Jump puts him in good standing

LOUDON, N.H. -- He may have finished second to New England 300 winner Tony Stewart, but Kurt Busch was the biggest winner in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series point standings after yesterday's race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Clinging to 10th in the standings, Busch made the biggest gain by climbing five spots to improve his positioning for The Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship, a 10-race playoff among the top 10 drivers in points after 26 races. With seven races remaining before the final cut Sept. 10 at Richmond, it was imperative for Busch to gain ground.

''Unfortunately, we were in the same position that we were in last year at this point -- 10th in the points," said Busch, who rallied to win the inaugural Chase in 2004. ''But what's cool about the point system right now is that we're only 30 points out of sixth going into the day, and we're 100 away from 15th."

Busch, however, pulled within 325 points of leader Jimmie Johnson (2,672 points) with his second-place effort.

''Right now consistency is the key," Busch said. ''I would have loved to have won today, but we're not on our last thread. It's the same feeling as last year."

Stewart maintained third place in the standings with 2,587 points, but closed within 85 of Johnson, who finished 13th yesterday.

No finishing touch

Ted Christopher of Plainville, Conn., made his fourth career Nextel Cup start and his third at NHIS. But he's still looking for his first finish here. After 29 laps, Christopher, who qualified 38th and started in the 19th row, couldn't continue when he lost the brakes on his No. 27 Freddie B's Ford.

''I'm not disappointed," Christopher said. ''I'm a realist. I'm happy I qualified. It's not my circuit, so you race those things and see what happens. I had no expectations. I don't race in that series, so there's no disappointment."

Since making his Nextel Cup debut at Watkins Glen, N.Y., in 1999, the closest Christopher has come to finishing a Cup race at NHIS came last July, when he ran 260 laps of the Siemens 300. In his only other NASCAR Nextel Cup start, Christopher made it through just 17 laps of the Sylvania 300 last September.

His lack of success in his sporadic Nextel schedule doesn't bother him, though. He measures himself by how well he fares in NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races, and Christopher won the New England 100 on Friday.

''When I race Modifieds, I know I have a chance to win," Christopher said. ''When I race Nextel [Cup], I'm not sure if I have a chance to win."

Hot streak

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished ninth to record his third top-10 result in as many races -- he finished third at Daytona July 2 and first at Chicago last Sunday. ''We've run pretty good over the past three weeks," said Earnhardt, who was at the wheel of a new car that was built in 10 days. ''Steve [Hmeil, Earnhardt's interim crew chief] has been a big help. We had some good runs at the start of the year with Pete [Rondeau, Earnhardt's former crew chief from Saco, Maine]. You can't forget that kind of stuff. We did run in the top five at Bristol and had a decent finish at Texas and at Phoenix. Things were going good then and working like they needed to work and then we kind of hit a fence and got it going in another direction and now it seems to be working." Earnhardt, as a result, held his ground in the points standings at 13th, 59 points out of 10th place . . . Greg Biffle's fifth-place finish enabled him to remain second in the points, 77 behind Johnson . . . It was a rotten day for the three cars of Chip Ganassi Racing, punctuated by an early spinout of 40th-place Jamie McMurray. On Lap 28, Matt Kenseth booted McMurray from behind, sending the No. 42 Dodge into the wall in Turn 3. Flames soon appeared under the Charger, but were quickly extinguished by track safety officials. McMurray, who entered yesterday's race in 10th place in the Nextel Cup standings, went to the garage for repairs and returned to complete 145 laps. He is now in 11th place with 439 points, 21 behind 10th-place Dale Jarrett. ''It hurt," McMurray said of his wreck. ''That was a pretty good hit." Casey Mears, meanwhile, finished 33d and Sterling Marlin was 34th. Both Ganassi drivers finished two laps down . . . Elliott Sadler, who had a pit road incident that dropped him back to 32d, fought back to 12th place. But on Lap 235, Mark Martin tapped Sadler and sent the No. 38 Ford into the wall, crushing the rear of the car. Sadler finished 39th and dropped from fifth to ninth in the Cup standings. ''I'm just as sorry as sorry can be for running into Elliott," Martin said. ''It was just an accident."

Globe correspondent Adam Kilgore contributed to this report.