Clint Bowyer gets his 1st Cup Win

by Bruce Simmons

Clint Bowyer had the car to beat Sunday during the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Raceway. He had the pole, he led the most laps (221 laps led), and finished the race with a 6.6 second lead.

Brian Vickers had been black flagged for running the paddle on pit road early on.
Scott Riggs got a flat from rubbing fenders with Regan Smith.
Ward Burton had hit the wall on lap 67.

Around lap 121, Kurt Busch reported engine problems. Originally thought to be a cylinder gone bad, it turned out to be a carburetor issue not giving the engine enough gas. Kurt came in 25th.

At the halfway mark of the race, Bowyer was leading by 3.5 seconds, in front of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman were the top 5 runners.

On lap 179 Earnhardt Jr spun out by himself.. reporting a loose condition, a rarity with the COT.. they must be onto something!

Kyle Busch took a late race gamble and did not pit when most did, had to end up pitting under green, with 76 laps to go, but things worked out ok and he recovered for a good finish.

By lap 288, Bowyer had the fastest lap of the group.. He started worrying about being tight, was quite sick to his stomach and started hearing every nut and bolt sound in his car as the laps wound down.. and he did a good job bringing it home to the finish to WIN the race.

He was followed by Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman and J.J. Yeley to round out the top 10 finishers.

There were 7 cautions for 27 laps and 15 total lead changes.

Complete results are at NASCAR

As far as standings for for the Chase,
Johnson and Gordon are tied for first,
Tony Stewart is in third,
and though Brad Dougherty on ESPN said that being in 12th is an insurmountable problem, Clint Bowyer moved into 4th from 12th and Kyle Busch is 5th.

You can check out the standings at NASCAR.com

It was noted on the ABC telecast that this is the first race in the modern NASCAR era that 43 cars that started the race, also finished the race!