
"I was giving it everything I've got, and I thought he (Harvick) was
going to beat us, and he had a better car today, but I guess he was
a little short on fuel."
After dominating the race early, Harvick stayed out during a caution
on lap 239 and restarted the race third. Kenseth, meanwhile, gave up
the lead to pit for fuel.
Brad Keselowski, who ran near the front for most of the race to that
point, stayed out but then was penalized for jumping the restart.
"I got the chance to do something again for the first time -- the
first person to ever be penalized for jumping a restart when I
didn't pass anyone, so that's a new one," Keselowski said. "But we
moved on and we made the most of a good day with the Miller Lite
Ford and got a solid finish that, hopefully, will make our Dover a
little bit easier, so that was good."
Harvick retook the lead with just under 50 laps to go. Inside 30
laps to go, Kenseth got by Hamlin for second.
"We had a pretty good race, really," Hamlin said. "I thought we had
a top-five car pretty much most of the day. At best, I thought we
were a second-place car; at worst, a fifth. We had everything kind
of work out well there for us at the end."
Kenseth closed in on Harvick, pressuring Harvick to not conserve
fuel. After running out of gas, Harvick wound up finishing a lap
down in 21st.
Harvick dominated the first two-thirds of the 300-lap race until the
sixth caution of the race for debris just before lap 200. He lost
positions on pit road and restarted seventh.
Up to that point, he had led 169 laps.
Keselowski ran second to Harvick, but like Harvick, Keselowski also
lost positions on pit road near the two-thirds mark and restarted
eighth.
Another quick caution came with 97 laps remaining for a wreck
involving Danica Patrick and David Ragan. The incident led to a red
flag for track cleanup. Before the yellow and red flags, Keselowski
and Harvick had worked their way up to third and fourth.
[to top of second column] |
When the race restarted, Harvick got back to the lead but then gave
up that position to pit when the yellow flag waved again for Brett
Moffitt on lap 211. Keselowski was among those who pitted.
When the yellow flag waved on lap 160 for a Kyle Busch wreck,
Keselowski lost the second spot on pit road when he got blocked into
his pit stall.
"We just came off almost a green-flag run and the tires looked fine.
The balance was a little off and then had that short run there and
the handling went away and just blew a right front," Busch's crew
chief, Adam Stevens, said. "It looks like it just had a slow leak
and just overworked the shoulder and finally blew out, but the
balance was free, so it's not like we abused it."
Edwards, who got off pit road ahead of Keselowski, was sent to the
back with a penalty for taking equipment out of his pit stall.
"My guys, they never quit," Edwards said. "We got the penalty --
just barely. My guys on pit road are the fastest, and they're that
way because they push it; they let it all hang out. They had a
little problem there."
NOTES: Furniture Row Racing and driver Martin Truex Jr. announced
during a news conference at the track Sunday morning that they would
make the switch from Chevrolet to Toyota for 2016. ... Jeff Gordon
set a record for all-time consecutive race starts with 789 when he
started the Sylvania 300. ... Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth,
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards came into New Hampshire
Motor Speedway in the top-four spots of the championship standings.
... Penalties for the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing team that
included the loss of 25 points for driver Clint Bowyer dropped
Bowyer to 16th and last in the Chase standings heading into NHMS.
His crew chief, Billy Scott, was suspended for three races, but his
suspension has been delayed by the team's appeal of the penalties.
... Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick entered the Sylvania
300 15th in the standings after a 42nd-place finish a week earlier
at Chicagoland Speedway. ... Kurt Busch's crew chief, Tony Gibson,
underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday but was at NHMS by
Friday for Sunday's race. ... Busch's team discovered a transmission
leak and so the team's transmission specialist was flown to New
Hampshire to fix the problem Sunday morning. ... Austin Dillon won
the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway on Saturday. ... Kyle Busch won at NHMS earlier this
season. ... Joey Logano won last year's Sylvania 300.
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reserved.]
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