The 2010 Sylvania 300 was a stock car racing competition that took place on September 19, 2010. Held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, the 300-lap race was the twenty-seventh in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the first in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ended the season. Clint Bowyer of the Richard Childress Racing team won the race; Denny Hamlin finished second and Jamie McMurray came in third. Brad Keselowski won the pole position, although he was almost immediately passed by Tony Stewart at the start of the race. Many Chase for the Sprint Cup participants, including Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, and Hamlin, were in the top ten for most of the race, although some encountered problems in the closing laps. Stewart was leading the race with two laps remaining but ran out of fuel, giving the lead, and the win, to Bowyer. There were twenty-one lead changes among eight different drivers, as well as eight cautions during the race. The race was Bowyer's first win in the 2010 season, and the third of his career. The result advanced Bowyer to second in the Drivers' Championship, thirty-five points behind Hamlin and ten ahead of Kevin Harvick, although he fell to twelfth in the standings after receiving a post-race penalty. Chevrolet maintained its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, thirty-two points ahead of Toyota and seventy-four ahead of Ford, with nine races remaining in the season. Attendance was 95,000, while 3.68 million watched it on television. Report Background New Hampshire Motor Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks that hold NASCAR races. The standard track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a four-turn oval track, long. Its banking in the turns varies from two to seven degrees, while the front stretch, the finish line, and the back stretch are all banked at one degree. Before the race, Denny Hamlin led the Drivers' Championship with 5,060 points, followed by Jimmie Johnson with 5,050. Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were tied for third place with 5,030 points, and Kyle's older brother Kurt Busch had 5,020 points. Tony Stewart, with 5,010 points, was tied with Greg Biffle, and Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top twelve with 5,000 points each. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 188 points, twenty-nine points ahead of their rival Toyota.