Practice #1 : New Hampshire Motor Speedway

• Thursday, June 20th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

New Hampshire could be a key race for those with Playoff aspirations

With nine races remaining to set the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, each of the upcoming summertime events represents a crucial opportunity for drivers still trying to secure that championship opportunity.

A pair of two-time NASCAR Cup Series champions in Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch are among an accomplished group still needing to guarantee their chance to race for a championship. A victory in Sunday’s USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the surest way to do that.

The New Hampshire “Magic Mile” has historically been a sort of winner’s circle wild card with an uncharacteristically high 19 percent of its race winners starting outside the top-20 on the grid. Six of the last 11 race winners started outside the top-10 and 2021 winner Aric Almirola rolled off 22nd.

There are six former race winners in Sunday’s field – including Busch, who is a three-time winner and Logano, who is a two-time New Hampshire champ. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin is tied with Busch for most wins (three) among active drivers. Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Brad Keselowski has a pair of trophies. And Christopher Bell and defending race winner Martin Truex Jr. have a win at the Magic Mile too.

Logano, whose two Team Penske teammates Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney have earned Playoff positions with wins already this season, is still racing for his first trophy. Surprisingly, Logano has had only a pair of top-five finishes through the opening 17 races – but his best showing – runner-up – came at the Richmond, Va. short track. He won at New Hampshire in 2009 and 2014.

Busch has similar 2024 statistics to Logano with only two top-five finishes. His best race of the season was a third place at the Atlanta 1.5-miler. It’s been six races since his last top 10 – eighth-place at Kansas. He’s had a frustrating stretch of races recently, with two 35th place finishes in the last three weeks (at Gateway and Iowa). He is the only active driver to win at New Hampshire from pole position (2017).

Logano and Busch are ranked 17th and 18th, respectively in the Playoff standings – with the Top-16 drivers advancing to the 10-race season championship competition.

As with that pair, Truex is still racing for his first trophy of the season. The 43-year-old New Jersey native would love nothing more than to hoist the winner’s lobster in back-to-back races considering his big news this week that he will retire from fulltime competition at the end of this season. Although the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champ is ranked highest (11th) in the Playoff standings among that titled-trio still racing for a 2024 win, he would prefer to secure the Playoff position with a trophy instead of points-racing.

A victory this week would make Truex only the fifth driver to earn consecutive wins at New Hampshire. His 1,170 laps led at the track is most among active drivers and he’s one of only four drivers in history to have led at least 1,000 miles at the 1.058-mile track. He’s earned 15 top-10 finishes in 30 starts and his 11.3 average finish is third best in the current field.

“It’s a tough place and it’s not gotten any easier since then,” said Truex, driver of the No. 19 JGR Toyota. “The older it gets, the harder it gets. Last year, we saw the track be very different than it’s ever been before. …

“It’s a very technical track and it’s gotten bumpy over the years as well,” Truex added. “It’s flat, has a fast entry and not a lot of grip. New Hampshire is a real challenge but it’s a lot of fun when you get it right. I know all our guys will be ready.”

Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin will certainly be in this highly-motivated mix as well. All three of his wins this season have come on tracks one-mile or shorter and his 11 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in 30 New Hampshire starts are both tops among all active drivers. Busch also has 11 top-five efforts.

• Sunday, June 23rd, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Christopher Bell sweeps NASCAR weekend at New Hampshire

Christopher Bell continued his dominance at New Hampshire Motor Speedway claiming a sweep of the NASCAR race weekend, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver really had to earn that “broom” in Sunday’s weather-challenged USA Today 301.

The 29-year-old Oklahoman beat Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe to the finish line by 1.104-second in overtime in a race that lasted six hours including a two-hour-plus rain delay and ultimately ended with the field on damp surface tires; only the second time in NASCAR history a points-paying race used the newly-developed tires.

Bell’s No. 20 JGR Toyota led a race best 149 of the 305 laps Sunday, a day after he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the 1.058-mile New England oval. He is now one of four drivers to have three NASCAR Cup Series wins on the season. It was his ninth career series win.

