It took Tony Stewart 27 races to get his first win of the 2011 season. It took him one more week to get his second.
Stewart overhauled Clint Bowyer for the lead with two las to go when Bowyer ran out of gas completing the 298th lap and curised over the final two laps to win the Sylvania 300 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Ironically, it was Bowyer who took the victory in this race last year when Stewart ran out of fuel coming to the white flag.
Brad Keselowski finished second, followed by Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, and Brian Vickers. Matt Kenseth was sixth, while David Ragan, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Regan Smith rounded out the top-10. It was a major rebound weekend for Gordon and Kenseth, both of whom were bitten by fuel-mileage woes at the end of Monday's rain-delayed event in Chicago.
Kyle Busch, another driver who ran dry in Chicago, finished 11th, a spot ahead of Kevin Harvick - who entered the race with the point lead.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Ryan Newman all had frustrating follow-ups to top-10 runs at Chicago, while Denny Hamlin's title hopes - already on life support after a bad showing in Chicago - effectively came to an end when he ran out of gas and finished a miserable 29th.
With the victory - his 41st - Stewart takes the point lead by seven markers over Harvick. Keselowski is 11 back in third, while Edwards and Earnhardt round out the top-five. Hamlin, meanwhile, is last among the Chase drivers and sits what appears an insurmountable 66 points behind Stewart.