William Byron finishes 11th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Data Skrive

William Byron finished 11th in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Byron’s result added 32 points to his season total. He ranks 14th in the NASCAR Cup Series with 484 total points.

Byron started in 16th position. The third-year driver has collected five top-five and 23 top-10 finishes in his career.

Sunday’s race was Byron’s second career start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He’s completed both of those races, but has not had a top-10 finish at the track.

The Charlotte, North Carolina native began the race one spot behind his career mark of 15.3, but finished seven places ahead of his career average of 18.3.

Byron’s 11th-place finish was against a field of 38 drivers. The race endured 11 cautions and 52 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were 22 lead changes.

Brad Keselowski brought home the win in the race, and Denny Hamlin finished second. Martin Truex Jr placed third, Joey Logano secured fourth, and Kevin Harvick grabbed the No. 5 spot.

After Hamlin won the first stage, Keselowski grabbed control and won Stage 2 before driving to victory.

William Byron Driver Page | Get Byron Gear | Race Center

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Data Skrive

Cole Custer finished eighth in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

The top-10 finish for Custer, his fifth of the year, added 29 points to his season total. Custer now ranks 19th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 381 points. A total of 16 drivers make the playoffs.

Custer started in 14th position. The second-year driver has one career victory, with two top-five finishes and four results inside the top 10.

The Ladera Ranch, California native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting eight spots higher than his career mark of 22 and completing the race 15 places ahead of his 22.8 career average finish.

Custer’s eighth-place finish was against 38 other drivers. The race endured 11 cautions and 52 caution laps. There were 22 lead changes.

Brad Keselowski secured the victory in the race, and Denny Hamlin followed in second. Martin Truex Jr placed third, Joey Logano took fourth, and Kevin Harvick closed out the top five.

After Hamlin won Stage 1, Keselowski grabbed control and won Stage 2 before taking the checkered flag.

Cole Custer Driver Page | Get Custer Gear | Race Center

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Data Skrive

Aric Almirola finished seventh in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

The top-10 finish for Almirola, his 11th of the year, added 38 points to his season total. Almirola now ranks eighth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 614 points. A total of 16 drivers make the playoffs.

Almirola started in the pole position and led two laps in the race. The 13th-year driver has secured two career victories, with 23 top-five finishes and 72 results inside the top 10.

In his career at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Almirola has compiled two top-five finishes and his seventh-place result marks the third top-10.

The Tampa, Florida native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting 20 spots higher than his career mark of 20.6 and completing the race 15 places ahead of his 21.6 career average finish.

Almirola’s seventh-place finish was against 38 other drivers. The race endured 11 cautions and 52 caution laps. There were 22 lead changes.

Brad Keselowski earned the win in the race, and Denny Hamlin followed in second. Martin Truex Jr placed third, Joey Logano brought home fourth, and Kevin Harvick closed out the top five.

After Hamlin won the first stage, Keselowski took control and won Stage 2 before taking the checkered flag.

Aric Almirola Driver Page | Get Almirola Gear | Race Center

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Data Skrive

Matt DiBenedetto finished sixth in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.

The top-10 finish for DiBenedetto, his fifth of the year, added 32 points to his season total. DiBenedetto now sits at No. 13 in the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 509 points. A total of 16 drivers qualify for the the playoffs.

DiBenedetto started in 19th position. The sixth-year driver has picked up five top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in his career.

In his career at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, DiBenedetto has compiled one top-five finish and his sixth-place result marks the first top-10.

The Grass Valley, California native’s starting and finishing positions compared favorably to his career averages, starting eight spots higher than his career mark of 26.7 and completing the race 19 places ahead of his 25 career average finish.

DiBenedetto battled against 38 other drivers on the way to his sixth-place finish. The race endured 11 cautions and 52 caution laps. Prior to the checkered flag there were 22 lead changes.

Brad Keselowski earned the victory in the race, and Denny Hamlin finished second. Martin Truex Jr placed third, Joey Logano brought home fourth, and Kevin Harvick grabbed the No. 5 spot.

After Hamlin won the first stage, Keselowski grabbed control and won Stage 2 before taking the checkered flag.

Matt DiBenedetto Driver Page | Get DiBenedetto Gear | Race Center

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 by Terrin Waack

Expectations matched reality Sunday for Martin Truex Jr.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver got exactly what he predicted out of his No. 19 Toyota at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Truex finished third in the NASCAR Cup Series’ race in Loudon, New Hampshire. Brad Keselowski won, while Denny Hamlin was the runner-up. Joey Logano was then fourth, followed by Kevin Harvick in fifth.

“Still a solid effort,” Truex said. “I thought we were a third-best car, fourth-best car. I think the 4 (Harvick) was pretty strong at times as well. He kind of got messed around with track position. We finished where we should have. We just have to figure out how to get a little bit better here.”

The top-three run marked Truex’s third in the past four races — highlighted by a runner-up finish at Kentucky Speedway at the beginning of that stretch. Overall, it’s his fifth top five and 11th top 10.