Bell was so excited with the victory he even promised he would “pick that sucker up” referring with a smile to the traditional lobster given to race winners in Victory Lane, something he previously was reticent to do.

“It was literally the tale of two different events,”’ Bell smiled when asked about the race.

“You never know how this thing is going to shake out whenever you change so many things like that and have adverse conditions,” said a beaming Bell, who now has seven wins in 11 national series starts at the New Hampshire track – collecting his fourth NASCAR Xfinity Series win on Saturday.

“I personally love adverse conditions because you’re always trying to think outside the box,” he continued. “When we went back out [on wet weather tires after the red flag delay] I was feeling around and it felt like the normal Loudon groove was really really slippery so I tried to just run down or up, but [crew chief] Adam [Lambert] really put the tune on this thing and it was running good.

“This is really cool.”

It was certainly new territory for the series and the sport. In years past, perhaps the race would just have been called with the rain showers came through with enough laps in the book that had already made it a legal points event.

But with the recent development of wet weather tires, NASCAR instead opted to wait out the showers and give the rain tires a try on a damp track. NASCAR officials said they would have absolutely had to just call the race early had it not been for the new tires.

“We’d have been done with 82 laps to go and instead it gave us a chance to go back to green,” NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer told reporters after the race. “Kudos to our drivers, our owners and especially [NASCAR CEO] Jim France for his vision.”

Certainly, those final 86 laps of competition – which included the overtime stretch – with cars on the wet weather tires changed up the competition in multiple ways. Drivers who had been out of the mix previously – like Briscoe and his SHR teammate, third place finisher Josh Berry – worked their way forward quickly and kept Bell honest.

Others, such as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had been third when the race was red-flagged struggled a bit more on the wet weather tires. Hamlin finished 24th.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, who was runner-up when the red flag flew, instead finished 25th after a collision with Michael McDowell racing for second place in the closing laps of regulation. McDowell was able to continue and finished 15th.

Briscoe smiled and said, “Two hours ago we couldn’t even run 25th and the rain saved us. Awesome recovery. This is one of my worst race tracks so to run second is kind of surprising, to be honest.

“The rain kind of saved us because if it wasn’t rain, we would have probably run maybe 24th but had a couple good restarts.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson finished fourth followed by Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher – another driver who dramatically moved up in the field following the red flag.

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who was leading the race when the red flag came out, finished sixth, followed by JGR Daugherty Racing’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Legacy Motor Club’s John Hunter Nemechek, JGR’s Martin Truex Jr. and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain – notable comebacks for Truex and Chastain who were both involved in earlier caution periods.

The finish for Larson now brings him into a tie with Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott on top of the standings with Hamlin in third place, 40 points back. Elliott, was involved in an accident just before the red flag and finished 18th.

With eight races remaining to set the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, there was substantial movement in the bottom half of the standings with drivers currently in Playoff position based on points not having scored a win yet.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who finished 32nd Sunday, moved into the final Playoff points position and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace dropped out of points eligibility after an accident with 35 laps left in regulation eliminated him from the race. He finished 34th out of the 36 cars and is now 17th in the Playoff standings, one position below the cutoff.

• Drivers Entered: 36
• Laps Scheduled: 301
• Laps Actual: 305 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
• Margin of Victory: 01.104 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 48 Minutes 14 Seconds
• Average Speed: 84.832
• Cautions: 14 for 85 laps
• Lead Changes: 6
• Green Flag Passes: 2,966 (13.5 passes per green flag lap)

• USA TODAY 301
• Race Winner: Christopher Bell
• Age: 29
• Team : No 20 - Rheem Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
• Christopher Bell won the USA TODAY 301, his ninth victory in 162 Cup Series races
• This is his third victory and 11th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and third top-10 finish in five races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
• Chase Briscoe (second) posted his second top-10 finish in four races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway It is his sixth top-10 finish in 2024
• Josh Berry (third) posted his first top-10 finish in one races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
• Josh Berry (third) was the highest finishing rookie