Kevin Harvick has put his NASCAR Sprint Cup challenge firmly back on track with victory at New Hampshire.
After a poor opening race of the Chase last week at Chicagoland, Harvick was in real danger of missing the next phase of NASCAR’s playoffs if he had another bad result.
Pulling away from Matt Kenseth after a restart with six laps left in the 300-lap event, Harvick took the win and joined Chicagoland winner Martin Truex Jr. in the Chase’s Round of 12.
“One of our main goals this year was to not stress ourselves out so bad,” said Harvick.
“I feel like the performance of the car and the things that we’re doing are good enough to be competitive, and we just need to not make mistakes and go from there.”
Harvick got his opportunity to win the race when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Reed Sorenson crashed with nine laps to run to bring out the caution. Although Kenseth raced him hard off the re-start he soon had the clean air out front to score his second win at the track and 34th of his career.
“Man, that worked out really good,” said Harvick.
“The car was pretty good on the restarts. Once we got clean air there at the end, it wound up being really good up front. I’m just really proud of our team. They did a great job.”
The top eight finishers were all Chase contenders as the fight to stay inside the top-12 heats with the series switching to Dover next week.
The four drivers on the outside looking in are Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher, while Kyle Larson holds the 12th place.
VIDEO: Race recap
RESULTS:Bad Boy 300 – New Hampshire Motor Speedway
POS.
CAR #
DRIVER
MAKE
START
LAPS
LAPS LED
FINAL STATUS
POINTS
BONUS POINTS
1
4
Kevin Harvick
Chevrolet
19
300
8
Running
44
4
2
20
Matt Kenseth
Toyota
8
300
105
Running
40
1
3
18
Kyle Busch
Toyota
12
300
3
Running
39
1
4
2
Brad Keselowski
Ford
11
300
2
Running
38
1
5
41
Kurt Busch
Chevrolet
13
300
0
Running
36
0
6
19
Carl Edwards
Toyota
1
300
31
Running
36
1
7
78
Martin Truex Jr
Toyota
2
300
141
Running
36
2
8
48
Jimmie Johnson
Chevrolet
4
300
0
Running
33
0
9
5
Kasey Kahne
Chevrolet
9
300
0
Running
32
0
10
42
Kyle Larson
Chevrolet
6
300
0
Running
31
0
11
22
Joey Logano
Ford
15
300
0
Running
30
0
12
21
Ryan Blaney
Ford
16
300
0
Running
29
0
13
24
Chase Elliott
Chevrolet
10
300
1
Running
29
1
14
88
Alex Bowman
Chevrolet
18
300
0
Running
0
0
15
11
Denny Hamlin
Toyota
5
300
0
Running
26
0
16
3
Austin Dillon
Chevrolet
29
300
0
Running
25
0
17
43
Aric Almirola
Ford
26
300
0
Running
24
0
18
10
Danica Patrick
Chevrolet
24
300
9
Running
24
1
19
1
Jamie McMurray
Chevrolet
7
300
0
Running
22
0
20
31
Ryan Newman
Chevrolet
3
300
0
Running
21
0
21
47
AJ Allmendinger
Chevrolet
17
300
0
Running
20
0
22
15
Clint Bowyer
Chevrolet
37
300
0
Running
19
0
23
14
Tony Stewart
Chevrolet
22
299
0
Running
18
0
24
17
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Ford
21
299
0
Running
17
0
25
27
Paul Menard
Chevrolet
14
299
0
Running
16
0
26
95
