Race two. Loudon. Fuel mileage. Such are the thoughts that pass through a crew member’s mind during the pre-race ceremonies at the Fall New Hampshire race.

Carl Edwards led all but one of the practices, and started on the pole. He led the first 20 laps. However, just as the race was twenty laps in the going, Kevin Harvick passed Carl for the lead, where he would be for more than 200 laps.

While Harvick dominated the race, blown tires became a big story. Multiple drivers suffered flat tires throughout the race. Sometimes contact blew tires, and other times it was for no known reason. Some rebounded from these problems.

Early in the race Tony Stewart battled Martin Truex Jr. for position in the middle of the pack, when Truex bumped Stewart, leading to a blown tire. Stewart rebounded to claim an 11th place finish. And later in the race Jimmie Johnson had a tire go flat. He rebounded for an eight place finish.

Kevin Harvick had suffered a poor finish last weekend at Chicagoland (that’s putting it mildly), and needed a stellar performance to rebound from this disaster. However, he is one of 16 Chase drivers. All sixteen want a chance to win. And at Loudon, finishes can get a little hectic.

Harvick led the most laps in the race, but something unexpected came into the race, right when he didn’t need it to happen. A caution flew on lap 212, and Kevin pitted for tires and fuel. However, various strategies scrambled the field. This left Harvick with ground to make up, and he had to save gas to do so. Not comfortable situation.

Kevin managed to regain the lead thanks to a caution on lap 239, but several other driver’s pitted for fuel and tires. Now they could make it to the finish but he was unsure. And he had to see if he could hold off drivers with fresher tires.

Sure enough, as the laps wound down, Harvick found himself fighting for his life against Matt Kenseth, the highest placing driver on fresh tires. And for Harvick, this was trouble because he couldn’t save fuel while he was driving for his life.

As the meter said six laps to go, everyone held their breath, because this was the edge of Harvick’s fuel window. Suddenly, with just 3 laps left, Harvick ran out of fuel. Kenseth blew past and won his fifth race of the year, and his second in the past few years at Loudon.

Harvick several other Chase drivers ran dry on fuel in the closing laps, and Harvick wound up 21st on the scoreboard. He now faces a do or die situation going into Dover. It is the final race of the first round of the Chase, and he (the defending champion, is 21 points out of the next round. A win would get him in the next round, but he can mathematically make it on points. Only time will tell.