Wikipedia:WikiProject NASCAR/Newsletter/201209

The 2010 Sylvania 300 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on September 19, 2010, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The 300 lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season. Clint Bowyer, of the Richard Childress Racing team, won the race, with Denny Hamlin finishing second, and Jamie McMurray third.

Pole position driver Brad Keselowski maintained his lead in the first lap, but in the second lap Tony Stewart pulled ahead. Chase for the Sprint Cup participants Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin were in the top ten for most of the race, but in the closing laps all of them suffered spins or other problems. Hamlin was the only one to recover and finish in the top five. With two laps remaining, Tony Stewart was leading the race when he ran out of fuel, giving the lead to Bowyer, who also led the most laps in the race with 176. There were eight cautions and twenty-three lead changes among eight different drivers during the race.

The race was Clint Bowyer's first win in the 2010 season, and the third of his career. The result advanced Bowyer to second in the Drivers' Championship, thirty-five points behind Hamlin and ten ahead of Kevin Harvick, but because of a penalty three days after the race, he fell to twelfth in the standings. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, thirty-two points ahead of Toyota and seventy-four ahead of Ford, with nine races remaining in the season. A total of 95,000 people attended the race, while 3.68 million watched it on television. (Read more...)