Kenseth wins New Hampshire 301, but fails post-race laser inspection

LOUDON, NH — Matt Kenseth won the New Hampshire 301 Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his 2nd win of the season, 3rd win at New Hampshire, and 38th career win. He led 38 of the 301 laps.

"It was pretty much money all day," Kenseth said. "We just had to get there."

"It's a testament to these guys standing behind me," Kenseth continued, gesturing to team members celebrating in Victory Lane. "This had never been one of my good tracks. But Jason has a great setup here and I have great teammates.

"Certainly when I first got here (at Joe Gibbs Racing), Kyle (Busch) and Denny (Hamlin) taught me a lot about this place that I applied every lap today. I'm just a fortunate guy to be driving this thing." 

However, Kenseth's car failed post-race laser inspection. That has been a 15-point penalty this year.

Tony Stewart finished 2nd followed by Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Polesitter Jimmie Johnson led just 1 lap and finished 12th.

"A lot of attrition there got us in the top five," Biffle said. "We've got just a little bit of work to do to get our cars faster."

With 44 laps to go, Kenseth caught and passed Truex for the lead.

With the runner-up finish, Stewart continued to strengthen his chances of making the Chase.

"Everyone wants this last year to be good," Stewart said. "Sonoma, I think really helped relax everybody."

Alex Bowman, subbing for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ran in the top 15 most of the day, but cut a tire down with less than 30 laps to go and finished 26th.

The cars of Carl Edwards, Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne were involved in a backstretch crash with 17 laps left in the race. The accident started when Newman hit Edwards. Larson’s car slid onto the apron grass.

The race’s second caution occurred on lap 101 when Chris Buescher spun out of turn two. The first caution – at lap 37 -- was a NASCAR competition caution, called because of morning rain that changed the nature of the track surface.

Debris on the track brought out the day’s third caution flag on lap 220 and the fourth on lap 265.

There were 13 lead changes among 6 drivers and 7 cautions for 36 yellow flag laps. The average speed was 107.416 MPH.