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Loudon, N.H. • Kevin Harvick won Sunday at New Hampshire to earn a spot in the second round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, pulling away off a restart a year after a late loss at the track.

Harvick ran out of fuel late last year to lose and faced a win-or-elimination race the next week at Dover. Harvick rallied for one of the biggest wins of his career to survive another round.

His drama came a race earlier this season. Matt Kenseth and dominated the second half of the race on Sunday and seemed poised to win the New Hampshire race for the third straight time. He won in a similar situation in 2014 at Phoenix when he needed a victory to advance to the championship race.

Harvick, the 2014 Sprint Cup champion, was able to zip past Kenseth with five laps remaining and he held on to join Martin Truex Jr. in the second round. Truex won the Chase opener.

"One of our main goals this year was to not stretch ourselves out so bad," Harvick said. "I feel like the performance of the car and the things that we're doing are good enough to be competitive, we just need to not make mistakes and go from there."

Harvick won for the third time this season and first time at New Hampshire in 10 years.

Chase drivers took the top eight spots. The 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field will be cut to 12 after Dover.

Kenseth led 105 of 300 laps and would have clinched with the win, just as he did last season at New Hampshire when he was in perfect position to take advantage of Harvick's miscue. He appeared to slow down just a bit off the last restart with five laps left, allowing Harvick to race side-by-side before he took off for his 11th win in 100 career starts at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kenseth and Kyle Busch were second and third. They were followed by Chase drivers Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Truex and Jimmie Johnson —

Sprint Cup results

NASCAR Sprint Cup Bad Boy Off Road 300

Sunday

At New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Loudon, N.H.

Lap length: 1.058 miles

(Start position in parentheses)

1. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 300.

2. (8) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 300.

3. (12) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 300.

4. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 300.

5. (13) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 300.

6. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 300.

7. (2) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 300.

8. (4) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300.

9. (9) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 300.

10. (6) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 300.

11. (15) Joey Logano, Ford, 300.

12. (16) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 300.

13. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 300.

14. (18) Alex Bowman(i), Chevrolet, 300.

15. (5) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 300.

16. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 300.

17. (26) Aric Almirola, Ford, 300.

18. (24) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 300.

19. (7) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 300.

20. (3) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 300.

21. (17) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 300.

22. (37) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 300.

23. (22) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 299.

24. (21) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 299.

25. (14) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 299.

26. (20) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 298.

27. (31) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 298.

28. (33) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 298.

29. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 298.

30. (28) Chris Buescher, Ford, 298.

31. (25) Brian Scott, Ford, 298.

32. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 297.

33. (32) Greg Biffle, Ford, 297.

34. (30) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 297.

35. (36) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 294.

36. (38) Reed Sorenson, Toyota, 293.

37. (40) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ford, 290.

38. (27) Trevor Bayne, Ford, Accident, 282.

39. (39) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 268.

40. (35) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Steering, 236.

Race statistics

Average speed of race winner: 109.291 mph. Time of race: 2 hrs, 54 mins, 15 secs. Margin of victory: 0.442 seconds. Caution flags: 6 for 31 laps. Lead changes: 14 among 8 drivers.

Top 16 in points: B. Keselowski, 2,087; M. Truex Jr, 2,086; Kyle Busch, 2,085; M. Kenseth, 2,078; J. Logano, 2,073; K. Harvick, 2,071; D. Hamlin, 2,071; J. Johnson, 2,070; C. Elliott, 2,068; C. Edwards, 2,068; Kurt Busch, 2,067; K. Larson, 2,057; J. McMurray, 2,052; A. Dillon, 2,052; T. Stewart, 2,046; C. Buescher, 2,027.