They’re only three letters.
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“Our Toyotas are really fast. This used to be one of my worst places, and now I feel like it’s one of my better places”. “There were times that I thought I pulled some veteran moves. and watched them race each other, and then when you see them start missing the bottom or getting loose on the exit, then I went up there and tried to push them and make them make mistakes, and it was working”.
To see how the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings are heating up, check out the driver standings for the season (where Kevin Harvick now sits in first place). Team Penske has been hot.
The New Hampshire Motor Speedway revs up with the New Hampshire 301 at 1:30 pm EST on Sunday with Jimmie Johnson on the pole for the 35th time in his career.
Kenseth, who won at Dover in May, led the final 31 laps on Sunday to claim the New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway following a barrage of late-race cautions mixed up the field.
Aside from the checkered flag, the results weren’t stellar for the four-car fleet. Kyle Busch-556, 3; 3. He’s third among drivers without a win in the Chase standings but he’s led just four laps since March.
After broadcasting the final race on Fox Sports’ portion of the Sprint Cup schedule, Gordon went out of the country on vacation, prompting a quip from Johnson, whose No. 48 Chevrolet is co-owned by Gordon.
That opened the door for the rest of the field, and Kenseth jumped at the opportunity. “I didn’t do a very good job qualifying and after round one today it was pretty much money, we just had to get there. I’m just thinking about moving on to [Indianapolis] and hopefully being in the mix”. There’s no need to look at the rearview mirror when the auto is better than the rest.
Matt Kenseth and family meet the Loudon lobster. They’ve won six of the last eight Xfinity Series contests, including the last two.
“(Crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) and the team made great, great adjustments today. The atmosphere is good at the shop and at the track.
And Sunday, the only question was which Toyota would be best.
Caution Flags: 7 for 36 laps. The outside lane was the obvious spot where drivers wanted to be on restarts, and restarting sixth with 11 laps left put him in position to gain positions. Look for him to bounce back this week. Truex passed him again and led the next 83. But Truex’s day was done, his shifter and clutch gone. Their teammates were close behind on the board, if not on the track. Junior is uncertain when he will get back in the auto, and the team is taking it week-by-week at this point as to how to approach each weekend. Early on in the race so it it wasn’t responding the way we anticipated ruthless.
For Joe Gibbs Racing it proved an important victory.
“With this new format and stuff, it doesn’t really matter as long as you’re in that top 16 after Richmond in September”, Kenseth said. “Once you get those guys up front, they’re hard to get out of there”.
It also proved that you don’t need cautions to help drivers race for the lead, and race traffic helped in preventing the lead vehicle from getting too far ahead from the rest of the field. The next two cautions were for debris.
Busch lost the lead for the final time to Kenseth on Lap 271 and finished eighth, slipping after that final restart.
Bad luck befell the leaders. Busch was nicked in heavy traffic on turn 2 after a restart for the 291st lap and couldn’t recover.
Kensenth, who won in Week 12 at Dover, took the checkered flag in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota nearly two full seconds ahead of runner-up Tony Stewart of Stewart-Haas Racing. “Thankfully, we had good ones, and we had great power and we had good traction, and we were able to get going pretty good in a straight line”.
All along, however, first place was off limits. Though the accident knocked the speed out of the vehicle, Bowman was able to stay on the lead lap.
“It’s definitely somewhat stressful to go through all those restarts”, he said. We just had to get there. Or better, if you’re local, get tickets here.
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It wasn’t the vehicle or the driver any of the patrons at Loudon would have pegged for Victory Lane throughout most of the race. “I think the key is, as you continue to work during the year, try and keep your performance up and try and point toward the playoffs”. I was looking forward to coming here (to New Hampshire) because we’ve ran really well here since I’ve came to Joe Gibbs Racing. We reported that mission in the middle grades than went back through.
