Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Get the full race results | Chase Bubble Watch

 

LOUDON, N.H. — Jimmie Johnson is no stranger to tire issues at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, running just 11 laps last summer in the July race at the “Magic Mile” before exiting early for two blown Goodyears.
 
The cut tire he endured two-thirds of the way through Sunday’s Sylvania 300 could’ve put the six-time Sprint Cup Series champion in a dire situation heading into the final race of the opening round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup — but it didn’t.
 
The Hendrick Motorsports driver battled back from 23rd after the flat to regain his position on the lead lap — despite three cars being ahead of him for the beneficiary position — to muster an impressive sixth-place finish.
 
“Yeah, it was really weird … I went into Turn 3 and got on the brakes and the car traveled and slowed down,” Johnson said on pit road after the race. “It felt like something broke in the left-front, but they said there was a lug nut inside the wheel. I guess when I hit the brakes to slow down, a lug nut hit the valve stem and took the tire out.
 
“Fortunately some cautions fell in quick order to let us get back on the lead lap. We had a solid car and got up there to ninth or something and some guys ran out of fuel and got us to sixth. … We had to deal with a lot of adversity today and overcame and got a great finish.”
 
Johnson now sits in fifth place among Chase drivers — third among those who haven’t clinched a berth to the Contender Round via a victory — as the series heads to his best track, Dover International Speedway.
 
Winner of four of the past seven races and a record 10 overall at the “Monster Mile,” Johnson should have little problem advancing to the next round as long as he can stay out of trouble.
 
That said, with defending champion Kevin Harvick in 15th place and likely in need of a victory to move on, it would behoove “Six-Time” to keep his foot to the floor and do what he does best at Dover — win.
 
“You can’t put your guard down. You’ve got to go in and race,” Johnson said. “Dover is a great track for us. A victory could be a huge shot in the arm for our team and really get some good momentum going for us.
 
“We’ll go there and give 100 percent and hopefully it’s a trophy; if not, hopefully it’s an advancement to the next round.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Full race results | Who’s on the Chase Bubble?

 

LOUDON, N.H. — One of the strongest drivers all summer long, Kyle Busch now sits on the outside of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings looking in with one race remaining before the field is cut to 12.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s title hopes took a significant hit Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as he clocked the wall between Turn 3 and 4, sending his No. 18 Toyota to the garage.

“It’s killed,” Busch told his crew after bringing out the fifth caution flag of Sunday’s Sylvania 300.

Busch, who declined comment to NASCAR.com after the race, veered out of the racing groove on Lap 159, making heavy contact with the right side of his car.

“We had that short run there and the handling went away and just blew a right-front (tire),” No. 18 crew chief Adam Stevens said. “It looks like it just had a slow leak and just overworked the shoulder and finally blew out. The balance was free and it’s not like we abused it, especially after we just had a fuel run. Just one of those things that happens. Sometimes you get a pin in the hole or run something over and find the fence.”

The result sent him tumbling toward the bottom of the 16-driver Chase field — 13th overall and 39 points behind leader, teammate and Loudon winner Matt Kenseth — with only Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway to advance to the Contender Round, the next three-race stage of eliminations.

“(Kyle) is bummed that we weren’t a little bit quicker and he’s bummed that we had a problem,” Stevens said. “We can control the quicker part; we can’t control the problem.”    

Busch finished ninth in the Chase opener last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. That effort, combined with bonus points for his four regular-season wins, gave him solid footing after the Challenger Round opener. But his extended stay in the garage for major repairs at New Hampshire dropped him to a 37th-place finish, putting extra pressure on next weekend’s event.

Despite the grisly outlook, by virtue of being a single point outside the cutoff behind Dale Earnhardt Jr., it’s not a do-or-die scenario at the “Monster Mile.”

“It’s not a win-at-all-costs situation at all, which is comforting,” said Stevens. “Sure (I think we can make the next round on points). Dover’s a strong track for us. I haven’t seen the (standings) yet at the end of the race, but a bunch of guys ran out of gas there. We were going to run third (at Dover) in Kyle’s second race back and wrecked with a lapped car. I’m sure our cars have gotten better (since then) and Kyle’s gotten more in shape.

“There’s no reason we can’t go there and have a good day. Things like this happen, too. They happened to us and they can happen to anybody else.”

