Lots of subplots played out in New Hampshire race

Sunday's race proved fascinating as much for what happened behind the scenes, which often led to what you saw on the track in Jimmie Johnson's victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Lots of things to talk about. So, let's get to it.

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JOHNSON STILL PROVING HIS TOUGHNESS

Winner Jimmie Johnson was quite blunt about what he thought after Kurt Busch nudged him out of the lead with 8 laps to go in Sunday's race. Johnson said all he could think about, in regards to Busch, was: "Wreck his ass. ... I had great visions of a huge, spectacular crash.''

Johnson exacted his revenge by wiping away the anger, refocusing and catching Busch. He then bumped Busch with three laps to go and completed the pass on the next lap to go on and win his second consecutive race and 52nd of his career.

One thing struck me that Johnson said after the race and it was this:

"I don't want people to think, "Oh, I can knock the 48 out of the way because he's not going to wreck me. That's the last thing I want people to think.''

Now, I understand in what seems to be a season of conflict between drivers, one guy is going to do what the other did to him but I find it interesting that the four-time champion believes he's viewed as soft with his competitors and needed to step up. I'll admit that this wasn't the main thought in his mind after he was pushed out of the way but that it was a concern is interesting.

But another thing also comes to mind about he handled the situation. He gets mad and then he controls it and refocuses on his job. He told me afterward that he considers that one of his strengths and why he hasn't been caught up in what he said were so many wars on the track at times. Not every driver controls their emotions as well and it costs them at times.

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THE PHILOSOPHY IS CHANGING AT STEWART-HAAS RACING AND TONY IS BENEFITTING

I was told a while back that Stewart-Haas Racing typically doesn't like to do a lot of testing. The team didn't really see a point since you aren't allowed to test on a Cup track and whatever track you test on, you aren't using the tires that you'll use at a Cup track, so what's the point?

Well, Tony Stewart said after his runner-up finish that he credited a recent test session with helping the team's performance for this race.

So, I asked Tony if the mindset was changing with his organization.  This is what he said:

"I think when you're behind like we've been, you've got to just go do something,'' he said. "You've got to try, at least, and try to find something. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to pertain to what you do here or anywhere else, but you have to at least try and see if you can find something, a characteristic or feel that you like.''

It worked this weekend, giving Stewart his fourth consecutive top-10 finish and help him climb from 16th to ninth in the points during that stretch.

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DALE JUNIOR IS COMING

Now whether Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a legit title contender remains to be seen but what he's done the last three races is impressive, putting him on the cusp of a Chase spot.

Consider his last three races:

At Michigan where his career average finish had been 15.9 --- he finished 7th.

At Sonoma his career average finish had been 21.4 -- he finished 11th, tying his career best

At New Hampshire, his career average finish was 17.8 -- he finished 8th.

That's the type of progress this team needs to make. For him to do so much better at tracks he's not as strong at is encouraging for Junior Nation. And with Daytona coming up this weekend, no doubt there's a lot of excitement with him only 3 points out of 12th place heading to Daytona.

Here's what he told me about his recent turnaround:

"(Crew chief) Lance (McGrew) is doing a great job,'' Dale Jr. said. "The biggest difference in the last couple of weeks is that the cars unloaded really good, aside from (Sonoma) but that was probably all me. I could unload with a diamond there and still not be in the top 10 in practice. We've been unloading good cars and don't have to work our ass off to find little things to make us even more competitive. We're unloading top 10 cars at the beginning of the week. The next step for us, I guess, is to try to make the improvements from there.''

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JEFF BURTON IS LETTING TOO MANY RACE WINS SLIP AWAY

It seems as if Jeff Burton has found about every way not to win a race this season. Sunday, he was leading when a caution came out with 19 laps to go. He was the only lead lap car not to pit, leaving him a sitting duck. There's no doubt that being the leader in a spot like that is tough. The rest of the field is going to do the opposite of what the leader does. With the rest of the field on fresher tires, Burton lost his lead quickly, then got tangled with Kyle Busch and finished 12th in a race he led 89 of the 301 laps.

This team has got to find a way to win a race before the Chase. It needs it. Otherwise, it would be harder to consider this a legit title contending team. Yes, the team is fast. Yes, the team is pretty good. But it's all about finishing a race. This team hasn't been able to do it. Sometimes that's been circumstances but still what they aren't doing others are and that's the difference between a champion and someone else.

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WHAT THEY SAID

Jeff Burton in regards to his incident late in the race with Kyle Busch (Burton, on older tires, slipped up into Kyle as they ran side-by-side): "I hate that Kyle and I got together there at the end. I know we had a little bit of history together and, honestly, that had nothing to do with that, although nobody will ever believe that. I just screwed up. He didn't do a thing wrong and that is 100 percent on me.''

Juan Pablo Montoya upset with Jeff Gordon for contact that caused Montoya to fall back and where he was later hit by Reed Sorenson and wrecked: "(Gordon) just didn't give me any room. He never does. He has it coming one day.''

Clint Bowyer: "it is just getting out of hand with these cautions and these double-file restarts. Last week, it was Jeff Gordon. Now it was (Montoya). I'm glad he finally got what he deserved. Just beating and banging, kind of uncalled for.''

Kurt Busch on nudging Jimmie Johnson for the lead late: "Driving down into turn 3, I saw my window and it was a perfect time to go for it because our car was good on the short run. Once four or five laps got on the tires, I knew we were going to have a hard time holding them off. We didn't just flat-out wreck them. We didn't cut his tire. We didn't drive over him. It was just a nice nudge that we are all used to seeing and appreciating on short tracks.''

Denny Hamlin, who never was a factor and finished 14th: "We just ran terrible. None of the words are going to be able to describe our weekend. We experimented with some stuff, but it just didn't work here.''

AJ Allmendinger: "It seems like most of the time (Ryan Newman), when he just wants to run into you he will, but that's how tight this racing is because there's 20 to go and it's basically near a green-white-checkered so everybody is going after it. I roughed up some guys, too, so you can't really complain that much about it.''

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ODDS AND ENDS

# Bobby Labonte finished 30th in his run for Robby Gordon's team.

# Reed Sorenson was 24th in the first of at least three races for Red Bull in Brian Vickers' car.

# The top 8 in poins did not change after Sunday's race.

# Kasey Kahne finished 36th after blowing an engine and fell to 20th in the season standings. He's 174 points out of the final Chase spot.

# The drivers in 13th (Dale Jr.), 14th (Ryan Newman) and 15th (Clint Bowyer) in the points are within 16 points of 12th-place Carl Edwards.

# Juan Pablo Montoya finished 34th because of an accident. He now has failed to finish a race (five times) more than he's placed in the top five (four times) this season.

# Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin have combined to win 10 of the first 17 Cup races this season. Each has five wins.

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SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM

This is the third time in the last seven races Roush Fenway Racing has failed to place any of its four cars in the top 10.

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