It was an unpredictable three hundred laps over in New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. this past weekend.
The Slyvania 300 is the last of three Challenger 16 races that place NASCAR drivers into the Contender 12 round in The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. After a grueling 300 laps filled with leader switches, quite a few accidents and plenty of cautions, Matt Kenseth came out victorious with Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano claiming second and third.
This race felt almost as if the drivers could not go a lap without something affecting them. It began with UCF alumni Aric Almirola hitting the wall on lap 37, bringing about the first caution of the race. Later on Tony Stewart suffered a loss of his left front tire, causing him to hit the wall as well and lose plenty of spots in the race. Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch followed suit with their own wall collisions.
Halfway through the race but the accidents were not even half over. Trouble continued with Jimmie Johnson’s flat tire and a squabble between Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman caused Danika Patrick to spin out. Patrick’s loss of control became the biggest accident as another driver, David Ragan, rushed by and could not avoid hitting her car, causing it to lose some of its back portion and be hauled off to the garage. Brett Moffitt joined the group of spin-outs while around lap 237 Justin Allgaier showed the wall no mercy, adding his own hit towards the end of the race, causing him to go to the garage.
In the end it was Kevin Harvick who led the most laps, but ultimately ran out of fuel in the last lap, dropping him to 21st place and allowing Matt Kenseth to claim the top and a spot in The Chase’s Contender 12 round. As racers continue to claim the limited amount of spots left in the next round, the fight for the Spring Cup gets as tight as the bracket is beginning to look.
