Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Home Depot / Husky Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after wining the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 22, 2013
Photo – Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
First Chicagoland, now a New Hampshire victory for Matt Kenseth.
For the second straight week, in the second Chase for the Sprint Cup, Matt Kenseth led his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch to the checkered flag – and for Kenseth, who has struggled at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, that added a dreamlike quality to the victory.
The top seed in the Chase, Kenseth won Sunday’s Sylvania 300 by .533 seconds over Busch as JGR asserts its superiority for the second consecutive week. A half hour after the race ended, the magnitude of the victory was still sinking in for the 2003 Sprint Cup champion.
“For me to win at New Hampshire, first of all, is more than a stretch and more than a dream,” Kenseth said. “This is probably one of my worst places. That just shows you how good this whole team is. …I didn’t even know there was a victory lane here.
“I felt really confident with my car today, but to have a fast car and to be able to do all the right things with adjustments and strategy and pit stops and all that stuff and be out front and win is two different things. So I’m thankful to be part of this group, and it honestly doesn’t really seem real that we won today.”
Kenseth led a race-high 106 laps in winning for the seventh time this season, for the first time at the Magic Mile and for the 31st time in his career. Kenseth ran a special paint scheme commemorating his 500th start and by winning in his 500th start in the Sprint Cup Series, Kenseth extended his Chase lead to 14 points over Busch. The only other driver to win in his 500th Cup start is Richard Petty in 1970.
Greg Biffle drove from sixth to third after the last restart on lap 258 of 300. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson finished fourth, followed by Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Johnson is third in the point standings, 18-points behind Kenseth and the only driver other than Busch within 36-points of the leader.
Though Busch closed on Kenseth in traffic late in the race, the driver of the No. 18 acknowledged that his teammate had the better car.
“Certainly, we were never as fast this weekend as the 20 (Kenseth) was,” Busch said. “They just had a special car. Sometimes you unload with them, and they’re just phenomenal. The 20 had that here this weekend. We tried everything to try to keep up with him and to get pace with him, but it was tough to do.”
Kasey Kahne saw his Chase hopes diminish when he spun on the frontstretch on lap 252 and nosed into the inside wall. Kahne came home 37th and fell to 13th in the point standings. 71 points behind Kenseth and all but out of the running for the championship.
Brian Vickers, the July winner at the 1.058-mile track, started in the rear and finished seventh. Vickers was racing in the Nationwide Series at Kentucky Speedway and enlisted Kenny Wallace to practice and qualify his Sprint Cup car on Friday. Because of the driver change, Vickers had to drop to the back of the field for the start of the race.
Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr completed the top-ten. Truex led 98 laps but fell back during the last 43-lap green flag run.
“We had a good car the first half of the race, and then the second half, we just started getting tight,” said Truex, whose sponsor NAPA announced Thursday it was leaving Michael Waltrip Racing at the end of the season in the wake of penalties to the organization for attempting to manipulate the outcome of the Richmond race two weeks ago.
“It was cooling off and clouding up. We just could never get it turning again. Then that last set of tires was just terrible for us – just couldn’t do anything with it. It’s unfortunate. The guys did a good job all weekend. We struggled here the last few times and obviously made some huge gains in the right direction – just weren’t good enough to be there when it counted.”
Matt Kenseth is the third driver to win the first two races in the Chase. Tony Stewart accomplished the feat in 2011 en route to his third title and Greg Biffle won the first two Chase races in 2008 and finished third in the final point standings.
The Chase continues with round three at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, September 29th at 2:00pm ET, and with television coverage on ESPN.
Race Results
Point Standings
