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To the victor go the spoils; when you win a Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway your spoils include a lobster the size of a well-fed infant. 

The victory marks third time Kenseth has embraced a crustacean since making the move to Joe Gibbs Racing prior to the 2013 season. The 2003 Sprint Cup champion was winless in 27 consecutive starts at the New England flat track prior to his September 2013 victory. 

Kenseth, who led 38 of the race's 301 laps, admits the Granite State one-mile speedway has never been one of his more favorable venues.

“This has never been one of my good tracks, but Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) has a great setup here and I have great teammates," Kenseth said. "Certainly when I first got here, Kyle (Busch) and Denny (Hamlin) taught me a lot about this place that I applied every lap today. Just fortunate guy to be driving this thing, when they drive this good it definitely makes my job a lot easier."

Kenseth now has two wins on the 2016 season and is firmly locked in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship but the veteran admits he is just taking the campaign week by week.

"I've got to be 100 percent honest with you, I haven't spent two seconds thinking about the Chase  -- I just haven't," Kenseth said. "I think these are all big races. I was looking forward to coming here because we've ran really well here since I've came to Joe Gibbs Racing. It's been a real turnaround for me. It used to be one of my worst places and now I feel like it's one of our better places."

The race's winding laps saw much action including a hard charge from three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, who passed Joey Logano, with less than 10 laps remaining to grab a second-place finish. Stewart, who won earlier this season at Sonoma, has to be inside the top-30 in points in order to use his medical waiver for Chase eligibility. 

Stewart believes the No. 14 team is growing stronger and starting to pick-up momentum.

“I feel like we are getting better each week now. (Mike Bugarewicz, crew chief) is doing a great job on the box," Stewart said. "You can see the confidence not only in him, but all the guys on the team. Our Chevy’s are fast right now.  I feel like we are gaining on it. What we said, I don’t know when we said it, we were talking about you crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you jog and job before you sprint. 

"We are definitely running right now. I feel like we are getting pretty close to this sprint at the end.”

Joey Logano finished in third place just ahead of Stewart's teammate Kevin Harvick in fourth place. Logano admits he struggled to begin the 301 lap race but believes his team came to life as the laps dwindled away.

“We were awful to start the race," Logano said. "We tried some new things thinking that we needed to get better here. This is a track that we’ve been a second- to fifth-place car here the last five races, so we tried something different, and we went from sixth to 20th or so pretty quick early in the race, almost went down a lap, and we aborted that mission in the middle of the race and went back to what we normally do. We got our car to be an eighth- to 10th-place car, so we started picking them off slowly one at a time."

While Harvick grabbed top-ten number 15 on Sunday afternoon, the California-native was far from pleased with his end result.

“I’m disgusted to tell you the truth," Harvick said. "It’s the same thing every week. We just make mistake after mistake and until we clean that up we don’t have a chance to win races putting ourselves in a hole every time we make a mistake. It sucks because the cars are plenty fast, but we are just not executing.”

Greg Biffle finished in fifth place with Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, rounding out the top-ten finishers. Pole award winner Jimmie Johnson struggled with handling in his race car for the duration of the race and could only manage a 12th place finish.

The Sprint Cup series is back in action next Sunday, when the tour rolls into Indianapolas Motor Speedway for the annual running of the Brickyard 400. Kevin Harvick continues to lead the points standings by 14 points over Brad Keselowski.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 19
Unofficial Race Results for the 24Th Annual New Hampshire 301 - Sunday, July 17, 2016
New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Loudon, NH - 1.058 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 301 Laps - 318.458 Miles

