LOUDON, N.H. (AP) - Joey Logano pulled away on the restart to win a green-white-checkered finish Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and advance to the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Logano and Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski have both advanced to the next round. Four drivers will be eliminated drivers after every third race, and a win guarantees a driver an automatic berth into the next round. The first cutoff race is next week at Dover International Speedway.
Logano raced to his fourth victory of the season, leading 73 laps and surviving a NASCAR season-high 15 cautions that wrecked results for several Chase drivers.
Keselowski led 78 laps, hit the wall, and still was in the hunt for a win. He failed in his bid to win a third straight Cup race, though he salvaged a seventh-place finish. Keselowski advanced with a win in the Chase opener at Chicagoland.
Team Penske has won four of the last five races dating to Bristol.
Chase drivers took seven of the first 10 spots at New Hampshire. Kevin Harvick was third, Jimmie Johnson fifth, Aric Almirola sixth, Kyle Busch eighth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 10th. Rookie Kyle Larson was second.
Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Almirola are in the bottom four of the 16-driver field at and risk of getting cut at Dover.
Logano took the lead from Harvick with 27 laps left and won his seventh career Cup race. He won at New Hampshire, his home track, for the second time.
"This is my home race track, coolest place to win for me," Logano said. "I watched my first Cup race here when I was 5. This just means to much. Just got to thank all the boys at Team Penske, we're doing what we've got to do to win this thing, both teams are."
Team Penske has stamped itself as an early favorite to win a championship for owner Roger Penske.
"I went to sleep last night hoping for a top-five," Logano said. "We've got to keep our eye on the prize and think about the big trophy at the end."
The staggering number of cautions slowed the 300-mile race and wrecked the chances for several Chase drivers to contend for a win. Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth, and Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne all finished outside of the top 20.
Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota suffered from fuel woes and was later collected in a multicar wreck and will likely need a win at Dover to advance.
"It's going to be hard to do it without some help," Hamlin said.