Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Final practice results

Martin Truex Jr. jumped to the top of the leaderboard for Saturday’s final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, wheeling his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota around the 1.058-mile track at 131.647 mph.

Kevin Harvick was second-fastest in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford at 131.633 mph.

Polesitter Kyle Busch was third in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at 131.515 mph.

Daniel Suarez in the No. 19 JGR Toyota, and Kyle Larson, who led the first two practice sessions, rounded out the top five.

Ty Dillon was forced to a backup car when his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet clipped the outside wall and was damaged. He had qualified to start 30th Sunday in the ISM Connect 300 (2 p.m., NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

More than a dozen cars served practice holds for inspection violations, the most severe of which was the No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Joey Logano sitting for the entire 50-minute session after failing pre-qualifying inspection Friday.

Serving 30-minute holds were the No. 78 of Truex Jr. and the No. 1 of Jamie McMurray for failing pre-race inspection three times at Chicago, and the No. 19 of Suarez and No. 77 of Erik Jones for failing pre-race inspection at Chicago twice and pre-qualifying inspection at New Hampshire twice.

Fifteen-minute holds were issued to: No. 4 Harvick, No. 10 Danica Patrick, No. 13 Dillon, No. 23 Corey LaJoie, No. 24 Chase Elliott, No. 31 Ryan Newman, No. 32 Matt DiBenedetto, No. 38 David Ragan and No. 48 Jimmie Johnson.

RELATED: Early practice results

Kyle Larson led Saturday’s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, turning a lap in the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet at 132.586 mph.

Larson also was fastest in Friday’s Monster Energy Series practice; he will start second in Sunday’s ISM Connect 300.

Ryan Blaney was second-fastest in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford, speeding around the 1.058-mile track at 132.517 mph.

Last week’s NASCAR Playoffs opener winner Martin Truex Jr. was third in the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota at 132.503 mph.

A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Matt Kenseth in the No. 20  Toyota and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Toyota, rounded out the top five.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full qualifying results | See the starting lineup

LOUDON, N.H. – Kyle Busch went from the top of the chart to near disaster and back to the top again in winning the pole position for Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN), the second race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff.

After posting the fastest lap in the first round of knockout qualifying at the 1.058-mile track, Busch missed his mark entering Turn 1 in the second round and narrowly averted a session-ending crash into the outside wall.

But Busch recovered on his second lap in the round, cracked the top 12 and saved his best effort for last in the final round, navigating the Magic Mile in 20. 203 seconds (135.049 mph) to edge Kyle Larson (134.911 mph) for the top starting spot.

The Coors Light Pole Award was Busch’s third at New Hampshire, his eighth of the season and the 27th of his career. Busch also started first on the grid for last Sunday’s Playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway.

“I didn’t think I hit it very well, actually,” Busch said of his lap in the money round. “I was going to go out and run my second lap and try for a little bit more, but I slipped off of (Turn) 2 really bad, so I just had to abort. It definitely wasn’t going to be any faster.”

Busch acknowledged he was fortunate to keep his car intact after the slip in Round 2 that resulted from trying to keep his left-side tires in contact with the PJ1 traction compound that had been applied to the track.

“I gave myself too much room on my left sides, trying to keep ‘em in the black on entry, and it was like half a car too wide to the right,” Busch said. “I was nervous.

“I thought I was 48 and 24-ing there for a second (a reference to crashes in first practice by Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott), but I was able to hang onto it, surprisingly, and battle through on the backstretch and ease her off into (Turn) 3 and build my lap back up heading to the start/finish line.”

RELATED: Johnson and Elliott crash in practice

Busch and Larson were two of 11 Playoff drivers who advanced to the final round of time trials. Denny Hamlin qualified third, Ryan Blaney fourth and series leader Martin Truex Jr, fifth. Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch were sixth and seventh.

Erik Jones in eighth was the only non-Playoff driver to crack the top 12.

Larson was .029 seconds off Busch’s pole-winning pace.

“I felt like maybe I got in the corner a little hot and got myself a little bit too loose and to the brakes too hard,” said Larson, who enters Sunday’s race second in the Playoff standings. “But I feel like overall my lap was pretty good. The No. 18 (Busch) has been really fast recently, and especially in qualifying all year.

