Speedway Digest Staff - Results from #55190

Not that any competitor would wish ill fortune on the Chase leader, but Carl Edwards doesn't think it's untoward to remind former teammate Matt Kenseth that there may be trouble on the horizon.

After all, the Joe Gibbs Racing cars have had several engine issues this year, and Edwards was simply making sure Kenseth remembers that. With wins in the first two Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races, Kenseth looks formidable indeed, but a blown engine could change that.

"I think if Matt and those guys can stay away from some of the equipment issues they've had, they're going to be really, really tough to beat," said Edwards, who finished ninth Sunday and is fourth in the standings, 36 points behind Kenseth. "He could run away with this thing, and he's making it tough on the rest of us.

"But for me it's kind of the tortoise and the hare. He's out there going, but we know--we've seen it this year--those guys have had a couple of problems. I'm not wishing that upon them or anything..."

No, nothing like that. Right, Carl?

In a race that featured strong rallies from a number of drivers—Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle among them—Jamie McMurray's comeback was perhaps most impressive.

On Lap 37 of 300, McMurray spun in Turn 4 off the bumper of soon-to-be-ex-teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. McMurray brought the No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to pit road for a succession of stops under caution as his team worked feverishly to repair the damage.

Ultimately, McMurray finished fifth—his third top five of the season—after taking the fifth position from Earnhardt late in the race.

"Yeah, our car was really good, even after the crash," McMurray said. "I told you before the race that, if we had good track position at the end, I thought we could finish good.

"It was a really good day for our Linksys car—just a fun day racing."

Jeff Gordon was kicking himself.

The four-time Sprint Cup champion had just led 36 laps on Sunday's Sylvania 300 and was looking to put a major dent in Matt Kenseth's series lead when he made a rookie mistake.

Two-thirds of the way into the race, he overslid his pit stall.

Not by a lot – perhaps by the length of his front splitter – but enough to get the attention of the NASCAR official, who ordered him to put his No. 24 Chevy in reverse before his crew could proceed.

Instead of leading the race, Gordon was suddenly 22nd, on his way to a 15th-place finish which dropped him to eighth in the Chase standings, 42 points behind Kenseth.

"I'm highly disappointed in myself," Gordon said. "I hadn't come close to sliding through all day. I guess, leading, I carried a little bit more speed in there and crossed the splitter over the line by an inch.

"I knew it was close. When I got in there, the front started to slide. I was hoping it would stop just at the line. I saw the official react and I knew we were in trouble. That's all it takes to make a difference between a chance at winning and finishing 15th."

On a track where passing can be difficult at best, losing so many spots of track position doomed the 24 team.

"I knew, just from the way the race was going, that passing was near impossible," Gordon said. "And my car was a good race car but wasn't a good 'passing' car. We had the handling characteristics of a car that needed good track position – and we had it until I messed it up."

Gordon wasn't assuming he would have gone on to win the race, but fully expected to contend after taking four tires with 98 laps to run.

"That caution hurt us in general," he said. "We didn't need that caution to come when it did. That was taking us out of sync for what was going to work best for our pit strategy, anyway. But there's a big difference between starting say 12th and 22nd. We lost a lot of spots to the other guys who took four tires."

If there is a silver lining for Gordon, it's that his car was strong enough to contend for the second time in as many Chase races. Gordon finished sixth in the first race of the Chase at Chicagoland.

"I'm excited with the way we're performing," he said. "Chicago was great and this weekend was great. We're not far out of fourth (six points behind Carl Edwards). We lost quite a bit of ground to those guys up front, but not too much as far as getting into the top five in points. I think we are very capable of doing that.

"But the driver can't make mistakes. Today was one of those days. This is a short race. Track position is so important. I made a crucial mistake and I can't allow that to happen if we're going to get ourselves into the top five in points."

Maybe it just wasn't Hendrick Motorsports' day on pit road. During the first caution of the day, Gordon needed to take evasive action to avoid a major collision with David Ragan.