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Pat DeCola

RELATED: Comparing Gordon to Favre, Ripken

LOUDON, N.H. — Jeff Gordon is NASCAR’s new Iron Man.

 

By competing in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the four-time champion broke Ricky Rudd’s long-standing record of consecutive Sprint Cup Series starts with his 789th straight race.

 

The streak started in 1992 with Gordon as a fresh-faced, mustachioed 20-year-old in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He hasn’t missed a day of work since.

 

“No, (going this long and not missing a race) is not anything that I really thought about a whole lot,” Gordon said Friday at NHMS. “I think now, looking to see where I am and looking back on it I recognize my commitment. My commitment has been there for many years, long before I even got to the Cup series. 

 

“You have to understand, if you are a sprint car racer you are racing 100 times a year. Coming into the Cup level and racing 30 times a year, now 38 times a year, and it’s a lot more work that goes into 38 weeks than what went into 100 races in a sprint car. But, still, to me if there was a race and I was scheduled to do it then I was going to do everything I could to be healthy and to be focused and to give 100 percent.” 

 

To put Gordon’s accomplishment into perspective, the Camping World Truck Series also celebrated a landmark milestone at the “Magic Mile” this weekend, with its 500th race — 289 events less than the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s number.

 

Over the course of his first 788 races, Gordon racked up 92 wins — third most all-time — meaning he’s won nearly 12 percent of the races he’s entered. He’s won a race in all but four of his 23 seasons of full-time competition, and there’s still time this year to slice that number down to three.

 

It’s remarkable that in such a high risk sport, Gordon, retiring at season’s end, was able to endure the unlikely and hit this mark — especially given a few doubtful situations, even as recently as last season.

 

“Well when you have a stat like this … what starts to happen is you go ‘What were the close calls? What were the weekends that it almost didn’t happen?,’ ”  Gordon wondered. “Obviously, last year at Charlotte (when he nearly missed the Coca-Cola 600 with a back issue) was one that comes to mind. When I think of what I went through in 24 hours to make sure I could get in the car on Sunday … I think that certainly stands out in my mind when I’m lying on a table and they are injecting big long needles into my back so that I could race on Sunday.

 

“When you look back on it you go, ‘You know that’s kind of crazy. Why did I do that? I probably didn’t need to do that.’ But I did because I wanted to be in the race car.”

 

Assuming Gordon, 43, finishes out the season with no complications, the final tally will stand at 797 races. Fellow Cup champion and 43-year-old Matt Kenseth is the next closest — he’ll have 574 at season’s end — but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver would have to stick around another six-plus seasons just to match Gordon’s mark.

 

“I was talking to Matt Kenseth about it, I think he is next in line, but he is several hundred behind me,” Gordon said. “I don’t know the full significance of this in today’s more modern era versus, say, with Ricky. I certainly didn’t go through what Ricky did. The things that he did to make it into a race make my needles in my back look like nothing. 

 

“But I’m curious to see what happens with the more modern era of safer cars, safer race tracks and how that affects what drivers do in the future. Will they not race as long and they not get to it? Or will they blow this number out of the water and it won’t even be significant? I don’t know.”

 

It’s conceivable that a driver like 19-year-old Chase Elliott, his replacement in the No. 24 starting in 2016, could surpass Gordon eventually, but that’s looking more than 22 years down the road.

 

For now, all we can do is stay in the moment and stand in awe of one of NASCAR’s greatest modern competitors as he winds down his career with yet another historic accomplishment to put the finishing touches on what has been a Hall of Fame-worthy career.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Gordon sets new NASCAR standard

 

To be a sport’s “Iron Man” requires battling through plenty — nagging injuries, poor performance at times and so much more. It also requires longevity, which comes from being pretty successful over the course of a long career. You can’t become a sport’s Iron Man overnight.


On Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon became the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Iron Man. With his start in the Sylvania 300 at the “Magic Mile,” Gordon made his 789th consecutive start. Ricky Rudd had held the honor since passing soon-to-be NASCAR Hall of Famer Terry Labonte in 2002, with the final total of 788 consecutive starts ending when Rudd didn’t start the 2006 Daytona 500.

But think about this — It took Gordon 24 years and 23 full-time seasons to set a new mark and it comes as he now has just eight races left in his full-time career after New Hampshire.

