Kevin Harvick secures crucial Loudon win

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