“So for us to be second to him is not bad. We had the pole here earlier in the year and got encumbered (Larson’s time was disallowed because his rear decklid fin was outside specifications), but we had to back it up with a front row start. It feels good. We’ll have a nice pit stall selection. Hopefully we can have another smooth day.”

After a rough outing at Chicagoland and a subsequent crew chief change to veteran Darian Grubb, Kasey Kahne qualified ninth.

“Yeah, it was really nice,” Kahne said. “The car was balanced really well the entire day. We made gains every time out, and that final run I was just a tick tight and then gave up about a tenth that I thought I could run better.

“I gave up about a tenth, which I thought we could have been top five, and that would have been pretty cool, but, still, a really solid Friday.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Complete playoff picture | Johnson goes to backup car after early contact

LOUDON, N.H. – At the three-quarter mark of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Jimmie Johnson is on pace for four wins – a boon for most teams, but a bit below the bar that’s been set compared to the six, seven, even 10-win campaigns that we’re accustomed to seeing from the No. 48 Chevrolet driver.

A record-tying seven championships deep, the 42-year-old Johnson is likely in the final stage of his career.

A stage, in fact, that has seen the introduction of something foreign to the Hendrick Motorsports driver and NASCAR as a whole … stages.

Johnson’s three 2017 wins to date all came within the first 13 races of the season, while the concept of stage racing was fairly novel and teams were still feeling things out. To that point, Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus’ race strategy that led to the first seven titles remained largely unaltered: run hard, race fast and get to the finish line ahead of everyone else.

As the season wore on, other teams (see Nos. 18, 42, and particularly 78) began to adopt a strategy that included piling up stage wins and race wins — both of which the No. 48 team has been shut out of since an early June win at Dover.

In fact, Johnson and Co. have exactly – count ’em – one stage win in 2017, something the driver is starting to realize may be a determining factor throughout the remainder of the NASCAR Playoffs until Miami.

RELATED: 2017 stage point totals

“Those bonus points (for stage placement) are huge,” he said Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “We had a white board with points earned on last weekend’s race (at Chicago) and you would think that an eighth-place finish would yield a fair amount of points, but we didn’t score any stage points. I can’t remember exactly now, but we didn’t leave the track with the eighth most points scored; it was much worse than that and that is a problem, especially as you get to the later rounds and need to count on points.

“I think we are all living it first-hand. I think we understood the concept, but now that it is in your face and you live it day-to-day and kind of obsess over it, I think it is making it much more apparent to myself and others how important those stage points are.”

Just take a look at where Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 78 Toyota, is in the playoffs standings compared to Johnson after the first race at Chicago. Truex won the race and Johnson finished eighth, but they’re separated by a whopping 56 points because of the 78 team’s emphasis on stage wins throughout 2017.

Johnson has proven time and again since his first title in 2006 that he can win in untenable circumstances, under evolving championship rules (points, 10-12- or 16-driver playoff fields, elimination-style, elimination style with stages, etc.).

RELATED: Jimmie in his own words: ‘I want to be the best’

But he’s now realizing the situation his team is in currently and the points cushion his team maybe could have or should have – and the uphill battle he’ll be fighting over the next nine weeks.

“Yeah, this year’s format definitely doesn’t fit my natural tendency in a car and kind of what our team has earned seven championships through. So, we felt like without a doubt this is going to challenge us more than any other format in our history in the sport,” Johnson said. ” … We always show up at the end of a race and if you don’t win the race there is a very good chance you are going to earn (fewer) points than you did if you were up front at the start and got stage points in the first and second stage. That is just the reality of it and it’s forcing me to do things differently. … ”

“But, winning does supersede all,” he continued. “So, if we can look at the new approach and at the same time not take anything away from the way we have won so many races and championships that will fix all.”

And if there was ever an old dog that could learn new tricks, it’s Johnson.

Posted on by Brad Norman

Mess with the bull, you get the horns.

A phrase that needs little explanation, especially when it’s coming from someone like Johnny Sauter, who isn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to win.

