Kevin Harvick secures crucial Loudon win

Harvick was happy at Loudon

Harvick was happy at Loudon

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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