Truex, the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion, is already locked into the 2020 playoffs. He won at Martinsville Speedway back in June to solidify himself a berth in the postseason competition. Truex currently ranks seventh in the points standings, too, with 648 points — 155 behind leader Kevin Harvick — and six races remaining in the regular season.

The finale will be held at Phoenix Raceway with the same rules package ran at New Hampshire since both are mile-long tracks.

“That’s definitely a good point,” Truex said. “It’s interesting to see how it played out today, where we kind of stacked up. I felt like we were right there. Obviously, as I’ve been talking about, needed the car to be a little bit better.

“The win that Martinsville, that was huge for us. I think going forward, we’re going to learn a little bit more about this, who has been working on it. They know the championship race at Phoenix will use this package.”

Seven different drivers led laps in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, and Truex was not one of them. He did get up to second come the conclusion of Stage 1 on Lap 75 after firing off 11th when the green flag dropped.

On Lap 97, though, Truex was hit with a pit-road penalty from NASCAR. The No. 19 team had an uncontrolled tire get away from its stall, forcing Truex to drop to the tail end of the field on Lap 100.

Truex battled his way back through the field to place eighth at the end of Stage 2 on Lap 185.

“I mean, I think no matter what’s going on as a driver you face those things,” Truex said. “Mistakes happen. Pit road speeding, I’ve done that this year. Yeah, I mean, when those things happen, you just have to buckle down and get what you can get. Fortunately we were able to come back from it. We probably lost out on a few stage points there in Stage 2 because of it.”

The stage finishes added 12 stage points to Truex’s race total (46).

Up next, Truex and the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series field take on a doubleheader weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Truex has yet to win at the 2-mile track. In 28 career starts, he has eight top-five and 11 top-10 performances — that includes three runner-up showings. He’s averaging a 14.6 finish.

“I was happy, like I said, with our performance today,” Truex said. “I felt like there was a lot of room for improvement with our handling. That’s always encouraging when you know your car can drive better and we ran as well as we did. We’ll see how it goes.

“Every week you got to do the best you can, kind of the best educated guess you can come up with.”

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 by Holly Cain

With two wins in his pocket heading into Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Brad Keselowski was already in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but it was this third win of 2020 that came in the sort of dominating style the championship contender hoped would show his team’s readiness to challenge for the season title.

Keselowski, 36, led a race best 184 of the 301 laps around the “Magic Mile” and held off runner-up Denny Hamlin by 1.647-seconds to hoist his 33rd career NASCAR Cup Series trophy and mark the fifth consecutive season he’s had at least three wins.

“We’ve had a lot of great races this year with the 2-car, but we just hadn’t really gone out and dominated a race, you know,” Keselowski said. “I was talking with (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and we were like maybe that’s what we need to get to the next level. We’re right there. We need to just go and dominate a race and that’s what today was for us.

“I’m really proud of my team and the effort they gave today and great race car. Thank you.”

Although Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford certainly topped all the important statistics, Hamlin and his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota kept him honest for most of the day. The two accounted for 18 of the race’s 23 lead changes, with Keselowski ultimately passing Hamlin and holding the point for the race’s final 81 caution-free laps.

“We just kind of were second there to the two (Keselowski),” the five-race winner Hamlin conceded. “We could really do well on restarts and we were going back-and-forth. Wow, that was some really, really good short track racing there. Hopefully, the fans liked what they saw there with me and the two (Keselowski) for most of the day.

“Some great side-by-side racing. We treated each other fair and it’s good that we got one-two out of it.”

Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. finished third, followed by Keselowski’s teammate Joey Logano and the season’s championship leader Kevin Harvick. Matt DiBenedetto, Aric Almirola, rookie Cole Custer, Chase Elliott and rookie Tyler Reddick rounded out the top 10.

It marked Almirola’s series-best ninth consecutive top-10 finish. And it was the second time in the last four races that at least two rookies finished inside the top 10.

Harvick’s fifth-place finish was good enough to hold onto an 81-point advantage over second place Keselowski in the series driver standings.

Jimmie Johnson finished 12th to keep his playoff hopes alive in the seven-time champion’s final full-time season in the series. The result represented a huge rally on the day for Johnson, who was involved in an incident with Clint Bowyer early in the race. He crept closer to the all-important top 16 in the standings that will represent the playoff field.

Johnson trails 16th place William Byron — his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, by 25 points. Reddick is 15 points behind Byron with only six races remaining to decide the playoff challengers.

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch suffered more bad luck in what’s been a frustrating season for his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Busch’s car had a tire go down only 15 laps into the race — while he was running among the top five – and it put his car hard into the wall.

Busch has three runner-up finishes (at Fontana, Atlanta and Darlington) this season but hasn’t won a race since his championship-clinching victory in the 2019 season finale at Homestead. He arrived in New Hampshire ranked ninth, but his last-place finish (one of four finishes of 30th or worse) leaves him ranked 10th in the standings.

“Way too early in the going for anything to be wrong or even to build enough brake temp or brake heat,” a clearly disappointed Busch said. “I don’t know. Just hate it for our Pedigree team and the fight that we’ve been having this year seems to be continuing.”

The series moves to the two-mile Michigan Speedway for a Saturday-Sunday double-header next weekend.