The longevity and success that comes with being able to set such a mark is remarkable. Gordon has been a four-time champion in the sport’s top series, won 92 races in his career and is a surefire Hall of Famer. If he wasn’t winning races and titles, he would not have been in position to set this record. He has overcome some back trouble en route to passing Rudd but just as so routinely dispatched competitors in the prime of his career, he battled past the back issues.

Gordon’s breaking of this record brings back memories of when Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s Major League Baseball record for consecutive games played in 1995. Gehrig’s mark of 2,130 consecutive games played, which ended in the 1939 season, was thought to be a record that would stay with the Hall New York Yankees Hall of Famer forever.

 But Ripken Jr. broke Gehrig’s record on Sept. 6, 1995 and went on to establish a new mark with 2,632 before bringing his streak to an end late in 1998 season. Interestingly, Gordon tied Rudd’s mark 17 years to the day that Ripken ended his streak.

Ripken, a Hall of Famer for the Baltimore Orioles, battled plenty during his long run to get to the record: slumps, changing batting stances, sprained ankles and a knee injury suffered in a brawl. His streak lasted parts of 17 seasons and it took him 14 seasons to catch Gehrig, simply by doing one of the most overlooked tasks in life: showing up, ready to go to work.



On the night Ripken broke the record, he hit a home run in the fourth inning. In the bottom of the fifth when the game became official, Ripken received a standing ovation at Oriole Park at Camden Yards that lasted over 20 minutes with umpires, opposing players, teammates and fans saluting the Orioles legend. Ripken did a victory lap around the field to shake hands with fans.

While Gordon and Ripken reached their milestones with one team, NFL quarterback Brett Favre took a different path. Favre played most of his career for the Green Bay Packers, winning one Super Bowl with the team, but also had stints with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

Favre holds the record of most consecutive starts by any player in the NFL with 297 (321 if you count playoff games) and he is just one of eight quarterbacks to have started 100 consecutive games. Even more mind blowing, 238 quarterbacks made starts in the NFL during his streak.

Favre broke the mark of 116 held by former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, turned ESPN analyst, Ron Jaworski in 1999 and he broke the mark for consecutive starts at any position, 271, in 2009. Favre’s streak would come to an end toward the end of 2010 when he suffered a shoulder injury. Favre is on the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame ballot and will likely get enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in short order.

Legends set records that push them into another realm in their sport and Gordon’s consecutive start mark is just the latest in a long line of athletic accomplishments to do so. The fact that it comes in what is his final full-time season is both poetic and fitting as his own racing career is winding down. As an Iron Man, Gordon is in a unique class that recognizes both the length and greatness of his career.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

RELATED: Full race results

 

SPARTA, Ky. — Some mid-race contact in the NASCAR XFINITY Series VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 led to some post-race fireworks at Kentucky Speedway for Brian Scott and Darrell Wallace Jr.

 

On pit road, moments after the race ended, Scott went over to Wallace’s parked car on pit road to have an exchange of words that appeared to get physical with the Richard Childress Racing driver pushing and shoving a still-seated Wallace before being separated by a NASCAR official.

 

After being separated, Scott went back for some more heated words with Wallace before walking away and back to his car.

 

“We got a restart and the 6, he drove down into me.” Scott said on pit road. “I never felt like he even gave me a chance to get in the corner. He loosened my right rear wheel and it ruined our day. Really unfortunate. Such a fast car.

 

“We’re racing for wins, so we don’t have to worry about points and stuff and that puts us in position to race those guys aggressively if that’s how they’re going to race.”

 

Scott’s anger stemmed from an incident on a Lap 128 restart where the two made contact and dropped him from out of the top 10 and eventually forced him to pit under a green flag, going a lap down on Lap 143. Scott led 45 laps and ended up with a 13th-place finish but remains in search of his first XFINITY Series win. RCR, as a whole, had a solid day with three cars in the top six.

 

“I think we showed as a company we’re really dominant,” Scott said. “I felt good about our Shore Lodge Chevrolet. Extremely good out front. We struggled with it in dirty air.

 

“We just kind of kept having restarts and red flags, and the race wasn’t really going smoothly, and that didn’t really play into our favor.”

