Race 27 - Sylvania 300Pre Race: We're here on an overcast, late summer afternoon in Loudon, New Hampshire, getting ready for 300 laps the Magic Mile, and 12 drivers are here, feeling the most pressure they've felt all season. It's the first race of the Chase, and after last year's down-to-the-wire battle, each driver knows that every point counts and you can't throw anything away. At the current level of competition, you can't afford to have a mulligan race. You have to be racing for the win week in, week out. It all starts today. Which driver will start their playoff with a victory?
Green flag-Kurt Busch played spoiler on Friday and captured the pole as a non-Chaser and leads the field to the green flag. He's the only non-Chaser that qualified in the top 10. Carl Edwards qualified worst of the 12 Chasers at 23rd.
Lap 26-Kasey Kahne has blown an engine. His abysmal season just keeps getting worse.
Lap 29-Kyle Busch has gotten past brother Kurt for the lead as he looks for his 2nd consecutive victory.
Lap 51-50 laps complete, here's a Chaser update:
5 P1
31 P3
48 P4
2 P5
24 P6
77 P7
12 P8
29 P10
20 P11
25 P12
07 P14
99 P23
Lap 61-Busch has begun to hit lapped traffic, starting with Ganassi's Reed Sorenson.
Lap 77-Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Hamilton Jr. begin the pit road cycle.
Lap 78-Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Mike Bliss, Bobby Labonte, Martin Truex Jr., Dave Blaney, Scott Riggs, and Jason Leffler pit for 4 tires and fuel.
Lap 79-Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Travis Kvapil, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, Joe Nemechek, and David Stremme on pit road now.
Lap 80-A big group led by the Busch brothers pits. Robby Gordon, Sorenson, Michael Waltrip, Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers, Jeremy Mayfield, Danny O'Quinn Jr., Ward Burton, Johnny Sauter, Greg Biffle, Aric Almirola, Scott Wimmer, Jamie McMurray, and Denny Hamlin pit. Casey Mears takes the lead.
Lap 81-Mears gets 5 bonus points, then pits along with J.J. Yeley, Matt Kenseth, and Elliott Sadler.
Lap 82-Jon Wood, Todd Kluever, and Kyle Petty finish the pit stop cycle.
Lap 82-Jimmie Johnson's short-pitting has put him in the lead.
Lap 100-Jeff Burton to the lead.
Lap 101-A third of the way done here in Loudon as we take a look at where the Chasers are on this hard-to-pass oval.
31 P1
48 P2
5 P3
77 P5
24 P6
12 P7
07 P8
2 P9
25 P10
29 P11
20 P12
99 P20
Lap 135-Jeremy Mayfield's engine lets go. 41st place finish for him.
Lap 140-CAUTION FLAG #1: First caution flag of the day is out for a little bit of oil residue left from Mayfield's engine.
Lap 145-Green flag back out with Burton, Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kvapil, and Kurt Busch making up the top 5.
Lap 149-O'Quinn Jr. to pit road with an unspecified electrical issue.
Lap 151-Halfway through, here's a full-field rundown:
Lead Lap:
31, 48, 77, 5, 33, 07, 20, 29, 18, 11
99, 12, 17, 0, 38, 25, 21, 6, 02, 34
78, 16, 2, 8, 01, 24
-1 lap:
06, 15, 91, 22, 42, 40, 19, 43, 09, 66, 7, 45, 55, 41
OUT:
88, 9
Lap 157-Kvapil moves past Johnson to take 2nd place.
Lap 159-CAUTION FLAG #2-A bad pit stop on the last yellow flag put Jeff Gordon in the back of the pack and he was trying to make some desperate moves. He gets caught in the middle of a 3-wide situation exiting turn 4 with Robby Gordon and Todd Kluever and the 6 car is sent spinning. Everyone else avoids and continues on, with minor fender damage for the three involved at worst.
Lap 164-Green flag back out. Johnson, Bowyer, Newman, and Kenseth didn't pit, as Burton starts in 5th.
