The Chase for the Sprint Cup standings following the Sylvania 300 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway:
Tony Stewart (Leads overall, finished first Sunday): After going winless in the 26-race regular season, he has won the first two Chase races, both of which boiled down to fuel-mileage contests. But he sees the upcoming race at Dover International Speedway as a potential stumbling block. "That's the one race in the Chase that I'm worried about most, so this is the best scenario we can have going into it," he said.
Kevin Harvick (seven points behind, finished 12th): Fuel mileage worked in his favor at Chicagoland, but against him at New Hampshire. "We needed to have gotten a little bit better fuel mileage than we got, but we were making a lot of horsepower," said crew chief Gil Martin, who was pleased with his team's position after two Chase races.
Brad Keselowski (minus-11, finished second): His late-season surge continued as he scored a strong finish at a track where he hadn't had much success in the past. "We've got some work to do on these short-track races, but we got some mile-and-a-half's coming up where we've been really, really good," he said.
Carl Edwards (minus-14, finished eighth): A strong finish at one of his worst tracks keeps him solidly in the championship hunt. "I'm just glad to make it out of [New Hampshire] with something better than the 15th or 20th we should have run," he said.
Jeff Gordon (minus-23, finished fourth): He rebounded from a disappointing Chicago run and gained six spots in the standings, the most of any Chase driver. And that was in spite of running out of fuel at one point and running conservatively at the end to save fuel.
Kyle Busch (minus-26, finished 11th): After a so-so run at New Hampshire, he's ready to move on to the upcoming tracks on the schedule. "We survived, and we'll go on to Dover, which is usually a much better place for me," he said.
Matt Kenseth (minus-26, finished sixth): He bounced back from a disappointing outing at Chicago to run strong at New Hampshire. "I'm pretty encouraged because [New Hampshire] is probably one of my worst tracks," he said. "We had a pretty fast car. ... We had good pit stops and good strategy and got a top 10 out of it."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (minus-26, finished 17th): The only Chase driver without a race victory this season looked like he might have a winning car before tire troubles put him behind at the end. He said the chassis set-up on his car may have been too aggressive.
Kurt Busch (minus-28, finished 22nd): His day got off to a bad start when his No. 22 Dodge failed pre-race inspection. His crew worked up until race time to get it to NASCAR's liking, but he and his team were behind from the start and lost five spots in the standings, the most of any Chase driver.
Jimmie Johnson (minus-29, finished 18th): The five-time and defending Cup champion wasn't up to his usual standards and was the last driver on the lead lap at the finish. "In my experience in winning five [consecutive championships], we lost the points lead due to a wreck in the last lap at Talladega and still came back and won, so anything can happen," he said.
Ryan Newman (minus-34, finished 25th): The pole-sitter took off in a hurry and led early, but two slow pit stops and tire troubles ruined his run. "We just didn't capitalize on what we could have," he said.
Denny Hamlin (minus-66, finished 29th): Last year's points runner-up looked to be finally getting back into form, but he ran out of gas at the end. "Another tough day for us, but we're just figuring out what we need to do to be a little bit more competitive," he said.
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