 

Wallace didn’t really address the incident much, prefering to focus on his Roush Fenway Racing No. 6 Ford’s run that resulted in a ninth-place finish for his 11th top-10 finish of the season.

 

“I don’t even know if we got together on pit road,” Wallace told NBCSN. “We come home ninth, another top 10, so that’s good. Just not what we were expecting all day. Our Bleacher Report Mustang wasn’t what we had in practice. It was a kind of, a totally different animal. That’s what produces here at Kentucky. Great racing all around.

 

“Just a bummer we didn’t run better. We were expecting better than what we did. I tried to do some pit strategy but it hurt us in the long run, but we’ll go to Dover, where really good and have some fun.”

Asked for side of the incident, Wallace simply said, “that was — that was early in the race.”

 

After the race, Wallace and Scott both shared their sides on Twitter.

 

 

Both drivers will be back in action at Dover International Speedway for the Hisense 200 (Oct. 3, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on by Holly Cain

RACE-DAY: Full starting lineup | Key story lines, trends
RELATED: Gordon discusses Iron Man mark

LOUDON, N.H. — Jeff Gordon smiled widely but demurely as he accepted a granite trophy recognizing the important milestone he will mark Sunday afternoon.


Still a little superstitious, the four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champ suggested he shouldn’t hoist the hardware just yet. There’s still a matter of rolling off the grid.


When Gordon takes his 789th consecutive green flag in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) he will break a record of consistency, toughness and longevity held by retired driver Ricky Rudd and officially become NASCAR’s newest “Iron Man.”


“To me if there was a race and I was scheduled to do it then I was going to do everything I could to be healthy and to be focused and to give 100 percent,” said Gordon, who has not missed a start since his November 1992 debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway.


“I think just by having that mindset and that effort that is what got me here. It’s not that I was looking at, ‘Hey, I want to set an Iron Man record,’ or anything like that.


“I remember when Ricky Rudd did that and Terry Labonte and other guys that had these incredible records and streaks and I thought, ‘Man they are old. I will never be around long enough to set that record or achieve that.’


“Now here I am. Yeah, I’m old, too, but now I appreciate what those guys did and the effort they put into it and the commitment.”


NASCAR.com caught up with Rudd, 59, this week to talk about the Iron Man record he established from 1981-2005, how he’s spending his racing retirement and if he thinks this mark of tenacity will ever be broken again.


Rudd set the bar in an era when there were fewer races a year — on average 30 a season compared to the 36-race slate now — and a time before the focus on improved car safety and soft walls that occurred in the 2000s.


Yet it turns out for Rudd, it wasn’t the obvious risks of the job that came closest to derailing his starts streak, but a very ordinary situation that he says was toughest to suffer through.


Rudd famously taped his eyes open with Band-Aids — true story he confirmed — to compete in the 1984 Daytona 500 still feeling the effects of a frightening tumble a week earlier in the Budweiser Shootout (then called Busch Clash).

He won the race a week later at Richmond, Virginia — again using Band-Aids to hold his swollen eyes open.

“That (Daytona) would have been the perfect opportunity to have ended the streak right there,” Rudd conceded.

“I really should have spent some time in the hospital and gotten recuperated from that one, but at that time, after you got out of car for the weekend, you might not get that ride back.


“Then I got hurt in an accident in 1988 when the tire war with Hoosier and Goodyear was going on,” Rudd continued. “I had torn ligaments in my left knee, and it was real touch-and-go if I’d be able to go.
  

“At Martinsville around 1995 or ’96, we were testing and my throttle hung wide open and I pretty much went straight into the Turn 1 wall and it knocked me out and I was knocked out for a while. Didn’t have my wits about me for a good four or five hours. Probably should have sat out then, but we didn’t know as much about concussions then.

Since retiring in 2007, Rudd has slowed down in velocity but not in activity. He hasn’t attended a Sprint Cup Series race since his final start at the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale, but the Virginia native still lives outside Charlotte, where he is an avid mountain bike rider.

You can find Rudd at the GoPro Motorplex in Mooresville, North Carolina, most days of the week where he keeps his go-karts and regularly laps the 1-mile road course.


“I ran a full season last year and chose to run against the young kids in the most competitive class,” Rudd said. “Those were some of the fastest kids in the country and I use karting for a workout session.