Lap 175-Waltrip makes an unscheduled trip to pit road.
Lap 201-100 to go, here's a Chaser update:
48 P1
77 P2
20 P3
12 P4
29 P7
07 P8
5 P9
2 P11
31 P12
99 P16
25 P18
24 P21
Lap 207-Tony Stewart's car has come alive since the second yellow flag. He has now taken over the race lead from Jimmie Johnson.
Lap 221-Kyle Petty hits pit road. He and the top 4 on the lap 164 restart will have to pit about 20 laps before the rest of the field and hope that no cautions come out.
Lap 222-Johnson makes his stop.
Lap 223-Kenseth and Bowyer hit pit road.
Lap 224-Yeley makes a stop.
Lap 238-Kvapil and Edwards begin the main cycle of stops just a little bit early to try and gain track position.
Lap 238-CAUTION FLAG #3-Just as Johnson and Bowyer were beginning to breathe a sigh of relief as pit stops began, the caution comes out. Elliott Sadler got fed up and Dave Blaney and two went spinning into the turn 3 wall. This should work out well for Kvapil, who will inherit the lead as he pitted before pit road was closed.
Lap 243-Green flag out with Kvapil leading Stewart, Labonte, Kyle Busch, and Harvick. Johnson, Bowyer, Kenseth, Yeley, and Edwards are on the tail end of the lead lap.
Lap 246-CAUTION FLAG #4-HUGE break for Johnson, Bowyer, and Edwards. Jamie McMurray and Michael Waltrip have spun on the frontstretch, and the tail end drivers will get to pull up behind the rest of the field. They certainly lost track position from where they had been running, but they are in a much better position now.
Lap 251-Green flag back out. Here's a Chaser update with 50 to go:
77 P1
20 P2
5 P4
24 P5
12 P6
2 P8
31 P9
29 P10
25 P17
48 P20
07 P21
99 P24
Lap 254-Jason Leffler loses an engine.
Lap 261-Tony Stewart takes the lead from Kvapil.
Lap 261-CAUTION FLAG #5-Casey Mears, Kurt Busch, and Scott Wimmer have crashed in turn 3. Bad break for Mears, as his top 10 run looks about over. His damage won't knock him out of the race, but he'll likely lose a couple of laps making repairs.
Lap 266-Green flag back out with Stewart leading Kvapil, Labonte, Busch, and Harvick.
Lap 269-Big trouble for Kevin Harvick. Something has either broken underneath his car or he has a tire going down as he shot out of the groove and into the inside retaining wall at the exit of turn 4. He gathers the car back together and cruises to pit road, having fallen from 5th to 21st.
Lap 270-Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler hooked each other going into turn 1 and Kenseth hit the wall pretty hard. No caution comes out as they continue on, but Kenseth will take it straight behind the wall, done for the day.
Lap 286-15 laps to go, Stewart with a 1.57 second lead on Kvapil. He's looking for a series-leading 5th victory of the year.
Lap 287-Kyle Busch gets past Kvapil for 2nd.
Lap 291-10 to go, Busch making up some ground. The lead is 1.25 seconds as Kvapil drops to 4th.
Lap 293-8 to go, Busch has it down to a second.
Lap 294-7 to go as Busch makes a huge gain. 0.6 seconds is the margin between the top 2.
Lap 296-5 to go as the margin holds at half a second.
Lap 297-4 to go, Busch knocks off 2 more tenths. He's basically there at 0.3 seconds.
Lap 299-Busch hasn't been able to make up ground as Labonte joins the party and will try to displace Busch and give Stewart, his teammate, some breathing room.
Lap 300-White flag, Busch just 0.14 seconds back at the stripe.
Lap 300-Busch drives it in hard into turn 3, but can't make it stick and slides up the hill.
Checkered flag-Tony Stewart holds off a late charge from Kyle Busch and earns his 5th victory of the year to open up the Chase with a bang.
