Matt Kenseth came on strong late in the New Hampshire 301 to earn his second win of the season and his second consecutive at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Kenseth took the lead from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin with 31 laps to go and held on during a series of late restarts. The final one with 11 laps to go saw the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota drive away from the field as Tony Stewart and Joey Logano battled for second.
It was Kenseth’s third overall win at New Hampshire after leading 38 of 301 laps.
“Great team over there and (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) made great, great adjustments today,” Kenseth told NBCSN in victory lane. “I didn’t do a very good job qualifying and after run one today the thing was pretty much money all day, we just had to get there. So it was a fun day.”
MORE: Stats and results from the New Hampshire 301
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Sunday’s race was dominated by Toyota. Kyle Busch took the lead on Lap 2 and led a race-high 133 circuits but finished eighth. Martin Truex Jr. dominated the second half of the event for 123 laps led but was unable to challenge for the win because of a broken shifter.
Stewart finished second with Logano third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Greg Biffle fifth.
HOW KENSETH WON: The No. 20 drove to the inside of his teammate, Denny Hamlin, in Turns 3 and 4 following a restart with less than 35 laps to go.
WHO ELSE HAD A GOOD RACE: Roush Fenway Racing placed two cars in the top 10 with Greg Biffle earning his first top-five finish of the year with a fifth-place finish. Roush Fenway Racing also had Ricky Stenhouse Jr. place 10th. ... Jamie McMurray’s sixth-place finish was his second consecutive top-10 finish, the first time he’s accomplished that this season. … Rookie Ryan Blaney recovered from a speeding penalty to finish 11th.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Carl Edwards did not contend for the win like his teammates and finished 19th … Kasey Kahne, battling for a Chase spot, was involved in an accident late and finished 25th. … Alex Bowman was running eighth in the No. 88 for Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he cut a tire and finished 26th.
NOTABLE: Matt Kenseth is the only repeat winner in the last 14 races at New Hampshire and all three of his wins have come in the last six races. The win is the ninth at New Hampshire for Joe Gibbs Racing, which now moves into a tie for the most.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I had so much fun today, obviously, I hate we didn’t get the finish we deserve. But I’ve raced with a lot of these guys for a long time but raced around them, I never actually got to race with guys like Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, all those guys. Had a lot of fun passing really good cars … They knew we were here, for sure.” – Alex Bowman
WHAT’S NEXT: Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Crown Royal presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard on July 24.