“I finished third in the championship out of 60 drivers, won a pole, ran second and came close to winning one. I just enjoy seeing the new talent come up. It’s not unusual to go out there and (Indy car driver) Will Power to be there and we’ll chase each other around.


In fact, Rudd gets a kick out being recognized by fans for his post-racing life.


“It’s sort of surprising because I really do get recognized more than I thought would happen,” Rudd said. “I did two episodes of the Dallas remake TV show and I think people recognize me more from stuff like that than the racing.


“It’s not as much, ‘Hey, you won the Brickyard 400,’ it’s, ‘Hey, I saw you on Dallas.’ “


Actually, it’s Rudd’s victory mark — including the 1997 Brickyard trophy — in which he takes the most satisfaction.


He won at least one race for 16 consecutive seasons between 1983-1998 — a modern-era record that still stands.


“If I had to weigh one against the other I guess I take more pride in the consecutive-win streak,” Rudd said. “To me, that meant a little bit more, but since I’ve retired and looked back, both are nice. Sometimes, I’ll meet people who aren’t familiar with the sport and they’ll know me as the Iron Man.”


Neither Rudd nor Gordon would venture to guess whether the impending record would be broken again. Gordon can extend Sunday’s mark of 789 by eight races — finishing at 797 when he makes his final career start on Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

To put the mark in perspective, Matt Kenseth, 43, is second on the consecutive-starts list but is 223 races behind Gordon entering this weekend’s race at New Hampshire.


“Even from when Jeff came up, the cars were a lot safer,” Rudd said. “And after Earnhardt passed away (in 2001), the cars are even safer and they are constantly updating the technology.


“I can’t even count how many concussions I’ve probably had, and now they’ve virtually eliminated concussions. (Setting the starts record) is going to be more about desire. Some guys I see could be around and the record very much in jeopardy. Kyle Larson, he’s young and seems to love what he’s doing.


“I think it’s kind of amazing someone did break that record,” Rudd said. “It kind of hung around a long time.


“I still think of Jeff as a kid from when he came to the Hendrick organization. I remember one time because Rick (Hendrick) knew I worked out, I remember him telling me, take this kid to the gym, he’s never been to the gym before.


“I still think of Jeff as a young man.

“I have to say, he’s done a great job. He’s made a lot of money, won a lot of races and it hasn’t seemed to change him. He still seems real grounded, a real family guy and I admire that.”

Posted on by Staff Report

SPARTA, Ky. — Veteran driver Eric McClure was released from a hospital near Kentucky Speedway on Sunday afternoon after being diagnosed with a concussion.

 

McClure was admitted to a local hospital for further evaluation following a crash in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race. He underwent CT scans of his head, neck, chest and abdomen and all were clear, a spokesperson for the No. 24 team said Sunday afternoon.

 

He will follow NASCAR’s guidelines to return to racing, according to a team release. (Update: McClure revealed over social media on Wednesday that he had been cleared to race at Dover.)

 

McClure was involved in a Lap 180 crash, where his No. 24 Toyota got sideways and into the outside wall of Turn 4. Upon exiting the car, McClure appeared to be a little shaken up as he got in the ambulance to head to the infield care center.

He was scored in 29th-place at race’s end. The Kentucky race was his 27th start of the season. He is currently 20th in the series’ point standings.

 

McClure was seriously injured in a wreck in May 2012 at Talladega Superspeedway, suffering a concussion and internal bruising after crashing into a retaining wall protected by the energy-absorbing SAFER barrier system. He missed five races before returning to XFINITY competition full-time.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full qualifying results

 

Daniel Suarez topped the leaderboard during Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying at Kentucky Speedway and earned his third Coors Light pole of the season. Suarez covered the 1.5-mile track with a fast lap of 179.856 mph.

 

Joining Suarez on the front row for the Saturday night race will be the No. 2 Chevrolet of Brian Scott who posted a fast lap of 178.855 mph. Scott has been strong all weekend as he was the fastest amongst his competition during both of Friday’s practice sessions.

 

Rounding out the top three on the qualifying leaderboard was Regan Smith, who wheeled his No. 7 Chevrolet around the track with a third-fastest lap of 178.719 mph.

