Former series champion Kurt Busch stayed on track when the leaders pitted late in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire and the strategy paid off with a win when the race was cut 17 laps short by rain.

It is the first victory for the Penske Racing driver since last September at California Speedway and it came on a day when two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart dominated, only to see his hard luck continue and his winless string increase to 31 races.

“These guys made an awesome call,” Busch said. “Sometimes you just don’t win ‘em the right way, I think we can honestly say that, but we had a lot of work and a lot of effort put in today and we’ll take it.”