Kevin Harvick entered Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway fresh off the heels of a 42nd place finish and in desperate need of a victory.

But he came just short of reaching victory lane despite leading 216 of the race's 300 laps. In the end it was fuel strategy which robbed Harvick of the victory and allowed Matt Kenseth to capture his fifth checkered flag of the season. 

What do Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Glen Wood and Tom Pistone have in common with George Halas, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, Gale Sayers and William "The Refrigerator" Perry?

They all "played" at storied Soldier Field in Chicago.

Halas, Butkus, Payton, Sayers and Perry, of course, are among the most famous of the NFL’s legendary Chicago Bears, whose home field is the great arena dating to 1926.

The over-the-wall pit crew for Martin Truex's No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet will have replacement tire changers for Sunday's Sylvania 300 Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
 
Dave Collins, the regular front-tire changer, suffered an ankle injury on Wednesday during a practice session. He will be replaced by Josh Franko, who has been a backup pit-crew member for Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR).

Random thoughts about the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase, wondering at what point tempers will be non-existence.

Jeff Gordon is listed at just 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, but the four-time Sprint Cup series champion deserves the title as NASCAR’s Iron Man.

Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Gordon will make his 789th consecutive start, breaking the record established by Ricky Rudd.

Gordon has endured jeers from fans, spectacular crashes and back pain to keep his tough-man streak alive.

NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship contender Woody Pitkat will sport a different car number and colors this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but the marks will be plenty familiar to longtime modified fans.

Piktat’s regular No. 88 black and blue Chevrolet has transformed into a red and white No. 38 as a tribute to NASCAR Hall of Fame-elect Jerry Cook for Saturday’s F.W. Webb 100. The throwback scheme features a red paint with white lettering and numbers outlined in black, and the look comes complete with Cook’s primary sponsors Hollebrand Trucking and B&M Speed Shop. The No. 88 team’s present day sponsor Buzz Chew Chevrolet is also feature on the car with a retro logo.

The Chase is under way. One race down. Nine to go. All last week, I'd be driving around town, listening to the NASCAR Channel (90) on Sirius XM satellite radio, and I kept shaking my head at the notion that there would be any predictable pattern to the Chase. Callers and so-called experts picked their "first four out," their "last four in" and their champion, and it seemed to me that no one had an accurate way of making their picks.

Partly, this is because there is no accurate way, but almost everyone assumed that, of the 16 drivers in the Chase, the first four out would be the weakest, the last four would be the strongest and the champion would be the best.

Ah-ha-ha-ha.

Denny Hamlin didn't dominate Sunday's MyAFIBRisk.com 400 at Chicagoland Speedway but he came out on top when it mattered the most. But before Hamlin was celebrating in victory lane he was on pit lane trying to stay on the lead lap.

Hamlin, who is racing with torn ACL suffered in a non-racing accident, spun after he appeared to make contact with the No. 47 car of A.J. Allmendinger on lap three of the 267 lap affair. His big break, however, came on lap 259 when the race's final caution came out and when the race restarted with five to go in the race.