RELATED: Sauter’s intense post-race interview

After celebrating in Victory Lane at Chicago, Sauter, the 2016 series champion, addressed perhaps the key question of the NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series Playoffs — How do the veterans feel about the youth movement happening in the series?

Sauter’s response: He isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with anyone, even drivers who are half his age.

The 2017 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs field is a melting pot of two veteran drivers, one being Sauter, and six fast-rising young guns who are trying to jumpstart their early careers.

MORE: Analyzing the full field

Ben Rhodes, driver of the No. 27 Safelite AutoGlass Toyota Tundra, addressed the topic with NASCAR.com after Sauter said “If Ben Rhodes wants a piece of it, let’s go” post-Chicago.

“I’ll make sure to bring my leather gloves,” Rhodes told ‪NASCAR.com. “I’ll wrestle the cattle up. I ain’t scared. He can be a bully all he wants, it doesn’t intimidate me.”

With a championship on the line, all eight drivers — no matter the age — want to win it all.

Will experience be a factor? Will the motivation to make a statement be the key?

The journey begins at New Hampshire on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Practice results

Using a top speed of 135.714 mph, Kyle Larson brought his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to the top of the leaderboard in Friday’s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch was second-fastest, his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota notching a fast lap of 135.342 mph. Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne clocked the third-quickest speed in his No. 5 Chevrolet (135.198 mph), while last week’s Chicago winner Martin Truex Jr. nabbed the fourth spot in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota (135.188 mph) during the waning minutes of the session. Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five, his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford coming up at 135.030 mph.

Denny Hamlin, the most recent winner at the Magic Mile, ranked sixth in the field, his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota notching a speed of 134.973 mph.  Reigning race winner Kevin Harvick was 19th-fastest in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

The top 10 drivers in opening practice are all playoff contenders with the exception of Erik Jones (eighth-fastest).

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott both hit the outside wall early during opening practice. Both Johnson and Elliott will go to backup cars. Elliott did not make another lap in the backup car and was the slowest in opening practice among the 16 NASCAR Playoffs drivers (32nd).

RELATED: Johnson, Elliott smack the wall

Friday’s opening practice run was the only practice time for Monster Energy Series teams on the day. The NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series practices twice, with Monster Energy Series qualifying slated for 5:15 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App).

Posted on by Pat DeCola

LOUDON, N.H. — Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott got into an early hole Friday morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, each drilling the wall in opening practice for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race.

Johnson, the defending series champion, put his No. 48 Chevrolet into the outside wall early in the session. After the damage was deemed significant, the team immediately pulled out a backup entry.

Elliott nearly matched Johnson’s mistake minutes later, getting his No. 24 Chevrolet into the wall, as well. He also will go to a backup car.

As the incidents came prior to Friday’s qualifying session, the switch to backup entries will not necessitate starting from the rear of the field in Sunday’s ISM Connect 300 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I had a good first lap and entering Turn 3 for my second lap just got in there with a lot of speed anticipated it sticking, didn’t quite stick and then once I got out of the PJ1 there was just really no slowing down or directing it off the wall at that point,” the seven-time champ said following the wreck. “Came around and it got the fence. Definitely not the way we wanted to start. Frustrating, but we will take it and go figure it out.”

The wrecks came shortly following Johnson’s foretelling comments on the PJ1 track compound that was added to the asphalt of the 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval ahead of the weekend.

“When (the compound) on the newer-side, you can let off the brake earlier and just carry a lot of speed to the center of the turn and count on that sticky stuff to catch the car and help it change directions. As it wears off, you go to your same braking point and you let off, you roll in the turn, you miss your mark,” he said.

The timing – while fortuitous that this came before qualifying – couldn’t be much worse for Elliott and Co., as the 24 group already finds itself without crew chief Alan Gustafson and car chief Joshua Kirk. The pair currently are serving one-race suspensions stemming from an L1-level penalty assessed after post-race inspection following Elliott’s runner-up finish at Chicago last Sunday.

The finish was ruled encumbered and Elliott was docked 15 driver points, positioning him a precarious eighth in NASCAR Playoffs standings.

“Just got kind of loose in Turn 3, got up the track and just ran out of room,” Elliott told NBCSN. “I hate it. That is not what we needed. We are behind this weekend now, so that is never good, but it’s Friday, so we’ve got another day and a half to get things turned around and try to get it fixed.”

