LOUDON, N.H. -- While Kevin Harvick was building an early lead in Saturday's CVS Pharmacy 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway, Ryan Newman was doing everything in his power to maintain second place.

A frustrated Steve Park, whose car was stronger at that point, tried several times to pass, but Newman -- running slower than leader Harvick -- held the position for more than 60 laps, allowing Harvick to build a two-second lead. Park finally beat Newman on the inside to take over second place. Newman fell back to seventh by the time Park's pack had passed.

After a long green flag run, Newman cut a tire while running in eighth position, bringing out a caution with just 28 laps remaining. Newman finished a lap down in 15th position.

"We ran over a piece of debris in Turn 1 and it just slowly went down," said Newman. "We fought back and finished 15th. It's not a happy finish, but it's a good finish."

Throwing caution to the wind
Harvick dominated laps 20 thru 172, losing the lead only during a cycle of green flag pit stops. But when Newman's cut tire caused the first of two late cautions, Harvick was forced to pit with the rest of the field, giving up his lead margin.

Harvick took only two tires while second-place Jason Keller took four. Another caution ensued, and on the second restart, Greg Biffle -- fighting for his lap -- tied up Harvick.

Biffle had made a run at getting back on the lead lap when Newman's caution was thrown but couldn't beat Harvick to the line. The two drivers had an animated exchange on pit road following the race.

"(Harvick) said that I cost him the win. To me, it looked like the 57 car (Keller) was a tremendous amount better than him. That was pretty obvious with 15 laps to go."

"Harvick didn't want to give us our lap back, that that's something you do between racers when it's that close," said Biffle, who finished 11th." He claimed that he didn't know that the caution was out. Then his spotter told me that he was afraid the 57 (Keller) was going to beat him back to the line. (Harvick) needs to get his story straight of what he's telling people."

Harvick saw things a bit differently.

"I think Biffle was a little bit mad that he couldn't get his lap back," said Harvick. "It's not my fault when his car isn't as good as everybody else's. We're not out there to babysit each other -- we are out there to race."

As for Biffle costing Harvick the win?

"It's hard to pass when you get behind somebody and I got stuck behind him and I never had a chance to get to Jason (Keller)."

Harvick remained in the top spot in the points standings, followed by Jeff Green, Keller and Biffle, who dropped one spot.

Going Green
The late pits also affected strategy. Green, who pitted for fuel during a caution on lap 18, was one of a handful of drivers to pit at or around lap 100. Green, who finished fourth, thinks he would have won the race had the final 100 laps run without caution because he wouldn't had to pit again.

"That was our plan from the get-go, and as soon as the caution came out, we knew that we could go the rest of the way on fuel," said Green. "This place goes green a lot, and it was going to work into out hands. We were just waiting for everyone to pit; we were biding our time (when late cautions were thrown)."

Sweet and Sauter
Jay Sauter and Clay Rogers raced each other hard at Loudon -- so hard that they both wrecked on the second lap. Rogers' day was done, but Sauter did get his car back on the track.

"It's a huge letdown. We didn't qualify well ... but the car was excellent in Happy Hour and we were fired up for a good race."

Sauter completed 119 laps in a banged-up car and finished 32nd.

"It's tough -- it's what you have to do in this sport because of points. (After an accident like that) you just go out and run as hard as you can and stay out of everybody's way.

We just went out and gained all the positions that we could."

Sauter dropped two spots in the points standings to 15th.