Who saw this coming?

What a day at New Hampshire. The winner makes less money than the runner-up. The runner-up starts the race last because of an engine change. The third-place finisher didn't even make last weekend's race.

What looked like a Tony Stewart romp turned into another tale of woe as he finished 13th and saw his career-long winless drought climb to 31 consecutive races.

Kurt Busch led only the final 10 laps of the rain-shortened race _ the first laps he's led since the Coke 600 _ to win. Michael Waltrip was second with J.J. Yeley third. Yes, Busch made less money (about $5,000 less) than Waltrip because he is not eligible for as many contigency awards as Waltrip is.

They got there because they pitted during a caution on lap 218 while the rest of the field didn't. Those cars pitted during a caution on lap 273, moving Busch, Waltrip, Yeley, Martin Truex Jr. and Elliott Sadler into the top five. When the rains came a bit later they were up front and while those who had run at the front all day were further back in the field, creating the jumbled finish.

So, what did we learn from Sunday's race?

# Tony Stewart seems on verge of that typical summer charge he makes but with all the bad luck he's had this season, you have to wonder if he'll be able to make such a run. Five times he's been running first or second late in a race and has yet to win any of them this year.

# Kyle Busch is not perfect. It's interesting. He struggled at Sonoma last weekend on Friday and then got better before winning the race. He struggled most of the weekend at New Hampshire. Sonoma might not be a big deal since it's a road course and there's only one more left on the schedule. New Hampshire, though, is where the Chase starts in September. These most likely are just blips on the screen but it could be interesting to watch Busch the next couple of races to see if this trend continues.

# Kurt Busch has got a long way to go to make the Chase. Even with his win he's 222 points out of the final transfer spot. He made a big run last year to make the Chase. He was 236 points back at this time a year ago. Yet last year you saw him get stronger at this time. Without the fuel strategy he doesn't win this race and likely doesn't score a top 10. This team needs a better performance to repeat his run to the Chase. Let's see what he does the next few races to see if he'll be a contender or a pretender.

# Jeff Burton just keeps motoring along. He finished 12th and has  yet to finish worse than 15th this season. He's within 64 points of points leader Kyle Busch. The problem is that Busch has five wins (and 50 bonus points when the Chase begins) and Burton has one win (10 bonus points). Maybe this will be a Chase where you just need to run consistently to win but starting out in a 40-point hole (should the bonus margins remain the same) could be a bit of a challenge for Burton. One encouraging thing is that teammate Kevin Harvick showed more speed. Maybe that setup can find its way to Burton or at least part of it. The key for Burton is finding speed and running in the top five more often then has has recently.

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