Busch (The other one) wins at New Hampshire

The top 10 starting grid for the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 was :

1 Patrick Carpentier*
2 Bobby Labonte
3 Kevin Harvick
4 Scott Riggs
5 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6 Reed Sorenson
7 Dario Franchitti*
8 Martin Truex Jr.
9 Matt Kenseth
10 A.J. Allmendinger

Interesting observation: Lap 100 saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9th, he was followed by his old sponsor Budweiser, who was followed by Jr.'s old car, the No. 8!

After 111 Laps, and only one caution, the field settled out with the biggest position changes from the start being:

Scott Riggs dropped 36 spots to 40
Dario Franchitti dropped 36 spots to 43rd
Brian Vickers climbed 36 spots to 4th
Patrick Carpentier dropped 30 spots to 31st
Tony Stewart climbed up over and around 25 other cars to 3rd
Casey Mears snuck up 23 spots to 1st by not pitting under caution
Elliott Sadler slid back 21 spots to 32nd
Sam Hornish Jr. regressed 19 postiions to 39th
Jeff Burton came 19 spots from 31st to 12th
Travis Kvapil dropped 17 spots to 38th
Jimmie Johnson gained 16 spots to be in 7th

Stewart took the race lead on lap 141 coming out of the pits from a caution stop and held the lead until the very end.

The last half of the race was a race as teams had a feel that the weather was coming, but the real excitement wound up with around 25 laps to go the word rain was mentioned.

The race pace was slowed by 2 cautions in the last 25 laps.

Lap 271 saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. get speared by Jamie McMurray as the 88 car was pitting for fuel.
Lap 280 saw some excitement as Hornish spun and collected Bowyer in his mess. The ensuing pace lap saw Montoya hit Kyle Busch and Busch spun.

The 2 cautions slowed down the race enough to let the rain come in. The irony was that the top 15 cars had pitted for fuel since they couldn't make the whole length of the race. Others made the gamble and stayed out.

The others that stayed out, being Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson, Casey Mears, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson were the top 10 cars when the red flag came out for rain and subsequently, the top 10 finishers when the race was called for rain.

Go figure, a 2nd place finish for Michael Walrip!

NASCAR Unofficial Results