LOUDON, New Hampshire — Matt Kenseth claimed his fifth win of the season Sunday and guaranteed a spot in the next round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup with his victory in the Sylvania 300 New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It was the fourth-straight win for Joe Gibbs Racing and the ninth win for the team in the past 11 races.
Kenseth’s JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards finished second and fifth to give the team three finishes inside the top-five. Joey Logano finished third and Greg Biffle was fourth.
Kenseth took the lead for the final time when Kevin Harvick ran out of gas just shy of the white flag and the final lap.
After dominating the race early, Harvick stayed out during a caution on lap 239 and restarted the race third. Kenseth, meanwhile, gave up the lead to pit for fuel.
Brad Keselowski, who ran near front throughout most of the race to that point, stayed out but then was penalized for jumping the restart.
Harvick retook the lead with just under 50 laps to go. Inside 30 laps to go, Kenseth got by Hamlin for second.
Kenseth closed in on Harvick, pressuring Harvick to not conserve fuel. After running out of gas, Harvick wound up finishing a lap down in 21st position.
Harvick dominated the first two-thirds of the 300-lap race until the sixth caution of the race for debris just before lap 200. He lost positions on pit road and restarted seventh.
Up to that point, he had led 169 laps.
Keselowski ran second to Harvick, but like Harvick, Keselowski also lost positions on pit road near the two-thirds mark and restarted eighth.
Another quick caution came with 97 laps remaining for a wreck involving Danica Patrick and David Ragan. The incident led to a red flag for track clean-up. Prior to the yellow and red flags, Keselowski and Harvick had worked their ways up to third and fourth.
When the race restarted, Harvick got back to the lead, but then gave up that position to pit when the yellow flag waved again for Brett Moffitt on lap 211. Keselowski was also among those who pitted.
When the yellow flag waved on lap 160 for a Kyle Busch wreck, Keselowski lost the second spot on pit road when he got blocked into his pit stall.
Edwards, who got off pit road ahead of Keselowski, was sent to the back with a penalty for taking equipment out of his pit stall.
NOTES: Furniture Row Racing and driver Martin Truex Jr. announced during a news conference at the track Sunday morning that they would make the switch from Chevrolet to Toyota for 2016. … Jeff Gordon set a record for all-time consecutive race starts with 789 when he started the Sylvania 300. … Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards came into New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the top-four spots of the championship standings. … Penalties for the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing team that included the loss of 25 points for driver Clint Bowyer dropped Bowyer to 16th and last in the Chase standings heading into NHMS. His crew chief, Billy Scott, was suspended for three races, but his suspension has been delayed by the team’s appeal of the penalties. … Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick entered the Sylvania 300 15th in the standings after a 42nd-place finish a week earlier at Chicagoland Speedway. … Kurt Busch’s crew chief, Tony Gibson, underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday but was at NHMS by Friday for Sunday’s race. … Busch’s team discovered a transmission leak so the team’s transmission specialist was flown to New Hampshire to fix the problem Sunday morning. … Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Saturday. … Kyle Busch won at NHMS earlier this season. … Joey Logano won last year’s Sylvania 300.