 

The No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Ty Dillon (178.353 mpn) and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford of Ryan Blaney (177.895) were fourth and fifth, respectively.

 

The defending race winner, Brendan Gaughan, was sixth-fastest at 177.760 mph in his No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

 

On-track action picks back up at Kentucky for the NASCAR XFINITY Series’ VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 (200 laps, 300 miles) at 8 p.m. on NBCSN/Live Extra.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Full lineup for Loudon

 

Austin Dillon secured the Keystone Light Pole Award on Saturday morning, turning a track-record lap of 133.296 mph at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

 

The pole position was Dillon’s first of the year and 13th of his career in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The former series champion’s GMS Racing No. 33 Chevrolet will start first in Saturday’s UNOH 175 (1 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1, PRN, SiriusXM), the 500th race in series history.

Fellow Sprint Cup Series regular Kyle Busch, a three-time Truck Series winner at New Hampshire, was second-fastest at 132.572 mph as an owner/driver in the No. 51 Toyota. Truck series rookie Cameron Hayley was third-fastest, followed by series points leader Erik Jones and rookie Dalton Sargeant completing the top five.

Jones, 19, enters the race with a slight advantage in the standings in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota. His closest competitor, fellow 19-year-old Tyler Reddick, is just 10 points back and will start 14th Saturday in the Brad Keselowski Racing No. 19 Ford.

Two-time defending series champion Matt Crafton, just 11 points behind Jones, will start 10th in Saturday’s 175-lapper in the ThorSport Racing No. 88 Toyota.

Dillon topped the first two rounds of qualifying, turning a track-record lap of 132.595 mph in the second session to easily advance.

The opening 25-minute session was marked by a pair of spins in Turn 2, the first coming from Japanese driver Akinori Ogata, preparing for his second start in the series. The second was for Johnny Sauter, who looped the ThorSport Racing No. 98 Toyota on a warm-up lap.

 

Norm Benning and Josh Reaume failed to qualify for the 32-truck field.

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Final practice results | Practice 2 results


Kevin Harvick set the pace in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Saturday, putting his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet atop the leaderboard at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

 

Harvick turned a lap of 134.577 mph around the relatively flat 1.058-mile track. The defending Sprint Cup champion is set to start second in Sunday’s Sylvania 300 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM), the second event in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason.

The top five on the speed chart was swept by Chase-eligible drivers. Kyle Busch landed the second spot on the leaderboard at 134.150 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota. Brad Keselowski was third-best at 134.032 mph in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford, with Jimmie Johnson fourth (133.943) in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet.

Coors Light Pole winner Carl Edwards, who was fastest in the first two practices, completed the top five in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. Edwards also posted the fastest 10-lap average at 133.149, leading fellow JGR drivers Busch and Denny Hamlin in the top three over the longer haul.

Hamlin won last week’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, etching his name in the Contender Round, the next three-race stage of the 10-race playoffs. Hamlin, a two-time New Hampshire winner, was seventh-fastest on the leaderboard.

 

Defending race winner Joey Logano was 11th-fastest in the 50-minute session.

Edwards pours it on in Practice 2

Coors Light Pole Award winner Carl Edwards soared to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard Saturday morning, setting the pace in second practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

 

Edwards backed up his pole-winning speed from Friday by circling the 1.058-mile track at a lap of 133.516 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. He also led opening practice in preparation for Sunday’s Sylvania 300 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM), the second race in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.

Edwards’ only misstep was a slight scrape of the outside retaining wall with 10 minutes left in the 55-minute session. He resumed practice with the car showing little sign of damage.

RELATED: Edwards claims Coors Light Pole Award

Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick was second-fastest in the second practice, clocking a lap of 133.427 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. He was followed by Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano in third and fourth respectively. Harvick’s SHR teammate Kurt Busch completed the top five.

Denny Hamlin, Edwards’ JGR teammate and last week’s winner at Chicagoland Speedway, was eighth-fastest.

Harvick set the fastest 10-lap average at 132.412 mph. He was followed by Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hamlin in the top five in that category.

The practice was halted at the 22-minute mark after Jeffrey Earnhardt smacked the Turn 3 wall in the GoFAS Racing No. 32 Ford. Earnhardt told NBC Sports that he locked up the brakes over bumps on the backstraight entering the corner.