While just a small sample size of three races, Elliott’s numbers at Loudon don’t particularly suggest he’ll have an easy go of it in a backup car, either. In his trio of Monster Energy Series starts, the sophomore driver has an average finish of 19.3 with no top-10 finishes.

As an organization, Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t won at the “Magic Mile” since 2012, when Kasey Kahne held the lobster in Victory Lane … alongside Elliott’s interim crew chief for the weekend, Kenny Francis.

 

Posted on by Brad Norman

RELATED: Complete playoff picture | See the entire 12-driver field

One. Two. Three. Four.

One-third of the field.

That’s how many JR Motorsports drivers are in the 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs — more than any other team.

William Byron, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler and Michael Annett are the four horsemen who are galloping their way toward Miami to help bring a shiny trophy to the Earnhardt family once more — especially for Dale Jr., who is finishing out his own Appreci88ion Tour over the next couple of months.

Graphic by NASCAR Creative Design

Byron, the lone rookie at JRM, is the clubhouse leader in the XFINITY Playoffs standings with teammates Allgaier and Sadler, the regular-season champion, peeking over his shoulder. A mere five points separate the three as they head to Kentucky Speedway on Saturday for the first playoffs race (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Although the JRM drivers want to see their name on the trophy for selfish reasons, the weight of winning a title for Junior isn’t something they take lightly — and it’s something that adds even more motivation to succeed as they get behind the wheel.

“We definitely want to try and win a championship for him in his last year in the (Monster Energy NASCAR) Cup Series,” Byron told NASCAR.com “Hopefully give him that excitement and thrill of that last weekend at the race track. I think we have a great shot to do that. We have four of us in the playoffs, and that would be really special to him I think.”

RELATED: Former champs offer advice

Sadler, the veteran at JRM, has a long history with Earnhardt that goes back to when the men were just teenagers getting their first true taste of driving race cars. He understands his career is coming to the end of a chapter — just like Earnhardt. The two have a deep understanding of each other which helps as Sadler saddles up for an opportunity like the playoffs, where all eyes will be on him to celebrate in Victory Lane.

“The biggest thing Dale has told me is be yourself and do your thing,” Sadler told NASCAR.com. “You know how to do this, we’ve been leading the points all year. We’ve been getting maximum points at almost every track that we go to. … Just continue doing those things to make it to Homestead to put yourself in position to become a champion. He has really (been) giving me a lot of comfort and support that they are going to do everything they can from their side of the race team to give us every possible tool that we need to become a champion.”

Earnhardt Jr. is a two-time XFINITY Series champion as a driver, and he also is a championship owner (2014). He knows what it takes to win.

Now, it’s up to his horsemen to make it to Miami — and it all begins now.

Posted on by DraftKings

Rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by the value of each driver.

*FPPK = average fantasy points per $1,000 of salary

1. Martin Truex, Jr. ($10,500) – He can’t win every single playoff race, but, well, he could. At every remaining track, Truex should be the clear favorite. The track type does not matter. Truex runs up front, finishes near the top and earns fast laps and laps led points everywhere. (6.4 FPPK)

2. Kyle Larson ($9,500) – The New Hampshire July race was another case of Kyle Larson starting in the back and cruising to the front. He was inside the top-10 by lap 30. That’s fast a car and smooth driver. (5.5 FPPK)

3. Kyle Busch ($10,700) – Chicago was Busch’s race to lose. He wanted to shut up the non-Toyota-ers. That didn’t happen because once again the 18 team shot itself in the foot. A loose wheel and a penalty were death sentences in a near caution-free race. (5.5 FPPK)

4. Denny Hamlin ($9,900) – Not a lot changes in a couple months. Hamlin won the New Hampshire July race, so he should be ready to repeat. The only issue is that Hamlin won via strategy, not by being the best car. (4.3 FPPK)

5. Matt Kenseth ($9,400) – At intermediate tracks, Kenseth is not going to score a lot of fantasy points. At the short, flat tracks like New Hampshire, watch out. Kenseth led a significant amount of laps in both Richmond races, and he scored 15.5 fast lap points in the first New Hampshire race. (3.6 FPPK)

