Kyle Busch thunders through smoke to Loudon win

Kyle Busch survived a "Days of Thunder" cloud of smoke moment and then seized control of the ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

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It was the final lap of Sunday afternoon's second stage when Busch, running second, narrowly avoided making contact with both Kevin Harvick's car and the backstretch wall. Harvick had been spun off Turn 2, creating a large cloud of smoke that ended up collecting his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch as well as leader Martin Truex Jr. among others.

Hey, Kevin Harvick ... you do know NASCAR already has a driver nicknamed "Smoke," right?(Via@NASCARONFOX)pic.twitter.com/zfGEe5Wa2P— FOX Sports (@FOXSports)September 24, 2017

Busch, a la Tom Cruise in the 1990 flick, slowed just enough to make his way through the carnage and win the stage, his 13th of the season. He then fended off all challenges through the second half of the race to earn his third win of the season

"I have no idea, that was pretty intense. That was some 'Days of Thunder' stuff over there, you couldn't see anything. It was just a wall of smoke off of Turn 2," Busch said of his near-miss. "I listened to the spotter and was told to basically stop and I said, that sounds like a good idea and just checked up as much as I could. Of course, I was trying not to get run into from behind, I didn't know who was coming behind me. I know Matt [Kenseth] was there.

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"But all in all, great day. Great day for this M&M's Caramel team, all these guys on this Joe Gibbs Racing Camry. This thing was awesome. We ran up front all day long, we executed, we did a good job. We did what we were supposed to do. It's awesome to win right here in the Granite State."

Starting from the pole, Busch led a race-high 187 of the race's 300 laps. Finishing second was Kyle Larson, who worked his way into position to challenge Busch when three cautions fell over the final 35 laps. But although Larson was able to hang with Busch briefly off the final restart with 23 laps to go, the No. 42 eventually faded to its eighth runner-up finish of the season.

Matt Kenseth finished third with Brad Keselowski and Truex rounding out the top five. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Erik Jones, Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.

In addition to Truex and Busch locking themselves into the Round of 12 on wins, Larson and Keselowski also clinched spots based on their points positions. The upcoming race at Dover will serve as the first elimination race of the Playoffs, which currently has Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne outside of transfer spots.

"I felt like on really long runs I was fairly equal to those guys in front of me. But, on the short run there, I could get pointed to the exit, but I couldn't get the throttle down. I'd get loose. So, [Busch] just was really good," Larson said. "I think the 78 [Truex] was also really good, but he had his trouble. The 20 [Kenseth] was also good. We were next best. So, we finished second again with our Target Chevy.

"That's a lot of second-place finishes this year, but I'm fine with second. Top 5's will get us to Homestead, so hats off to everybody on our Target team. The pit crew was great all day. I think we gained spots every time. Normally I'm struggling on short tracks, but this year we were pretty good."

Sunday's race featured six cautions for 32 laps and six lead changes among three drivers.