After winning at least one race in the last 12 seasons, it looked as if this was going to be unlucky number 13 for Tony Stewart. But the driver known simply as Smoke has proved that his team was down, but they are anything but out. Stewart's No. 14 car reached victory lane for the second time in as many weeks Sunday in New Hampshire and showed that his Stewart-Haas Racing team will be a strong title contender, despite their slow start.
Stewart's teammate, Ryan Newman, led the field to green and jumped out to a strong lead. But the Red Bull teammates Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers showed early speed as well, running in the top three. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Junior and Martin Truex, Jr were also in the mix. But the car that started fifth was the one that everyone had their eye on.
Before the race, Kurt Busch's No. 22 Dodge failed pre-race inspection because the rear end housing was too off-center and was held by Nascar until the team made the adjustments and met the governing body's approval. The Shell-Pennzoil machine was pushed out to pit road following the singing of the national anthem and despite still starting fifth, Busch was on the backslide from the drop of the green. And after running out of fuel last week in Chicago, this is not the way this team wanted to continue their championship run. Because it may be have just turned into more of a sprint than a run for them now.
The fans in attendance saw a lot of green flag racing and not a lot of passing (unless you like watching a battle for 25th), which is typical of the "Magic Mile." The flat surface makes track position a premium during the race because drivers can only run along the bottom groove to make their cars work the best.
Aside from a few debris cautions, there wasn't a whole lot of excitment during the race. That is, until fuel mileage came into play for the second week in a row. Clint Bowyer was the leader and Smoke was close behind in second place, the reverse of how they ran in this race one year ago when Stewart ran out of gas on the final lap and Bowyer slid past for the victory. It looked as if Bowyer was going to get his first win of the season and his third at the New Hampshire oval. Until his car stumbled off turn four and and ran out of gas coming to take the white flag. This allowed Stewart to take the lead and put his Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevy in victory lane for the second week in a row and complete a Stewart-Haas Racing sweep of New Hampsihe this season (Newman won at the track in July).
As a result of his win, this allowed Smoke to grab the points lead and knock Kevon Harvick down to second after he finished 12th. The suprise of the day though may have been Brad Keselowski finishing second and jumping up to third (that's right. Third!) in the points standings. Like the 3-0 Buffalo Bills, the "Blue Deuce" appears to be the real deal. Kyle Busch rose to sixth, Junior fell to eighth and Johnson is tenth. And after two bad weekends in a row, it appears as if Denny Hamlin will not be delivering the championship for FedEx this year. He remains 12th in the standings.
Next week, the series goes from a flat mile track to the "Monster Mile" in Dover, Delaware. With a towering 24 degrees of banking in the corners, this track has proved to be an equalizer in the last few years. It will be interesting to see if the standings will continue to shuffle this weekend and if Smoke, Junior and Keselowski can keep up their recent momentum. Who will the Monster grab on Sunday afternoon? Only time will tell.
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