6. Jimmie Johnson ($9,600) – Seven championships are not the result of being the fastest. It’s the result of overcoming adversity. Last weekend, Johnson was slow in practice, but he was able to salvage the weekend with a solid eighth-place finish. (3.7 FPPK)

7. Kurt Busch ($8,200) – The top-five streak is over. Kurt Busch didn’t even finish inside the top-15. Before we write Busch’s playoff obituary, let’s look at numbers more closely. Kurt finished 19th, but his average running position at Chicago was 12th. (3.3 FPPK)

8. Joey Logano ($8,700) – Someone’s home track has to be New Hampshire, and Logano lived in Connecticut until he was 10. He likes the Patriots, so that’s close enough. Even with two career wins at New Hampshire, it will be hard to match the speed of the Toyotas. (3.1 FPPK)

9. Kevin Harvick ($10,100) – When fate dealt Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. a bad hand, Harvick was given the opportunity to lead some laps. Eventually, Harvick coughed it up. New Hampshire has been a great track for Harvick, but that was in a Chevy. (4.3 FPPK)

10. Paul Menard ($6,300) – Anyone that picked Menard last week will brag that they knew he was going to have a big week. There were four cautions last week, and Menard received the Lucky Dog twice. In Menard’s defense, he’s averaging 30 fantasy points per race over his last 15 races. (3.9 FPPK)

11. Chase Elliott ($9,100) – Chicago is the track for the No. 24 car. In his three New Hampshire races, Elliott’s average running position was 11th, fifth and 10th. This looks like a solid top-10 for Elliott. (3.8 FPPK)

12. Brad Keselowski ($10,200) – Twitter blew up when Keselowski begged NASCAR to strip Toyota of its speed. The only car that got busted last week was a Chevy. Without a favor from NASCAR, it seems Keselowski and the Penske Fords will not see the front of the pack anytime soon. (4.1 FPPK)

13. Ryan Newman ($7,200) – RCR didn’t have the right setup last week. That’s what happened in the July New Hampshire race, too. Newman’s average position of 20th was the best on the team. Last fall, his average running position was 11th. Newman has three wins and 18 top-10s at New Hampshire. (4.4 FPPK)

14. Ryan Blaney ($8,000) – Statistically speaking, Blaney’s average running position proves he has been solid at short tracks. His finishing position tells another story (five finishes outside of the top-20). The tide is turning. Blaney has three straight top-20s at short tracks. (2.8 FPPK)

15. Jamie McMurray ($8,400) – Not counting Talladega, McMurray has started outside of the top-15 twice. At Dover, he scored 51 fantasy points. At Chicago, he scored 43 fantasy points. He started fourth at New Hampshire in July but finished 17th. He posted similar numbers in last fall’s race. (3.4 FPPK)

16. Daniel Suarez ($7,500) – If he doesn’t make a mistake, this JGR Toyota defaults to a top-15 finish. He’s recorded five consecutive top-15 finishes at short tracks including a sixth-place finish at New Hampshire. (3.9 fppk)

17. Danica Patrick ($6,100) – New Hampshire is the ninth short track race of the season. In the previous eight, Danica has one bad race. She finished 36th in the carnage that is Bristol. In the other seven races, her worst finish was 25th, and her average finish is 19th. (3.4 FPPK)

18. Erik Jones ($7,800) – In green races with very few cautions, the worst thing a driver can do is make mistakes. Jones spun out, he sped on pit road and his crew jumped over the wall too soon. Jones is talented, and his car is fast, but no one wins with that many mistakes. (4.1 FPPK)

19. Ty Dillon ($6,700) – Few cautions means few wave arounds and Lucky Dogs. That’s not a Ty Dillon race. Without the favorable yellow flag, Dillon finished five laps down. There could be enough wrecks this week for Dillon to hang around the top-20. (4.5 FPPK)

20. Austin Dillon ($7,000) – No one believes Dillon is going to win the championship, but he’s capable of advancing to the second round. It only takes top-15 finishes. Throw out the Bristol race, and his average running position is 17th at short tracks. (3.5 FPPK)