Kevin Harvick turned New Hampshire International Speedway into his personal playground, dominating Sunday's race to take the early lead in NASCAR's Chase for the championship.

Harvick, who started from the pole and paced almost every practice session, led 196 of the 300 laps to run away with the first round of the 10-race Chase. He moved to the top of the points standings for the first time in his career, and now holds a 35-point lead over rookie Denny Hamlin, who finished fourth.

Defending series champion Tony Stewart, who did not make the Chase this season and isn't eligible for the championship, finished second.

Jeff Gordon finished third to jump to fourth in the standings, the lone bright spot in an otherwise dismal day for Hendrick Motorsports. Chase drivers Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson both wrecked early, finished 38th and 39th, and dropped to the back of the 10-driver championship field.

It was yet another heartbreaking blow for Johnson, who led the standings for 22 weeks this year only to see his season fall apart with the Nextel Cup on the line. Although he has nine weeks to try to race back into contention, he knows how difficult it will be.

``Right now it looks like things are out of our control to get back in this thing right now,'' said Johnson, who is 139 points out of the lead. ``I can only judge on how guys are running today, and all the Chase guys are running up front.

``I hope I eat the words I said early on when I said, `You can't win the championship here in New Hampshire, but you can lose it today.'''

Indeed, the championship can be lost in the first round of the Chase, and it happened in each of the first two seasons of NASCAR's new title-deciding format.

Stewart, Ryan Newman and Jeremy Mayfield all were taken out of contention in 2004 following an early accident at this 1.058-mile oval. Then defending series champion Kurt Busch suffered the same fate last season when he was wrecked moments into the race.

So the tone was set Sunday, with Harvick establishing early that he's the driver to beat. The other Chase contenders held their own, with everyone but Johnson and Busch finishing in the top 16.