Kevin Harvick passes Matt Kenseth for New Hampshire win

Sunday’s race at New Hampshire came down to Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick again. And this time Harvick was the one entering victory lane.

Harvick passed Kenseth with five laps to go off the race’s final restart and pulled away over the final two laps to lock himself in the second round of the Chase. A win in each of the Chase’s first three rounds gives a driver an automatic berth into the next round.

The two dueled for the lead late at New Hampshire last year and Harvick ran out of fuel a week after crashing out at Chicago thanks to a cut tire. The fuel gamble meant Harvick was forced to go to Dover, the final race of the first round, needing a win to advance. He got that win and ended up making the Chase’s final round.

And now with the New Hampshire win, there’s not nearly the pressure at Dover this year as there was in 2015.

“One of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad,” Harvick said. “The performance of the car and the things we’re doing are good enough to be competitive and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there.”

Kenseth said he screwed up the race’s final restart. It came not long after a restart with 11 laps to go when Martin Truex Jr. was alongside Kenseth and it appeared that Truex tried to time when Kenseth was going to accelerate for the green flag.

“Last restart’s my fault. The one before that I thought I did right and [NASCAR radioed] down and I thought I slowed up before the restart or something. I let Kevin lay back on me — which we’re supposed to be side-by-side. I should have known better. I should have just went really late in the zone and wait until he had to get up to my nose. He anticipated it just right and laid back and plus I spun the tires.

“I got beat through [turns] 1 and 2 and it was over.”

The race was dominated by the performance of the Toyotas, namely Kenseth and Truex. The two drivers led 246 of the race’s 300 laps and Kenseth’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards led 31. While Harvick led eight laps, the most laps led by a non-Toyota driver was Danica Patrick’s nine as she was leading because a caution flag came out before she pitted.

Here’s how the Chase standings look with one race to go before the conclusion of the first round. The lowest four drivers in the standings will be eliminated from playoff contention after Dover.

 

1. Martin Truex Jr. (won Chicago)
1. Kevin Harvick (won New Hampshire)
3. Brad Keselowski, 2,087 points, 4th at New Hampshire
4. Kyle Busch, 2,085 points, 3rd
5. Matt Kenseth, 2,078 points, 2nd
6. Joey Logano, 2,073 points, 11th
7. Denny Hamlin, 2,071 points, 15th
8. Jimmie Johnson, 2,070 points, 8th
9. Chase Elliott, 2,068 points, 13th
10. Carl Edwards, 2,068 points, 6th
11. Kurt Busch, 2,067 points, 5th
12. Kyle Larson, 2,057 points, 10th
13. Jamie McMurray, 2,052 points, 19th
14. Austin Dillon, 2,052 points, 16th
15. Tony Stewart, 2,046 points, 23rd
16. Chris Buescher, 2,027 points, 30th