After leading for most of the race, fuel issues for the No. 4 team opened the door for Matt Kenseth to take the lead on Lap 298 of 300 and eventually cruise to victory in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

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Kenseth joined Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin as an automatic qualifier for the Chase for the Sprint Cup contender round. Hamlin finished second, 8.941 seconds behind Kenseth. Joey Logano, Greg Bifle and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five.

With Harvick gambling on fuel, Kenseth pitted on Lap 239 to load up — a move that paid off in the end.

“Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) kept saying he was low on fuel, but you never know unless they really run out,” Kenseth said. “I was trying to run hard, but I was trying to save a little bit. I got racing Denny (Hamlin) pretty hard and I wanted to save the tires a little bit, but I also know I needed to get by him to pressure the 4 (Harvick).

“That was as hard as I could run. I was planning on running up there and trying to pass him, I just couldn’t get there. Kind of resigned to finish second with about four or five (laps) to go there. I couldn’t get much closer and he ran out with a couple to go.”

  1. Matt Kenseth 2. Denny Hamlin 3. Joey Logano 4. (25) Greg Biffle 5. (1) Carl Edwards 6. (5) Jimmie Johnson 7. (10) Jeff Gordon 8. (21) Martin Truex Jr. 9. (12) Kasey Kahne 10. (9) Ryan Newman 11. (27) Tony Stewart 12. (4) Brad Keselowski 13. (14) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 14. (23) Jamie McMurray 15. (20) Paul Menard 16. (33) Trevor Bayne 17. (6) Kyle Larson 18. (19) Casey Mears 19. (3) Kurt Busch 20. (29) Sam Hornish Jr. 21. (2) Kevin Harvick 22. (16) Austin Dillon 23. (30) AJ Allmendinger 24. (28) Cole Whitt 25. (11) Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26. (26) Clint Bowyer 27. (31) Brett Moffitt 28. (34) David Gilliland 29. (38) Michael Annett 30. (35) Matt DiBenedetto 31. (40) Josh Wise 32. (37) Ryan Preece 33. (41) Jeb Burton 34. (39) BJ McLeod 35. (42) Jeffrey Earnhardt 36. (43) Timmy Hill 37. (17) Kyle Busch 38. (32) Landon Cassill 39. (24) Justin Allgaier 40. (22) Danica Patrick 41. (18) David Ragan 42. (36) Alex Bowman 43. (15) Aric Almirola