Matt McLaughlin’s Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2011 New Hampshire Fall Race Recap
With two laps to go Clint Bowyer ran out of fuel, handing the lead and the win to Tony Stewart.
With two laps to go Clint Bowyer ran out of fuel, handing the lead and the win to Tony Stewart.
Tony Stewart had the pit crew to give him track position on his final stop of the race, the speed to get past Matt Kenseth on the restart and a little extra Sunoco to survive when almost all his rivals ran out of gas.
Kevin Harvick caught a late caution, creeped in front of Jeff Gordon on pit road, then held off an assault by Cheez-It Crackers (err, Carl Edwards) to win one of the most bizarre short track races in recent memory.
With two laps left, a slip-sliding, hard-charging Jimmie Johnson misjudged turn 4 just enough to break loose. He kept the car in one piece, but Jeff Gordon scooted away to score his 85th career NASCAR victory – good enough for third all-time behind Richard Petty and David Pearson.
Brad Keselowski beat Jeff Gordon off pit road during the race’s final caution, blew by two-tire Martin Truex, Jr. on the final restart and made the rest of the Bristol field look like they were the ones driving drunkenly impaired on Miller Lite. Gordon tried to catch him, but alas, Bristol is the new half-mile Fontana: fresher tires made little difference while aero and track position took center stage – even at 15 seconds a lap.
Kyle Busch chose the outside lane on a green-white-checkered restart to keep Jimmie Johnson at bay. He cleared him within the first 10 seconds under green and… that was it. The outside line is now the preferred line on speedways, just so long as the car in the right lane clears the inside one before he gets sucked around. Add in a little aero push for Johnson, some horsepower under the hood for Busch and the No. 18 cruised to Victory Lane.
On the first green-white-checker restart, Kyle Busch overdrove turn 1, was unable to keep his car in the preferred groove on exit, and opened the door for Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose to slip by. That left the two of them to settle the win amongst themselves; through the bus stop, Ambrose pounced, making the pass and riding off into the sunset for his first career Cup win.
Kyle Busch got so preoccupied with Jimmie Johnson’s attempted divebomb pass to the inside, a quick move on Turn 1 of the final restart they both flat out let Brad Keselowski get away.
Remember back when the Brickyard 400 used to draw a standing room only 300,000 fans?
Ryan Newman managed to clear Clint Bowyer on fresher tires following a lap 229 restart and never looked back, scoring his third career victory at Loudon.
Kyle Busch let loose on the field most of the night with an old-fashioned butt-whoopin’ at Kentucky.
David Ragan, with an essential assist from teammate Matt Kenseth, got some sweet redemption after his miscue shifting lanes in the Daytona 500.
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