See how the postseason picture looks after 19 races
Note: Kyle Busch has three wins and is the only driver with a win outside the top 30. Kyle Busch must finish in the top 30 in points after the regular season finale at Richmond International Raceway to make the Chase field.
See what the driver of the No. 18 Toyota needs to make the Chase
RELATED: Updated series standings | Latest Chase Grid
With only seven races left until the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, it’s time to check up on Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, as he tries to rebound from early-season injuries and make the Chase.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED: Talk about getting hot at the right time. Busch scored his third win in the past four races by going to Victory Lane in the 5-hour ENERGY 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Busch led 96 laps in total, including the final 49 circuits. But it was a pass of Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski to get back on the lead lap with just over 50 circuits to go that set him up for victory. Busch pitted a little early because he thought he had a tire going down and came out a lap down. After battling to get back on the lead lap with the pass of the duo that was running at the front, he inherited the lead when all the leaders came to pit road on Lap 253 under caution. From there, "Rowdy" was able to hold the point for his 32nd career win in the Sprint Cup Series.
WHAT HE NEEDS: With three wins in hand, Busch now just needs to finish in the top 30 in the point standings to make the Chase. After New Hampshire, he is unofficially in 33rd place, 58 points behind 30th-place driver David Gilliland. According to NASCAR statistical services, if all things continue at this pace, Busch roughly needs an average finish of 19th over the next seven races.
WHAT’S NEXT: Busch heads to legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway having run well at the Brickyard but with no wins to show for it. However, he does have eight top-10s finishes in 10 career starts at Indianapolis, including five straight top-10 finishes and two runner-up showings in the past three races at the 2.5-mile track. His 10.6 average finish is his fourth-best among active tracks and the third-best among drivers with more than one start at Indianapolis.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:
Will this turn out to be the move that wins the race? #NASCARonNBCSN https://t.co/wYzRmOBGvm
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 19, 2015
.@KyleBusch gets his third win of the season and is one step closer to making the Chase! #5hrENERGY301
— CharlotteMotorSpdwy (@CLTMotorSpdwy) July 19, 2015
— Steve O’Donnell (@odsteve) July 19, 2015
Progression of words describing @KyleBusch‘s Chase chances: "No way" -> "Highly unlikely" -> "Unlikely" -> "Hmmm" -> "Maybe" -> "HE’S IN."
— nascarcasm (@nascarcasm) July 19, 2015
.@nascar should get rid of the "must enter in all races" to be eligible for the Chase. Keep the top 30 rule. Keep it simple.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) July 19, 2015
A look at the current Chase Grid:
No. 3 crew chief talks pressure, adjusting to rule changes
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
LOUDON, N.H. — Austin Dillon managed a weak smile.
"I’m pretty cooked, really," the Richard Childress Racing driver said as he leaned against a car on pit road, moments after Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway had ended.
Dillon finished eighth on an unseasonably hot day at NHMS. It was his second top 10 in three races (he was seventh earlier this month at Daytona) and just his third of the season.
The No. 3 team needed a good finish. Dillon needed a good finish. It’s been something of a trying year for the 25-year-old. Now, perhaps, the team has something to build on just past the halfway point of the 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Time will tell.
"We really did," he said. "I’m just proud to finish one off strong like that. When you get a little momentum, it goes a long way."
Carl Edwards finished seventh, Jeff Gordon ninth. Both stopped by to chat briefly with Dillon, recounting their race-ending battle on the 1.058-mile track.
"It was a good momentum-building weekend for us, a good day in points," crew chief Richard "Slugger" Labbe said. "Austin’s been beat up. He hasn’t had really good finishes and he’s under a lot of pressure just like all of us.
"I try my hardest and I don’t let the pressure get to me. It’s tough. It’s a tough job. Especially being on the 3 (team), working for Richard and having big sponsors like we do with Dow and American Ethanol … so many big partners. At the end of the day, you’ve got to perform."
His top-10 result moved Dillon up two spots in the points standings – he’ll head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend 19th in the standings and still searching for his first Sprint Cup win.
Although he qualified 24th in the 43-car field, Dillon was working his way forward and was 16th after pitting under green when a fire on the No. 7 of Alex Bowman brought out the second caution flag of the race.
Those who hadn’t pitted under green made their stops and when the field was reset, Dillon was nearly outside the top 30.
Slowly, he began to work his way back toward the top 10.
"We finally got our track position (back) halfway through the race," Dillon said. "That helped the most."
Now, he said, "it’s just about trying to figure out how to get it earlier, qualifying better."
Labbe, the Daytona 500 winning crew chief for Michael Waltrip in 2003, came back on the road full-time to lead the No. 3 team in late June at Sonoma. Previously, he was overseeing Richard Childress Racing‘s research and development program.
"It’s been tough … because the first race (back) was Sonoma, the next race was Daytona, and the next race was Kentucky with new rules. This was really the first race that’s been ‘normal’ racing," Labbe said.
"Now we go to Indy (and another rules package). It’s been hard to go through four concepts with a new driver. It’s been a challenge but my guys have done a really good job.
"Everyone at RCR is working hard to make the cars better, faster, lighter, more aerodynamic.