Note: The Nos. 2, 8 and 19 all had one lug nut not safe and secure in post-race inspection. The No. 14 had two lug nuts not safe and secure. NASCAR will announce fines and penalties later in the week.

Posted on August 2, 2020August 8, 2020 by Staff Report

Which channels have NASCAR programming this week? We answer that and give the weekly NASCAR television listings here in the NASCAR TV schedule.

Note: All times are ET.

MORE: How to find NBCSN | Get the NBC Sports App | How to find FS1 | Get FOX Sports App

Monday, Aug. 3
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Tuesday, Aug. 4
1:30 a.m., IMSA Auto Racing at Road America (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
10 p.m., NASCAR Race Classics: 1995 Racing Champions 200 in the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (re-air), FS2/FOX Sports App

Wednesday, Aug. 5
6:30 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App
7:30 p.m., 100,000 Cameras: The Return of NASCAR (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
10:30 p.m., NASCAR Auto Racing Classics: 1986 Budweiser at the Glen (re-air), FS2/FOX Sports App

Thursday, Aug. 6
6 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1/FOX Sports App

Friday, Aug. 7
12:30 a.m., NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at White Mountain Motorsports Park (tape delayed), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5:30 p.m., Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series NASCAR Race Day, FS1/FOX Sports App
6 p.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Henry Ford Health System 200, FS1/FOX Sports App

On MRN
5:30 p.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Henry Ford Health System 200

Saturday, Aug. 8
1 a.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Henry Ford Health System 200 (re-air), FS1/FOX Sports App
6 a.m., NASCAR: The Decades-The 1990s (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
6:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
8:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
8:30 a.m., NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Henry Ford Health System 200 (re-air), FS2/FOX Sports App
9:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
10:30 a.m., Dale Jr. Download, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
11:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Countdown to Green: Road America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
noon, NASCAR Xfinity Series Henry 180 at Road America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
3 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green: Michigan, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
5 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race Show: Michigan, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
11:30 a.m., NASCAR Xfinity Series Henry 180
3 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400

Sunday, Aug. 9
1 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan (re-air), NBCSN/NBC Sports App
2 p.m., NASCAR RaceHub: NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan, FS1/FOX Sports App
4 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
4:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan, NBCSN/NBC Sports App
7:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race Show: Michigan, NBCSN/NBC Sports App

On MRN
1 p.m., ARCA Menards Series Vizcom 200
3:30 p.m., NASCAR Cup Series Consumers Energy 400

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 by Staff Report

The tough times in 2020 continued for Kyle Busch at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Busch scraped the wall in the opening laps off of Turn 2 in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at the 1.058-mile track. Shortly after on Lap 16, a cut tire on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota sent Busch hard into the outside wall at the entrance of Turn 3.

“Just going down the backstretch there and about halfway down the backstretch I felt it go flat and tried to get slowed down enough without taking everybody else running over me behind me down the straightaway,” Busch told NBCSN.

“The fight that we’ve been having this year seems to be continuing. … It’s still 2020, but sooner or later we have to turn this stuff around.”

Busch drove the car back to the garage area but was forced to retire from the 301-lap race after the contact created significant damage to the right side of the car. He will be scored in 38th place — the last car in the field.

Busch is now riding a 20-race winless streak with six races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 by Staff Report

Driver-turned-broadcaster Kyle Petty and his wife, Morgan, announced Sunday the arrival of their second son together.

Cotten Cable was born on Aug. 2, 2020, according to Petty’s Twitter. Petty, who won eight times in the NASCAR Cup Series before making the transition to broadcasting, currently works as an analyst for NBC Sports. He’s also given back to the community through the Victory Junction Camp and the Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America.

Morgan and I welcomed a little boy to our family this morning. We named him Cotten Cable – after his maternal grandmothers, Claudia Cotten Overton and Helen Cable Owens. Mom and baby are both doing great! pic.twitter.com/NuVDM0y6yt

— Kyle Petty (@kylepetty) August 2, 2020

Petty is the son of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty and the grandson of Lee Petty.

This is the fifth child for Petty. He and Morgan married in December 2015. Petty has another son with Morgan and three children from a previous marriage — daughter Montgomery and sons Austin and Adam. Adam, a fourth-generation racer, passed away after a crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2000.

Posted on August 2, 2020August 2, 2020 by Staff Report

The No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Bubba Wallace and the No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford driven by Corey LaJoie will drop to the rear for pre-race penalties found before the start of the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

A pre-race inspection was found on both cars for an improperly mounted ballast. In addition to the loss of starting spots for Sunday’s race, both teams have been issued a 10-point penalty in the driver and owner standings. Crew chiefs Jerry Baxter (No. 43 team) and Ryan Sparks (No. 32 team) have been suspended for today’s race.

Based on the random draw for the lineup, Wallace was slated to start 15th, while LaJoie was going to roll of the grid in the 33rd-starting spot. Wallace entered the weekend 20th in the driver point standings, while LaJoie was 29th.

The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driven by Austin Dillon will also drop to the rear because of unapproved adjustments. Dillon was originally slated to start 23rd.