Escaping with only a scuff, Gordon, who started third, remained in the top five for nearly all of the first 200 laps.

His teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., also had trouble on an early pit stop when his crew dropped his jack too soon. Earnhardt recovered to lead 17 laps, but found himself off cycle with the leaders and settled for sixth place.

"I was real happy to be able to rebound from our earlier (miscue) on pit road and get a good finish," Earnhardt said. "The car was fast as heck (in practice) – one of the top three cars, I thought."

Unlike Earnhardt, already 62 points behind the Chase-leading Kenseth, Gordon remains on the edge of Chase contention – albeit a thin edge.

"If Kenseth keeps doing what he's doing, it's not going to matter what anybody else does," Gordon said. "We've got to go to these next several races and go on a tear. Who knows? We're higher in points than we were when we started this thing, so we'll just try to keep that going."

Gordon says that shaking off his error and regrouping for the third race of the Chase at Dover International Raceway won't be a challenge.

"I've been doing this for 20-some years, man. It's not like I've never made mistakes before. You just hate to make them at a crucial time like that. I'll be disappointed until we get to Dover and start working on (that race)."

Race Highlights:  

• Richard Childress Racing teammates finished eighth (Jeff Burton), 20^th (Kevin Harvick) and 22^nd (Paul Menard) in the SYLVANIA 300.
• Following the event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Harvick is sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings, 39 markers behind the leader, while Menard is 16th and Burton moved up three positions to 19th.
• The No. 29 Chevrolet SS team ranks sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner championship point standings, with the No. 27 team 18th in the standings and the No. 31 team 21st.
• According to NASCAR's Post-Race Loop Data Statistics, Burton ranked 10^th for Laps Run in the Top-15 with 217 circuits in that position.
• Burton completed 66 Green-Flag Passes, while Menard made 62 and Harvick had 61 during the 300-lap race.
• Matt Kenseth earned his seventh victory of the 2013 Sprint Cup Series season and was followed to the finish line by Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 29. The 29

^th

race of the 2013 season is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN beginning at

1 p.m.

Eastern Time, broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio, channel 90.

Menard Finishes 22nd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Starting from the seventh position, Paul Menard and the No. 27 SYLVANIA/Menards team faced handling issues throughout the 300-lap event, earning a 22^nd-place finish when the checkered flag flew at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. After slipping back several positions in the early laps of the race, Menard was scored in 13^th on lap 25 when he communicated to crew chief "Slugger" Labbe that the No. 27 machine was tight on entry and loose exiting the corners. The pit crew made a variety of adjustments during pit stops on laps 32 and 109 in hopes of remedying the issue. The Eau Claire, Wis., native maintained a position within the top-20 and at lap 156 he was scored in 19^th, running lap times as fast as the leader. A two-tire pit stop on lap 202 allowed Menard to gain valuable track position, lining him up 15^th for the ensuing restart. The Richard Childress Racing driver methodically worked his way up to 11^th before coming to pit road one final time on lap 246 for left-side tires, fuel and wedge and air pressure adjustments. Restarting in 11^th, Menard was caught in the middle going three-wide into the corner and shuffled back to 19^th at lap 263. Struggling with a tight condition for the remaining 37 laps of the event, Menard ultimately finished 22^nd at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Menard maintained his position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings and sits in 16^th heading to Dover International Speedway.

Start - 7                      Finish - 22                     Laps Led - 0            Points - 16th

PAUL MENARD QUOTE:

"It was a rough day for the No. 27 SYLVANIA/Menards crew. We struggled with handling issues for the majority of the day, especially there at the end. That last set of tires made us really tight and we just couldn't gain any track position. My guys never gave up and made a variety of adjustments all day to try and get the car to handle better. We'll keep our heads up heading into Dover (International Speedway) next week."

