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Kevin Harvick has sold a controlling interest in his Truck Series team to Eddie Sharp Racing.

Harvick had announced this month he planned to shutter his program at the end of the year. In the deal announced Friday, ESR acquired the No. 8 and No. 33 KHI trucks.

Eddie Sharp Racing, already a one-team operation in the series, will field three teams in 2012. The lineup for next year will be announced in October.

The teams will operate out of Eddie Sharp Racing's facility in Denver, N.C.

KHI was started by Harvick and his wife, DeLana, in Kernersville in 2002. Harvick pinned most of his decision to sell the team based on business reasons and his desire to win a Sprint Cup championship.

STRONG STEWART, NEWMAN: Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman made their first stop in New Hampshire a race to remember.

1-2 start. 1-2 finish.

Do it again this weekend and there's little doubt the Stewart-Haas Racing teammates will solidify themselves as two of the drivers to beat in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Each Chase weekend, the number of true contenders seems to shrink by a driver or two. Stewart and Newman are both back at one of their strongest tracks and both are coming off outstanding finishes in the Chase opener to position themselves in the thick of the hunt.

Newman got the weekend off to a big start, turning a lap of 135.002 mph to win the pole again.

Red Bull Racing drivers Kasey Kahne was second and Thomasville's Brian Vickers was third. Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch round out the top five.

Stewart, a two-time Cup champion, had tried to tell anyone who would listen he wasn't a contender for this year's championship. He called this season "a miserable year," even though he qualified for the Chase and had three top-10s in the final four races leading up to the 10-race playoff. Even if his confidence sagged, his team kept the faith.

He opened the Chase with a sensational run at Chicagoland Speedway and won his first race of the season. So much for not being a contender.

"We've got a group of guys that no matter how bad it's been this year and how low I've got with it, they've never given up," Stewart said Friday. "

"Last week was a situation that showed that no matter how bad our year has been, this team is not going to give up and this organization's not giving up."

No set of teammates had started 1-2 and finished 1-2 since the 1989 Daytona 500. The last time teammates qualified 1-2 and finished in the same order was in 1957 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

"You love coming back here after that," Stewart said.