After a very eventful weekend in Kentucky Speedway the NASCAR Sprint Cup series headed to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a weekend in the northeast.
Weekend Sweep…
Well Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart have had a spectacular weekend. Newman had just enough gas and beat his boss Stewart to the checkered flag. Starting the race one-two the Stewart Haas Racing duo swept the front row in qualifying on Friday and was the class of the field all day long.
When it came down to the final restart Newman was able to hold off Kurt Busch and pull away from the field to win his first race of the season. Newman’s win this weekend was huge for the points as with his one win if he falls out of top 10 he could still make the Chase.
Power issues…
Jeff Gordon had a fast race car. In fact, at times he had the best car on the race track. A solid qualifying lap had them in good track position. As fast as their car was a battery issues hampered them throughout the day.
At one point he was 34th but a timely caution and battery change allowed them to stay in the hunt. Still the team was forced to battle the power issues. Even so he drove through traffic on multiple occasions at one point he went from 34th to sixth. Gordon though in the end finished 11th after he had a flat tire on the final lap. Fighting power issues, dehydration and track position they maintained seventh in the standings.
Hard hits…
After winning his 100 career race in NASCAR Touring series yesterday in the NASCAR Nationwide series, Kyle Busch was looking to make it a weekend sweep at NHMS. After qualifying 19th the team was going to have some work to do in terms of track position if they wanted to be a factor in the win.
After contact with Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Busch was struggling with a poor handling race car. On lap 60 Busch cut a tire and hit the outside wall hard. He hit the wall hard and the team went behind the wall and came back on the track but 70 laps off the pace.
Busch would lose four positions in the standings heading into the final off weekend of the year.
Lug Nuts…
-Bobby Labonte finished eighth which was his second best finish of the year following Daytona in February.
-After looking like an early contender in the race Jeff Burton and his team struggled with race traffic and fuel strategy to finish 16th. Burton still searching for his first top 10 of the season his quest will have to wait two weeks.
-Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a top 10 car and at times a top five car. They battled track position all day long but a costly tire violation late cost Earnhardt a chance to battle for the top 10. He would end up finishing 15th.
- Jimmie Johnson’s day was up and down to say the least. Poor qualifying run, poor track position, a spin and pit road issues. In the end while guys ran out of fuel they wound up fifth with a car that didn’t deserve to be fifth.
For the complete race results click here. For the standings following NHMS click here.
Next up for the NSCS is an off week and then they head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in two weeks.
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