Burton Finishes Eighth in the No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Jeff Burton started the SYLVANIA 300 in 25^th at the one-mile oval of New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Once the initial green-flag waved over the Granite State-facility, Burton encountered a condition of loose in the entry and middle of the turns on the No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet. A pre-determined competition caution on lap 30 coincided with a spin in Turn 4. This allowed crew chief Luke Lambert to bring Burton down pit road taking on four tires, fuel and making a track bar adjustment. Restarting 25^th, Burton began his methodical climb through the scoring ranks. By lap 50, he was 17^th when the caution waved one lap later. During this break, Lambert radioed to Burton that he felt like the track conditions were working in their favor. That became evident through the next four cautions and the halfway point when Burton first entered the top-10 ranks. Taking only two right-side tires under caution on lap 166, then two left-side tires on lap 202 helped keep Burton in the top-15. He re-entered the top 10 on lap 245 and remained there for the rest of the race to finish eighth, earning his sixth top-10 finish in 2013. He also moved up three positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings to 19^th place.

                Start - 25     Finish - 8       Laps Led - 0        Points Position - 19th

Jeff Burton Quote:

"We just got too tight there at the end to gain any more positions. We had great pit stops during the entire race, so my hat is off to the No. 31 Cheerios team today. That was a great Chevrolet we had, we just should have finished much better than we did. But, we'll take that top-10 and head to Dover (International Speedway) and do it again."                                                     

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It wasn’t exactly like the curious case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Ryan Newman at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but it was close.

Newman, the driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), battled an ill-handling car Sunday afternoon that just two days earlier sat on the pole for the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Newman overcame a late-race pit road miscue and also maneuvered the car with a split personality to bring home a respectable 16^th-place finish.

“I still don’t understand what happened with the car,” Newman said. “It just never drove the same after we won the pole on Friday afternoon. Even in practice on Saturday. Glad we got back up to 16^th after the deal on pit road, but I don’t know. We’ll head to Dover and see what we can get.”

When the green flag dropped, Newman led the first two trips around the 1.058-mile oval before surrendering the lead to Kasey Kahne on lap three of the 300-mile race, eventually settling into a rhythm in fourth place for the first several laps. While he maintained a top-five running position, Newman reported the car was loose entering and exiting the turns. He also was having a hard time with the car’s front splitter hitting the track. Those problems persisted for the entire race.

The handling problems were compounded by a pit stop miscue during a caution on lap 200. In an effort to improve the handling, the pit crew was directed to make a wedge adjustment while changing left-side tires and adding fuel. But the team went the wrong way with the chassis adjustment, making the car’s handling even more unstable and dropping Newman to 25^th place in the running order.

A lap 245 caution presented the team with the opportunity to tackle the handling on the Quicken Loans Chevy. Crew Chief Matt Borland directed a series of adjustments trying to get the car back to the setup that existed at the start of the race. More importantly, he called for a four-tire stop while a number of teams running at the front of the field chose two-tire and fuel-only stops. Newman was in 26^th place when green-flag racing resumed and put in a workman-like effort during the closing laps to position the No. 39 Chevy in 16^th when the checkered flag waved.

Mark Martin, interim driver of SHR’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS as he subs for the injured Tony Stewart, finished 23^rd.

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 27^th. It was Patrick’s 38^th career Sprint Cup start and her second at New Hampshire. Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished three spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 24^th.

Matt Kenseth won the Sylvania 300 to score his 31^st career Sprint Cup victory, his series-best seventh of the season and his first at New Hampshire.

Kyle Busch finished .533 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were seven caution periods for 37 laps, with five drivers failing to finish the 300-lap race.

Newman is representing SHR in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and entered the second race of the 10-race Chase eighth among the 13 Chase drivers, 28 points behind Chase leader Kenseth. Newman leaves New Hampshire ninth in the standings, 47 points behind Kenseth.

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Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 27^th in the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

Patrick, who started 21^st, was in 17^th place for the race’s final restart on lap 256 but fell to 27^th.

