Lennox 300 at New Hampshire

It was a good race at New Hampshire International Raceway for the Lennox 300 Cup race, with a few cautions, and good close racing on and off, watching fenders get used, and tempers kept in check.

There was one notable caution on Lap 202 as Joe Nemecheks right rear wheel comes off the car in turn 3, the car slamming into the wall, his wheel popping along the wall, the catch fence deflecting the wheel back into the track surface, avoiding a fan calamity.

Dave Blaney led the first 20 or so laps, Jr led on and off today, sharing some quality lead time with Kyle Busch. For a bit, we thought Martin Truex had the car to beat as he led for a while, but then Denny had the lead on lap 259 restart after only taking 2 tires, and no one thought he was going hold anyone off with just a 2 tire stop versus the 4 tires changes, but we were being proven wrong in our assumptions as with 2 to go, Hamlin was leadng and Jeff Gordon was trying to diamond the corners to make up ground.

On the Last lap, Gordon got up to Hamlins back bumper, but Denny Hamlin WINS with Gordon up under his fender, getting loose and holding off Gordon off of turn 4!

Kurt Busch slamed the wall in Turn 4 after Regan slides up into him, and smokes his wreck across the finish line in 21 st. (Kurt left the track quickly with no comment.)

Order of finish - Hamlin, J Gordon, Truex Jr, Earnhardt Jr, Johnson, Jeff Green, J Burton, Harvick, Kenseth and Newman are the top 10.
http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/17/data/results_unofficial.html

The point standings, unofficial as they may be, are

Jeff Gordon
Denny Hamlin
Matt Kenseth
Jimmie Johnson
Jeff Burton
Tony Stewart
Carl Edwards
Kevin Harvick
Kyle Busch
Martin Truex Jr.
Clint Bowyer
Dale Earnhardt Jr.

See http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/data/standings_unofficial.html

and www.nascar.com for all your detail desires.

Thanks for reading,
Bruce Simmons, the Fan Reporter.