Up-and-down day for Chase drivers as Loudon gets wild
If Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is any indication of the racing that will occur throughout the rest of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the fans are certainly in for a treat.
For those 16 drivers battling for the Sprint Cup championship, Sunday's race surely produced plenty of stress-inducing moments.
While Joey Logano was able to punch his ticket to the 12-driver Chase Contender round, just as Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski did last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, nearly every one of the Chase drivers had to overcome some sort of adversity over 303 laps at NHMS.
Looking for a promising run after turning things around at Chicagoland Speedway, Joe Gibbs Racing appeared to have a solid afternoon going in the opening stages of the race.
Denny Hamlin led a total of 32 laps early, but fell multiple laps down when an issue with the fueling probe did not allow gas to flow into the car. The team was forced to make repairs on pit road and Hamlin fell deep in the pack.
Adding insult to injury, Hamlin went on to be involved in a multi-car wreck with Martin Truex Jr., David Ragan and Cole Whitt on Lap 180. Hamlin went to the garage and returned to the track on Lap 224, but finished the day 37th, 38 laps down to Logano.
Hamlin's JGR teammates did not fare much better, as both were involved in incidents late in the race.
Kyle Busch was running eighth behind JGR teammate Matt Kenseth on Lap 188 when Kenseth bobbled under Jamie McMurray. Busch had nowhere to go but into the back bumper of Kenseth, starting a chain reaction incident that also damaged fellow Chase drivers Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman.
Despite extensive damage to the hood and fenders, Busch was able to rally in the end and use multiple late-race restarts to climb his way back to an eighth-place finish at the end of the day.
While Busch was able to work his way back to the front, Kahne went on to finish 23rd, and Newman ended the day in 18th.
Kenseth's adventures were not over with this incident, however. Multiple times throughout the race, drivers got loose under Kenseth's No. 20 Toyota as it raced through the corners.
Pole winner Brad Keselowski lost control of his car under Kenseth on Lap 193, and went spinning into the outside wall. Keselowski recovered to contend for the win and eventually finished seventh.
Kenseth was not so lucky. While he escaped trouble in both the Busch and Keselowski incidents, misfortune came calling on Lap 269 when Paul Menard got loose under the No. 20. The bobble by Menard sent both cars spinning, sending Kenseth hard into the outside wall. With extensive damage, Kenseth finished 21st.
The JGR cars were hardly the only Chase drivers to have issues, though.
Stewart-Haas Racing's Kurt Busch had an up-and-down day going until he made contact with McMurray, resulting in a right front tire rub. Nursing the car for the next handful of laps, Busch saw the tire eventually give out and send the No. 41 Chevrolet hard into the outside wall on Lap 221.
Busch took his car behind the wall for repairs and ended the race in the 36th spot, 35 laps down to Logano. Prior to contact and tire failure, Busch also had to pit twice under caution early in the race with a loose right rear tire.
Busch was not the only driver to have a blown right front tire and hard contact with the outside wall ruin his day, however.
After a strong run through the field on four tires, Jeff Gordon appeared poised to contend for a top-five finish with fewer than 10 laps to go. However, as Gordon drove into Turn 1 with just nine laps to go, he cut a right-front tire and shot hard into the wall with his No. 24 Chevrolet. Running sixth at the time, Gordon fell back to 26th by the time the checkered flag fell.
Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., finished the day with a top-10 finish, but his day was not without adversity, either. Running in the top 10 for much of the afternoon, Earnhardt Jr. had to pit under green from the seventh spot on Lap 120 for a loose right-front tire. Fighting hard throughout the race, Earnhardt Jr. recovered to finish the day in ninth.
After suffering an engine failure and finishing a disappointing 41st at Chicagoland Speedway in the Chase opener, Aric Almirola was able to bounce back Sunday with a sixth-place finish. With the top-10 finish, as well as the struggles of those ahead of him in the standings, Almirola heads to the final race of the Challenger Round at Dover just 10 points out of 12th place.
With only the one race remaining before four drivers are eliminated from title contention, things have tightened up from eighth to 16th in the Chase standings.
After Sunday's chaotic race at New Hampshire, Ryan Newman currently holds the 12th and final transfer spot, with a six-point buffer on Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle, while Kurt Busch sits eight point back, and Almirola is 10 out.
On the other end of the spectrum, Carl Edwards holds the eighth spot in the Chase standings, just eight points ahead of Newman in 12th. Kenseth also has an eight-point buffer, while Chase underdog AJ Allmendinger heads to Dover with a seven-point advantage on 12th.
With Keselowski and Logano already locked in, Kevin Harvick sits third in the Chase standings with a 41-point buffer on 12th, followed by Jimmie Johnson (+31), Earnhardt Jr. (+28), Kyle Busch (+28) and Gordon (+21).