Michael McDowell
Chevrolet
20
298
0
Running
15
0
27
13
Casey Mears
Chevrolet
31
298
0
Running
14
0
28
83
Matt DiBenedetto
Toyota
33
298
0
Running
13
0
29
38
Landon Cassill
Ford
34
298
0
Running
12
0
30
34
Chris Buescher
Ford
28
298
0
Running
11
0
31
44
Brian Scott
Ford
25
298
0
Running
10
0
32
23
David Ragan
Toyota
23
297
0
Running
9
0
33
16
Greg Biffle
Ford
32
297
0
Running
8
0
34
7
Regan Smith
Chevrolet
30
297
0
Running
7
0
35
98
Cole Whitt
Chevrolet
36
294
0
Running
6
0
36
55
Reed Sorenson
Toyota
38
293
0
Running
5
0
37
32
Jeffrey Earnhardt
Ford
40
290
0
Running
4
0
38
6
Trevor Bayne
Ford
27
282
0
Accident
3
0
39
30
Josh Wise
Chevrolet
39
268
0
Running
2
0
40
46
Michael Annett
Chevrolet
35
236
0
Steering
1
0
STANDINGS
POS
DRIVER
POINTS
BEHIND
STARTS
WINS
TOP 5
TOP 10
DNF
1
Brad Keselowski
2087
Leader
28
4
14
19
0
2
Martin Truex Jr
2086
–1
28
3
6
14
1
3
Kyle Busch
2085
–2
28
4
12
18
5
4
Matt Kenseth
2078
–9
28
2
5
13
4
5
Joey Logano
2073
–14
28
1
11
19
3
6
Kevin Harvick
2071
–16
28
3
14
22
2
7
Denny Hamlin
2071
–16
28
3
10
16
3
8
Jimmie Johnson
2070
–17
28
2
7
11
4
9
Chase Elliott
2068
–19
28
0
8
14
1
10
Carl Edwards
2068
–19
28
2
7
16
5
11
Kurt Busch
2067
–20
28
1
7
18
2
12
Kyle Larson
2057
–30
28
1
7
11
2
13
Jamie McMurray
2052
–35
28
0
1
9
1
14
Austin Dillon
2052
–35
28
0
4
10
1
15
Tony Stewart
2046
–41
20
1
5
7
4
16
Chris Buescher
2027
–60
28
1
2
2
4
17
Kasey Kahne
699
–1388
28
0
2
10
1
18
Ryan Newman
676
–1411
28
0
1
8
2
19
Ryan Blaney
642
–1445
28
0
3
8
2
20
AJ Allmendinger
627
–1460
28
0
2
5
3
21
Ricky Stenhouse Jr
607
–1480
28
0
3
5
3
22
Trevor Bayne
607
–1480
28
0
2
5
2
23
Danica Patrick
534
–1553
28
0
0
0
3
24
Greg Biffle
518
–1569
28
0
1
3
6
25
Paul Menard
516
–1571
28
0
0
2
5
26
Aric Almirola
488
–1599
28
0
0
0
5
27
Clint Bowyer
484
–1603
28
0
0
3
2
28
Dale Earnhardt Jr
461
–1626
18
0
5
6
4
29
Casey Mears
451
–1636
28
0
0
0
0
30
Landon Cassill
397
–1690
28
0
0
0
1
31
David Ragan
369
–1718
28
0
0
0
5
32
Regan Smith
350
–1737
27
0
1
2
5
33
Michael McDowell
350
–1737
24
0
0
1
2
34
Brian Scott
332
–1755
28
0
0
0
5
35
Matt DiBenedetto
286
–1801
28
0
0
1
9
36
Cole Whitt
254
–1833
24
0
0
0
5
37
Michael Annett
242
–1845
27
0
0
0
4
38
Jeff Gordon
151
–1936
6
0
0
0
0
39
Josh Wise
151
–1936
24
0
0
0
5
40
Reed Sorenson
145
–1942
20
0
0
0
4
41
Jeffrey Earnhardt
99
–1988
15
0
0
0
2
42
Brian Vickers
86
–2001
5
0
0
1
1
43
Bobby Labonte
51
–2036
3
0
0
0
0
44
David Gilliland
46
–2041
2
0
0
0
0
45
Michael Waltrip
42
–2045
2
0
0
0
0
46
Boris Said
17
–2070
1
0
0
0
0
47
Patrick Carpentier
11
–2076
2
0
0
0
0
48
Eddie MacDonald
5
–2082
1
0
0
0
0
49
Alex Kennedy
5
–2082
1
0
0
0
1
50
Robert Richardson
3
–2084
1
0
0
0
1
51
Alex Bowman
0
–2087
4
0
0
1
0
52
Ty Dillon
0
–2087
9
0
0
0
0
53
Dylan Lupton
0
–2087
2
0
0
0
0
54
Jeb Burton
0
–2087
2
0
0
0
0
55
Joey Gase
0
–2087
4
0
0
0
0
56
Ryan Ellis
0
–2087
3
0
0
0
0
57
Justin Allgaier
0
–2087
1
0
0
0
1
58
Cody Ware
0
–2087
0
0
0
0
0
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