Leader
Fin    Str    Car    Driver    Team    Laps    Pts    Bns    Driver Rating    Status    Tms    Laps
1    18    20    Matt Kenseth    Dollar General Toyota    301    44    4    129.7    Running    2    38
2    12    14    Tony Stewart    Haas Automation Chevrolet    301    39        93.7    Running        
3    6    22    Joey Logano    Shell Pennzoil Ford    301    38        92.5    Running        
4    8    4    Kevin Harvick    Jimmy John's Chevrolet    301    37        108.6    Running        
5    28    16    Greg Biffle    NESN Fuel Ford    301    36        75.5    Running        
6    19    1    Jamie McMurray    Credit One/CreditCards.com Chevrolet    301    35        92.3    Running        
7    25    31    Ryan Newman    Whelen Chevrolet    301    34        71.7    Running        
8    2    18    Kyle Busch    Interstate Batteries Toyota    301    35    2    132.0    Running    4    133
9    5    11    Denny Hamlin    FedEx Office Toyota    301    33    1    105.1    Running    1    5
10    22    17    Ricky Stenhouse Jr    Fastenal Ford    301    31        74.5    Running        
11    14    21    * Ryan Blaney #    Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford    301    30        82.0    Running        
12    1    48    Jimmie Johnson    Lowe's Chevrolet    301    30    1    94.5    Running    1    1
13    15    3    Austin Dillon    Dow Olympic/USOC Chevrolet    301    28        78.6    Running        
14    29    10    Danica Patrick    Nature's Bakery Chevrolet    301    27        64.0    Running        
15    9    2    Brad Keselowski    Miller Lite Ford    301    27    1    104.0    Running    1    1
16    3    78    Martin Truex Jr    Furniture Row Toyota    301    26    1    117.5    Running    5    123
17    17    42    Kyle Larson    Target Chevrolet    301    24        70.8    Running        
18    24    27    Paul Menard    Dutch Boy/Menards Chevrolet    301    23        61.2    Running        
19    26    43    Aric Almirola    Smithfield Ford    301    22        71.8    Running        
20    13    19    Carl Edwards    Sport Clips Toyota    301    21        86.1    Running        
21    10    47    AJ Allmendinger    Bush's Grillin Beans Chevrolet    301    20        65.0    Running        
22    4    41    Kurt Busch    Haas Automation/Monster Energy Chevrolet    301    19        94.5    Running        
23    31    6    Trevor Bayne    AdvoCare Ford    301    18        53.7    Running        
24    32    15    Clint Bowyer    5-hour Energy Chevrolet    301    17        51.3    Running        
25    11    5    Kasey Kahne    Quicken Loans Chevrolet    301    16        77.0    Running        
26    20    88    Alex Bowman(i)    Nationwide Chevrolet    301    15        69.7    Running        
27    21    13    Casey Mears    GEICO Chevrolet    300    14        45.4    Running        
28    30    38    Landon Cassill    MDS Transport Ford    299    13        44.7    Running        
29    35    34    Chris Buescher #    CSX-Play it Safe Ford    299    12        45.0    Running        
30    23    23    David Ragan    Flaming Leprechaun Toyota    299    11        50.6    Running        
31    16    83    Matt DiBenedetto    Cosmo Motors Toyota    299    10        45.7    Running        
32    34    7    Regan Smith    APC Chevrolet    297    9        36.5    Running        
33    37    46    Michael Annett    Pilot Flying J Chevrolet    295    8        31.2    Running        
34    7    24    Chase Elliott #    NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet    294    7        79.4    Running        
35    36    55    * Reed Sorenson    Vydox Plus Chevrolet    294    6        31.3    Running        
36    38    32    Eddie MacDonald    Bentley's Saloon Ford    293    5        31.3    Running        
37    40    98    * Ryan Ellis(i)    Superlite Cars Chevrolet    292    0        26.4    Running        
38    33    44    Brian Scott #    Shaw's Ford    278    3        32.5    Running        
39    27    95    Michael McDowell    Malwarebytes Chevrolet    191    2        35.5    Electrical        
40    39    30    * Josh Wise    Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet    94    1        23.2    Accident        
 Race Comments:    Matt Kenseth won the New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his 38th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. No cars dropped to the rear of the field prior to the start of the race.
 Failed to Qualify:    N/A
 Time of Race:    02 Hrs, 57 Mins, 53 Secs.    Average Speed:    107.416 MPH    Margin of Victory:    1.982 Seconds
 Caution Flags:    7 for 36 laps: Laps: 37-40 (Competition caution [7]); 101-108 (#34 Spin on the backstretch [83]); 220-227 (Debris in Turn 3 [42]); 265-268 (Debris in Turn 3 [15]); 274-277 (#88 Accident in Turn 1 [6]); 282-284 (#2, 22 and 41 Accident on the frontstretch [47]); 286-290 (#19, 31 and 42 Accident on the backstretch [13]).
 Lead Changes:    13 among 6 drivers: J. Johnson 1; Kyle Busch 2-36; M. Truex Jr 37; Kyle Busch 38-88; M. Truex Jr 89-171; Kyle Busch 172-182; M. Truex Jr 183; B. Keselowski 184; Kyle Busch 185-220; M. Truex Jr 221-257; M. Kenseth 258-264; M. Truex Jr 265; D. Hamlin 266-270; M. Kenseth 271-301.
Chase Grid Outlook:     1.B. Keselowski 622 (4 wins);2.Kyle Busch 556 (3);3.C. Edwards 587 (2);4.M. Kenseth 521 (2);5.J. Johnson 514 (2);6.K. Harvick 636 (1);7.Kurt Busch 602 (1);8.J. Logano 571 (1);9.M. Truex Jr 540 (1);10.D. Hamlin 505 (1);11.C. Elliott # 499 (0);12.R. Newman 497 (0);13.A. Dillon 488 (0);14.J. Mcmurray 474 (0);15.T. Bayne 447 (0);16.*. Blaney # 445 (0).
American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award    : Kyle Busch, #18     Coors Light Pole Award    : Jimmie Johnson, #48 133.971 mph
Duralast Brakes "Brake in the Race"    : Kyle Busch, #18     Ingersoll Rand Power Move    : Ryan Newman, #31 11 positions
Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race    : Toyota Racing Development (TRD), #18     Mobil 1 Driver of the Race    : Matt Kenseth, #20 
Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race    : Matt Kenseth, #20 crew chief Jason Ratcliff, 0.062 seconds    Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap    : Kyle Busch, #18 
Sunoco Rookie of the Race    : Ryan Blaney, #21 
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race:    Jul. 24, 2016 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway