Sylvania 300 Race Review

New Hampshire International Speedway -- 09/14/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Sep 15 2008 9:43pm

The race track was Loudon, but it seemed a little like a trip through the Looking Glass for a number of NASCAR's top drivers Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson, coming off two straight Cup series wins, led the most laps at Loudon - 96 of 300 - and with 12 laps to go seemed to have victory in hand. Suddenly, Greg Biffle, who led 58 laps overall, powered past Johnson in what Biffle has termed a "textbook pass" - something which very few cars have been able to do this year, or even the past couple of years.

The win catapulted Biffle six spots in the standings to 3rd.

Though they finished the race 2nd and 3rd respectively, Johnson and Carl Edwards each gained a spot in the standings and are now in a statistical tie for 1st. Edwards led 61 laps on the day, but didn't have quite the horsepower under him that teammate Biffle did.

Meanwhile, Kyle Busch, who entered the Chase 1st in points on the basis of his eight regular season wins, started on the pole but had a parts failure within the first 20 laps of the race. He finished 12 laps down in 34th place and dropped seven spots in the standings to 8th, now 74 points behind the leaders.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked stout in the mid part of the race and was the second highest lap leader with 79. Earnhardt complained about a bad set of tires that dropped him back in the field after a pit stop. He finished 5th and maintained his 4th-place position in the Chase.

Tony Stewart also had a strange trip at Loudon, starting and finishing 8th, though at one point he was a lap down after earlier falling back to 33rd. Pit road was a hazardous place for Stewart, sustaining fender damage in a collision with Johnny Sauter and later serving a pass-through penalty for speeding. The lucky dog pass helped Stewart get back on the lead lap. He then battled his way back to 8th and moved up one spot in the standings to 7th.

Matt Kenseth was never really on his game Sunday, but was caught up in a lap 229 wreck not of his making and suffered his first DNF of the year. Kenseth finished 40th and remains 12th in the Chase, now 177 points out of 1st. He is the only driver currently more than a one-race point spread behind 1st.

The top five in the finishing order at Loudon were Chase contenders, as were eight of the top 10: Biffle (1), Johnson (2), Edwards (3), Jeff Burton (4), Earnhardt Jr. (5), Stewart (8), Denny Hamlin (9) and Kevin Harvick (10). Clint Bowyer finished 12th and Jeff Gordon 14th.

Also breaking into the top 10 at Loudon were Kurt Busch, who finished 6th, and Martin Truex, 7th. Both drivers had consistent runs, though neither led any laps.

Other climbers in the Chase standings included Jeff Burton, up two spots to 5th and Kevin Harvick, up one spot to 10th. On the flip side, Clint Bowyer dropped four places to 9th and Jeff Gordon slipped one spot to 11th.

Also finishing in the top 15 were Kasey Kahne, 11th, Bobby Labonte, 13th, and David Reutimann, 15th.

This weekend the series moves to Dover, which released this bit of information to the press today for your consideration: No driver has ever won a Dover September Chase race and gone on to win the championship, and the last time a driver won the September Dover race and the championship in the same season was Jeff Gordon in 1995.