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Newman Wins the Sylvania 300

Ryan Newman won a thrilling late-race battle with Tony Stewart to win the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, the first race of the Chase for the Championship

The Penske Racing driver retook the lead from Stewart with two laps to go, after Stewart had passed Newman seven laps earlier.

Pole-sitter Stewart dominated the early stages of the race, however he damaged the right-front of his car after crashing into the rear of Dale Earnhardt Jr when the DEI driver slowed down to enter the pits.

Although Stewart's tyres started smoking initially from contact with his fender, the damage didn't permanently hamper his progress, and he battled hard with Newman following a late race-caution for debris.

Stewart now leads the Chase standings by 20 points from Greg Biffle, who finished fourth.

Many of the Chase runners also had strong results. Matt Kenseth finished third and Rusty Wallace, after being penalised by a lap because he pitted outside of his box, secured sixth after a late race duel with fellow veteran racer Mark Martin. Jimmie Johnson's form improved, finishing eighth.

It was not great for every Chase contender, however. Reigning Champion Kurt Busch's hopes of repeating last year's opening victory in the ten-race, ten driver playoff were ruined as early as lap three. Scott Riggs got into a slide and pushed Busch into the wall, heavily damaging the front of his Ford Taurus.

Busch was fuming after the accident and marched down the pitlane to speak to Rigg's crew-chief Doug Randolph.

That was only the first of several incidents of retribution, which led to NASCAR issuing a mid-race call for all drivers to calm down.

Kasey Kahne drove into Kyle Busch during a caution period in revenge for a crash. The 20 year-old Busch pushed him into the wall, wrecking Kahne's Dodge Charger, but the Evernham Motorsports then took his mangled car and drove into Busch under the yellow flag. Kahne made no excuses for his resultant behaviour.

"If people are going to run into you for no reason, then I think that ruining their day too is the best way to do it," Kahne said afterwards.

Robby Gordon threw his helmet at Michael Waltrip, after Gordon believed the DEI driver ran him into the wall after a yellow flag had been shown for a separate incident behind them.

The accident wrecked Gordon's Chevrolet, and after unsuccessfully trying to drive into him when Waltrip returned a lap later, Gordon walked up the track and hurled his helmet at Waltrip.

"It was a caution. He just ran me and he is piece of shit," Gordon said.

 1.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       300
 2.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   300
 3.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        300
 4.  Greg Biffle         Ford        300
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet   300
 6.  Rusty Wallace       Dodge       300
 7.  Mark Martin         Ford        300
 8.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   300
 9.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   300
10.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   300
11.  Sterling Marlin     Dodge       300
12.  Jamie McMurray      Dodge       300
13.  Brian Vickers       Chevrolet   300
14.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   300
15.  Michael Waltrip     Chevrolet   300
16.  Jeremy Mayfield     Dodge       300
17.  Jeff Green          Dodge       300
18.  Dale Jarrett        Ford        300
19.  Carl Edwards        Ford        300
20.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        300
21.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       300
22.  Mike Wallace        Chevrolet   300
23.  Casey Mears         Dodge       299
24.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   299
25.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   299
26.  Scott Wimmer        Dodge       299
27.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   299
28.  Scott Riggs         Chevrolet   299
29.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.  Chevrolet   299
30.  Elliott Sadler      Ford        298
31.  Joey McCarthy       Dodge       295
32.  Stuart Kirby        Chevrolet   289
33.  Dave Blaney         Chevrolet   271
34.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   251
35.  Kurt Busch          Ford        233
36.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet   194
37.  Robby Gordon        Chevrolet   190
38.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       164
39.  Jimmy Spencer       Dodge       144
40.  Ken Schrader        Dodge       111
41.  Travis Kvapil       Dodge       105
42.  Ted Christopher     Chevrolet    29
43.  Wayne Anderson      Dodge        16

The Chase for the Cup Standings

Pos  Driver           Points  Change
 1.  Tony Stewart     5230     =
 2.  Greg Biffle      5210     =
 3.  Ryan Newman      5190    +7
 4.  Rusty Wallace    5190    -1
 5.  Matt Kenseth     5180    +3
 6.  Jimmie Johnson   5177    -2
 7.  Mark Martin      5176    -1
 8.  Jeremy Mayfield  5135    -1
 9.  Carl Edwards     5121    -1
10.  Kurt Busch       5088    -5

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