LOUDON, N.H. — Former series champion Kurt Busch stayed on track when the leaders pitted late in today'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 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."

Stewart, who led a race-high 132 laps on the 1.058-mile oval, held off a challenge from two-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson late in the 301-lap race and appeared on the way to his first victory since August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. But Stewart and most of the other drivers who had been racing at the front of the pack did not have enough gas to get to the end.

On lap 271, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had been in the top 10 all day, started toward pit road and was hit from behind by Jamie McMurray, who then spun into David Ragan, bringing out a caution.

Stewart and the rest of the front-runners pitted under the yellow flag, while Busch and seven other drivers who had pitted more recently than the leaders, stayed on track.

The race restarted on lap 279, but there was another crash on lap 280, with Clint Bowyer and rookie Sam Hornish Jr. crashing, then Juan Pablo Montoya slamming into series points leader Kyle Busch under the ensuing caution flag. Montoya was later assessed a two-lap penalty by NASCAR for rough driving and finished 32nd.

The rain that had been threatening for much of the afternoon began falling moments later and, moments after the cars were red-flagged onto pit lane just before completing lap 285, NASCAR called the race, leaving Busch on top, ahead of Michael Waltrip, J.J. Yeley, Martin Truex Jr., Elliott Sadler, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears, all of whom had stayed on track during the previous caution.

Within minutes after the race was official, the sky opened up and lightning began flashing around the speedway, emptying the stands in a hurry and forcing Busch to hold his victory celebration in the shelter of the garage area.

Stewart took a while getting out of his car and could hardly believe his fate.

"It's just been the oddest year I've ever seen for this race team," he said. "It's just frustrating. There isn't anybody that's going to tell you any different than that. There's nothing you can do. If there was something we could do about it we'd change it.

"It's not because of lack of effort," added Stewart, who took two tires on his final pit stop and finished 13th. "I've got some of the best guys in the garage area and I've had 'em for 10 years. It's the worst string of bad luck we've ever seen, but there's nothing we can do about it."

Busch, who has struggled this season, coming into the race 22nd in the points, wasn't about to apologize for winning via the backdoor.

"We tried to stretch our fuel as far as we could and it worked for us today," he said.

Crew chief Pat Tryson, who made the call to keep Busch on track, said, "We had a pretty good car all day. We topped off the fuel and were pretty close to make it to the end. We were hoping for some cautions, we got them and I told Kurt that we were going to stay on track and take a gamble. Today it worked and it got us a win."

Busch's younger brother wound up 25th on Sunday, while series runner-up Jeff Burton, who finished 12th, climbed from 103 points behind to just 64 heading into next Saturday night's race at Daytona.