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Loudon, N.H. • Ryan Newman had his boss on his back and felt pressure to deliver a top performance.

Might make an office drone squirm in a cubicle.

Not on the track, where there was no other driver Newman would rather see behind him than Tony Stewart.

The owner-employee dynamic was simply teammate-teammate for 301 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Newman held off Stewart, his boss and teammate, to earn his first win of the season Sunday and make it a 1-2 start and finish for Stewart-Haas Racing.

"This is huge for our team, even bigger for our organization," Newman said.

Newman and Stewart made it the first front-row start for SHR in qualifying Friday and they followed up with first- and second-place finishes for the first time on race day. It was a banner weekend for SHR, and Newman and Stewart have jostled themselves in position to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

"This was a perfect weekend," Stewart said.

It was needed, too.

Newman won for the first time since April 2010 in Phoenix and Stewart earned only his second top-five of the season. It was a pair of near-flawless runs for the drivers as they gear up for a championship run.

"It's no secret we've been struggling this year," Stewart said. "But it really shows me the depth of the people we got in our organization. It's been one of the weirdest years as far as weird things and bad luck happening to both of us."

Newman became the 13th winner in Sprint Cup this year, matching the total from last season after only 19 of 36 races. Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and five-time champion Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.

Hamlin nipped at Newman late and made a serious push until fuel concerns forced him to ease off. —

Sprint Cup standings

Pts. Beh.

1. C. Edwards 652 —

2. J. Johnson 645 -7

3. Kurt Busch 641 -11

4. K. Harvick 637 -15

5. Kyle Busch 632 -20

6. M. Kenseth 626 -26

7. J. Gordon 587 -65

8. R. Newman 586 -66

9. Earnhardt Jr. 577 -75

10. D. Hamlin 570 -82

11. T. Stewart 570 -82

12. C. Bowyer 542 -110