Kenseth reels in victory at Loudon
LOUDON, N.H. — Matt Kenseth had the fresher tires and the fuller tank as he stalked Kevin Harvick with postseason advancement at stake Sunday.
Harvick never slowed down to conserve fuel, his team firm in the belief he could stretch his way to victory lane.
The gamble backfired. Harvick was out of gas, and now, almost out of chances to defend his Sprint Cup title.
Kenseth pressured Harvick down the stretch and took the lead for good when the defending series champion ran out of fuel at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the second race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
“I ran as hard as I could to get as close as I could to him because I wanted to beat him,” Kenseth said. “The faster he has to go, obviously, he burns more gas.”
Harvick burned it all. Every last drop gone for the Stewart-Haas Racing driver before the finish line.
Kenseth, who won for the fifth time, earned a berth in the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs and gave Joe Gibbs Racing its fourth straight victory.
Harvick had the dominant car and led the most laps until fuel woes hit and knocked him out with three laps left. He tumbled to 21st a week after he finished 42nd in the Chase opener and surely will have to win next week at Dover International Speedway to advance to the second round.
Harvick declined to comment.
“Fast car. Great day. Bad ending,” he tweeted. “Things haven’t gone exactly to plan but I promise you one thing ‘we will not quit’ #itaintover.”
JGR is 2-for-2 in the Chase and continued to prove its Toyotas will be the ones to beat in the final eight races. Denny Hamlin, the winner last week at Chicagoland, was second for JGR. Chase drivers took eight of the top 10.
The 16-driver Chase field will be cut to 12 after Dover.
“I was giving Kevin everything I had,” Kenseth said. “I thought he had us beat. He had the better car.”
Kyle Busch, Paul Menard, Harvick and Clint Bowyer are the final four drivers on the brink of elimination. They would advance with a victory, but Jimmie Johnson stands in their way at Dover, where he has a track-record 10 victories.
Harvick was knocked out of the race last week when he connected with Johnson and blew a tire. He later got into an altercation with Johnson.
Harvick led 216 of 300 laps and heads to Dover with one of the biggest must-win races of his career.
Stewart set to retire
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tony Stewart will announce he’s retiring after the 2016 season at a news conference Wednesday, the AP learned.
Stewart-Haas Racing said Stewart and team co-owner Gene Haas will hold a news conference this week. The topic was not disclosed, but a person familiar with Stewart’s plans told the AP the three-time NASCAR champion will announce his planned retirement.