Bowyer wins at New Hampshire

In front of a sell-out crowd of 101,000 fans, the Richard Childress Racing driver was the class of the field all afternoon, starting from pole position and leading 221 out of the 300 laps of the first race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"It's just unbelievable," said Bowyer after taking his first Cup victory in 64 starts. "I can't believe it happened here. This has always been a good track for us but we never could quite get the finish.

"This says a lot about this race team and our chances for this Chase. This is what you've got to do. You've got to start this up on the right foot and I knew this could be a track where we could get out with a good finish. I'm so excited!"

Thanks to the points system starting the Chase, Bowyer has made a major leap in the standings after starting the playoff with the lowest score, being the only driver of the top-12 without a win before this weekend. After scoring maximum points today he is now only 15 points away from the championship lead.

Jeff Gordon was also among the big gainers of the day finishing second as he did at this track back in July. With Jimmie Johnson finishing sixth, today's result has allowed Gordon to overcome the 20-point deficit that the reigning Nextel Cup champion had over him heading into this weekend, and the pair are now tied in the points lead.

"That was a great effort to come from eighteenth and fight our way inside the top five," said Gordon. "There were some great battles there. My car is absolutely worn out because we drove the brakes, the tyres, the engine, everything just completely.

"We were not that good on new tyres, or cold tyres I should say. A group of yellow flags really got us behind so we had to play some catch up but we had great pit stops and great calls from Steve Letarte. I'm really happy to get this ten-race series starting up like this in the Chase. I'm very happy."

Gordon had an entertaining battle with Tony Stewart for most of the distance but in the end he could not beat the Hendrick driver. Stewart led 39 laps and got five bonus points for that, allowing him to maintain the gap to Gordon in the points, and at the same time closing within ten points of the Chase lead.

Kyle Busch was also among the drivers to lead the race, completing 21 laps up front but losing some spots in the final part of a race which was a very straightforward affair, given the lack of cautions in the final 100 laps. He eventually finished fourth, despite the 'evil' handling of his car and moved up to fifth in the Chase.

"That's just the CoT, they're always evil," said the younger of the Busch brothers. "We're still trying to make it better and I just can't get it to suit my driving style. We're trying to get it customed to me, and to come out of here with a fourth effort today definately means a lot for us."

Martin Truex Jr, Johnson and Matt Kenseth completed a top-seven made out only of Chase contenders. Truex was among the fast movers in the last part of the race, but the lack of cautions in the end also limited his climb through the field.

"I wish the race was longer," said Truex. "I usually don't say that but we had a good car at the end of the race. We started the race real tight and it took us pretty much all day to get the car working where we needed it. We did what we had to do. We didn't have the best car today but we got a great finish."

Best of the non-Chasers was Casey Mears, who rounded up a great day for Hendrick Motorsports as all their cars finished in the top ten, underlining their supremacy with the Car of Tomorrow. Ryan Newman and JJ Yeley ran well to complete the top ten.

Carl Edwards, another Chase contender, dropped four places in the standings after finishing twelfth, while Denny Hamlin had a difficult day, running in the midfield for most of the distance. He couldn't quite translate his pace from the July race, which he won at this track, and finished 15th, dropping to ninth in the points.

However the biggest loser among the title contenders was Kurt Busch, who suffered for most of the day with an engine down on power. He made numerous visits to the pits under the limited caution periods to try to fix the problem, which cost him seven places in the Chase and leave Loudon in 12th place.

Despite RCR's joy for Bowyer's win, their other two drivers didn't have as good a race. Four-time winner at New Hampshire Jeff Burton was not in position to take a fifth win at the track, and also lost a place in the Chase standings after finishing 18th. Kevin Harvick had a cut tyre early on and fell a lap down, eventually finishing just ahead of Burton.

Juan Pablo Montoya didn't have the best of days, struggling with the handling of his car all throughout the afternoon. He suffered from the lack of running before the race, due to the rain on Saturday morning, which forced the cancellation of two practice sessions.

"Boring day," Montoya said. "It's hard. We didn't have a great car in practice and we didn't run Saturday. I was junk Friday and I was junk today. It was really hard. I made a lot of progress through the day but it's really hard to catch-up when you start so far back."

Next week the Chase for the Nextel Cup moves to the second race of the year at Dover, another Car of Tomorrow event.

Pos  Driver                  Make        Laps
 1.  Clint Bowyer            Chevrolet    300
 2.  Jeff Gordon             Chevrolet    300
 3.  Tony Stewart            Chevrolet    300
 4.  Kyle Busch              Chevrolet    300
 5.  Martin Truex Jr         Chevrolet    300
 6.  Jimmie Johnson          Chevrolet    300
 7.  Matt Kenseth            Ford         300
 8.  Casey Mears             Chevrolet    300
 9.  Ryan Newman             Dodge        300
10.  J.J. Yeley              Chevrolet    300
11.  Jamie McMurray          Ford         300
12.  Carl Edwards            Ford         300
13.  Greg Biffle             Ford         300
14.  Reed Sorenson           Dodge        300
15.  Denny Hamlin            Chevrolet    300
16.  Dale Earnhardt Jr       Chevrolet    300
17.  Kevin Harvick           Chevrolet    299
18.  Jeff Burton             Chevrolet    299
19.  David Ragan             Ford         299
20.  Kasey Kahne             Dodge        299
21.  Tony Raines             Chevrolet    299
22.  Bobby Labonte           Dodge        299
23.  Juan Montoya            Dodge        299
24.  Paul Menard             Chevrolet    299
25.  Kurt Busch              Dodge        299
26.  David Reutimann         Toyota       299
27.  Jeff Green              Chevrolet    298
28.  Johnny Sauter           Chevrolet    298
29.  Joe Nemechek            Chevrolet    298
30.  Ken Schrader            Ford         297
31.  Robby Gordon            Ford         297
32.  Scott Riggs             Dodge        297
33.  A.J. Allmendinger       Toyota       297
34.  Kenny Wallace           Ford         296
35.  Dave Blaney             Toyota       296
36.  Regan Smith             Chevrolet    296
37.  Kyle Petty              Dodge        296
38.  Elliott Sadler          Dodge        295
39.  David Gilliland         Ford         295
40.  Boris Said              Dodge        292
41.  Ward Burton             Chevrolet    284
42.  David Stremme           Dodge        273
43.  Brian Vickers           Toyota       265

Chase For The Cup - Points Standing:

Pos  Driver              Change  Points
 1.  Jimmie Johnson               5210  
 2.  Jeff Gordon                  5210  
 3.  Tony Stewart                 5200  + 10   
 4.  Clint Bowyer          +8     5195  + 15   
 5.  Kyle Busch            +4     5175  + 35   
 6.  Martin Truex Jr       +1     5170  + 40   
 7.  Matt Kenseth          +1     5156  + 54   
 8.  Carl Edwards          -4     5147  + 63   
 9.  Denny Hamlin          -3     5128  + 82   
10.  Kevin Harvick         +1     5122  + 88   
11.  Jeff Burton           -1     5119  + 91   
12.  Kurt Busch            -7     5108  +102