Edwards went out late in the final five-minute qualifying session and his average lap speed of 135.453 miles per hour was good enough to hold off Martin Truex Jr. and claim his third pole at this track in the last four races. And right now I feel like any race track any weekend, anywhere in the country we can win.
Advertisement
NASCAR said Wednesday there would be no more minor penalties for teams whose cars fail laser inspection on the rear of the vehicle.
With seven top 10s in eight starts at the 1.5-miler, the Las Vegas native is on track for career-high numbers, with 13 top 10s (compared to a best of 14 in 2015), four top 5s (previous best of three in 2009, ’10, ’12 and ’15) and an average finish of 10.9 (topping a previous best of 13.5 in ’15). “We want to start out the Chase with a really solid run and just have the right focus and mentality as we get going”. We didn’t run well at Chicagoland, I was very frustrated.
Victories counted for more than points in the new tournament grid format introduced prior to the 2014 season.
“Restarts are going to be insane, which, I think you can say that basically every week, you can take that same quote and take it to every race, but at New Hampshire it seems to be even more hard just because the proximity of the cars is so close and it’s easy for one to lean on another and we see how heated that can get”, he said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get a couple of more trophies and then get ready for round two”. Anything can happen at Dover (next weekend). “I think it’s good all around”.
Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski.
Though out of Chase contention, both Alex Bowman and Kasey Kahne brought their cars home in the top 10 last week.
With fuel mileage potentially playing a major role, Sunday’s race could be a good opportunity to utilize some sleeper drivers in the Yahoo game if you are running low on starts for the big names in each tier.
Edwards turned a lap of 135.453 miles per hour to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Hamlin, the victor at Richmond two weeks ago was ninth at NHMS in July and could have contended for a second straight win at Chicagoland if not for a horsepower problem. Carl Edwards is ninth in the standings, but just five points ahead of Dillon and Kevin Harvick, who are tied for 13th, and just one point behind 12th-place Tony Stewart.
Then and now: This will be the 44th Sprint Cup race held at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Four-time Invitational victor Eddie MacDonald – a full-time ACT driver and once-a-year Sprint Cup racer – is entered in the race, along with all other previous winners: Wayne Helliwell Jr., Ray Parent, and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. He finished fourth in a race won by Kyle Busch.
Larson, who was fastest in Friday’s practice session, ended up second-fastest and Elliott was third.
“We need to get our Liberty University Tundra fast in practice to make sure we qualify well because track position is pretty important there. It’s amusing how that works”, he said.
The start of the session began with nearly a dozen cars having not yet passed pre-qualifying inspection, with most having issues clearing the Laser Inspection Station.
While numerous teams argued for a delay in the start of qualifying, NASCAR held firm.
Although the infractions were similar, NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said the penalties would not have been equal. Gordon took over the No. 88 from popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., who experienced concussion-like symptoms following the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Motor Speedway on July 9. Regan Smith was the last driver to clear inspection and will line up 30th. For us personally, the 22 team had a good weekend last week.
Going forward, all 16 Chase contenders will go through post-race laser inspection and be subjected to the same type of consequences. “But I know what it takes to win a championship and how hard it will be to repeat”. It’s hard. I don’t know if suspensions are different here or it’s different tolerances. “I think it will create more intense racing”.
Advertisement
If NASCAR stubbornly stood firm and let the rules play out for the rest of the Chase, there would have been many more weeks where penalties were the hot topic.