“I’m not sure if I got hit or just got really loose on the last restart,” said Patrick, who made her 38^th Sprint Cup start and her second at New Hampshire. “The car just went sideways, and I lost a ton of spots. It’s disappointing. It’s something to learn from and put in the notebook for next time. The car just never felt ‘in’ the track today. It wasn’t for a lack of effort by the Tony Gibson and the guys, but it just wasn’t quite were we needed it to be. We took two tires on the last stop, but that last restart hurt us and we lost a lot of spots. It’s disappointing, but we’ll move on.”

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished three spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 24^th. She remained 26^th in the point standings and has 514 points, nine behind 25th-place David Ragan.

Patrick’s teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, finished 16^th.

The third member of SHR, Mark Martin, interim driver of SHR’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS as he subs for the injured Tony Stewart, finished 23^rd.

Matt Kenseth won the Sylvania 300 to score his 31^st career Sprint Cup victory, his series-best seventh of the season and his first at New Hampshire.

Kyle Busch finished .533 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were seven caution periods for 37 laps, with five drivers failing to finish the 300-lap race.

Newman is representing SHR in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and entered the second race of the 10-race Chase eighth among the 13 Chase drivers, 28 points behind Chase leader Kenseth. Newman leaves New Hampshire ninth in the standings, 47 points behind Kenseth.

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Mark Martin, driving in place of the injured Tony Stewart, found some bright spots in his 23^rd-place finish in the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

Track position proved to be Martin’s nemesis throughout the 300-lap contest around the 1.058-mile oval. He started 18^th in the 43-car field, and with a racecar that was loose into the corners and tight in the middle, Martin had to fight to stay among the top-20.

A caution period on lap 30 allowed for crew chief Steve Addington to make the first of many tweaks to Martin’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. Another caution on lap 56 allowed for another series of adjustments.

The cumulative adjustments helped, and so did Addington and Martin’s attempts to gain track position via pit strategy.

Their second pit stop on lap 56 allowed them to go further on a tank of fuel than many of their counterparts. During a green-flag run that lasted 105 laps, Martin rose to as high as second. And with a Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevy operating in clean air, the handling issues that plagued the car early in the race dissipated.

But with no caution in sight, Martin was forced to pit under green. The stop was smooth, but with the rest of the leaders running at full speed on the racetrack, Martin went a lap down.

Nonetheless, the team fought on, racing their way into the lucky dog spot as the first car one lap down. When the caution flag waved on lap 202, Martin was back on the lead lap.

After a stop for four tires and fuel, Martin was in 26^th for the lap 206 restart. When the caution came out again for David Gilliland’s spin in turn one, Addington called for a fuel-only pit stop on lap 247 that vaulted Martin from 22^nd to 12^th when the race restarted on lap 251.

But the track position came at a price. The old tires Martin had under him were no match for the newer tires on the racecars of those around him. When the green flag dropped, so did Martin. He quickly fell to 20^th, and when Kasey Kahne spun to bring out the race’s final caution on lap 254, Martin hit pit road to grab four fresh Goodyears.

He restarted in 23^rd, and with track position again an issue, he stayed there through the checkered flag.

“It was a frustrating day,” Martin said. “We just could never get track position. But we also had some bright spots in that the changes we made to the car were good changes, and some of our strategies would’ve worked had a caution come out at the right time. It wasn’t the ideal race, but we’ll take the good things and continue to build on those.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet for SHR, finished 16^th after starting from the pole and leading the race’s first two laps.

Newman is representing SHR in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and entered the second race of the 10-race Chase eighth among the 13 Chase drivers, 28 points behind Chase leader Matt Kenseth. Newman leaves New Hampshire ninth in the standings, 47 points behind Kenseth.

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 27^th. Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished three spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 24^th.

Kenseth won the Sylvania 300 to score his 31^st career Sprint Cup victory, his series-best seventh of the season and his first at New Hampshire.

Kyle Busch finished .533 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were seven caution periods for 37 laps, with five drivers failing to finish.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the third race of the 10-race Chase – is the AAA 400 on Sept. 29 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

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