By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(July 17, 2011)

LOUDON, N.H. — Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart started 1-2 in Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and after a wild jumble of divergent strategies in the 19th NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season, that’s the way they finished the race.

“One hell of a day boys—one hell of a day,” Stewart radioed to his team as he approached the finish line .773 seconds behind his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate. Both drivers helped themselves immensely in their respective quests for berths in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, as Newman posted his first victory of the year, his third at the 1.058-mile track and the 15th of his career.

Denny Hamlin came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson. Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, Martin Truex Jr., Marcos Ambrose and Kurt Busch completed the top 10.

Kyle Busch entered the race as the series points leader but exited the event after blowing his right front tire and slamming the Turn 2 wall on Lap 59. Before the tire blew, Busch had been working traffic after a four-tire pit stop under caution on Lap 31—his second stop under that yellow—put him deep in the field for a restart on Lap 35.

“Blew a bead,” Busch said, referring to the edge of the tire that sits on the wheel. “Fastest car here—getting through the field pretty good and kind of the only guy passing guys, I guess, there. We made some big changes there on that pit stop.

“We came back and got four (tires) just to make sure we got all the changes we wanted to. Working our way up through there. Just blew a bead, I guess, transferring too much brake heat through the wheel.”
After extensive repairs, Busch returned to the track on Lap 134 and finished 36th.