"The good thing is we get to go to Eldora. We built a truck in our shop for Austin. Chad Haney (car chief on the No. 3) is going to crew chief it. So there’s a little play day coming up."
Read the notes NASCAR provides during the drivers’ meeting
Play: NASCAR Fantasy Live
| Event | Time (ET) |
|---|---|
| Driver Introductions | 12:50 p.m. |
| Pre-race prep: Tires, interior & remove generators | 1 p.m. |
| Line up crews — facing the flag | 1:17 p.m. |
| Canadian National Anthem | 1:18 p.m. |
| Invocation | 1:20 p.m. |
| National Anthem | 1:21 p.m. |
| Command to start engines | 1:27 p.m. |
| Number of Laps | 301 laps |
| Pit Road Speed | 45 mph |
| Caution Car Speed | 50 mph |
| Pit Road Speed Begins | 180 feet before the first pit box |
| Pit Road Speed Ends | 76 feet past the last pit box |
| Minimum Speed | 32.91 seconds |
| Exiting the Pits (Blend Line) | Keep all 4 tires below the yellow line until the exit of Turn 2 |
| Fuel Pit Stalls 1-43 | Sunoco pumps |
| Post-Race | 2-5 & random, stop in pit stalls 29-32 |
| All Others/Two crew members per car | Double file, near outer wall, across from pit stall 32 |
| Event | Track/Day/Time (ET) |
|---|---|
| Next week | Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
| Hauler parking | 9 p.m. ET, Thursday, July 23 |
| Garage opens | 6:30 a.m. ET, Friday, July 24 |
| First practice | 9 a.m. ET, Friday, July 24 |
Roush Fenway Racing driver visited Boys & Girls Club on Thursday
LOUDON, N.H. — When Ryan Reed was but a little tyke tagging along while his father, Mark, competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West off and on throughout the early 2000s, the XFINITY Series driver had the privilege of meeting his hero — Dale Earnhardt Jr.
"I was able to meet a few of the drivers (growing up) and I was at the race track a lot and he was racing … so I was at (Auto Club) Speedway and I was a huge Dale Jr. fan and I got his autograph and I was pretty starstruck," Reed said Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway before finishing 13th in the Lakes Region 200. "That’s probably my biggest ‘Oh my God I can’t believe I met him’ story.
"That was back when he was in the No. 8 Budweiser Chevy so there were tons of red jackets at the race track and I was a proud Dale Jr. fan."
Knowing how cool it was to meet and greet a race car driver at such a young age, Reed visited the Boys & Girls Club of Concord, New Hampshire with Comcast XFINITY representatives on Thursday to meet with children interested in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) and tour the facilities.
Reed, still just 21-years-old, may have let his inner child show a little.
"It’s my first time ever going to a Boys & Girls Club and I had an amazing time," said the second-year XFINITY driver. "I didn’t realize how amazing the facilities are and the kids were having a blast and I got to go play some games with them and play dodgeball and capture the flag and got to hang out on the monkey bars and all that. It was just a really cool experience and they’re amazing kids and had awesome questions. A lot of them had some really cool racing questions, it surprised me how much they knew about the sport. It was a lot of fun and definitely a cool experience."
While they surprised him with racing questions, Reed surprised the kids with a set of race tickets to Saturday’s Lakes Region 200 XFINITY Series event, inviting the group to the "Magic Mile" as his special guests.
Prior to the race, the Roush Fenway Racing driver answered some more of their questions and showed them the ins and outs of his No. 16 Ford Mustang in the garage.
Thursday, he visited their playground. Saturday they got to see his.
"We kind of switched roles today and I thought it was really neat they could come out and I could show them around the race track a little bit; show them around the car," Reed said. "It was cool, they seemed to be pretty interested and the look on their faces was pretty fun."
Reed also introduced the kids to his lead race engineer in Gilford, New Hampshire native Katelyn Bernasconi. Where STEM was such an integral part of why these particular children were interested in meeting Reed in the first place — apart from him being a NASCAR driver, of course — it made sense to meet with Bernasconi, but Reed, too, knows the impact the program has on our nation’s young minds.
"I think (STEM) is great. It’s a great program and it’s definitely really important," Reed said. "Racing is a great example of a sport that’s kind of being taken over by technology and is really just a technology-based sport. There’s nothing we do that doesn’t involve a computer anymore.
"I think that this is a prime example of how important that program is and getting kids involved and ultimately, hopefully, end up in NASCAR."
In 2014, Comcast NBCUniversal entered into a five-year partnership with BGCA to support the launch of My.Future, a new technology initiative designed to teach Club members about our digital world and ignite their passion for technology. The five-year, national partnership is valued at tens of millions of dollars in cash and in-kind support.
My.Future is a next-generation technology initiative that personalizes the program for each member through engaging project-based, digital activities. My.Future will provide Club members with the ability to safely build, explore and communicate in their own digital worlds and ignite their passion for technology. It will also give Club members the skills they need to pursue promising careers.
Comcast NBCUniversal has supported local Boys & Girls Clubs for more than 15 years. In 2010, Comcast took their support to the national level as a sponsor of BGCA’s digital literacy initiative dedicated to providing youth with computer skills needed for success in the 21st century.
Dillon hints he would have wrecked Hamlin if given the chance Saturday
LOUDON, N.H. – Denny Hamlin got the best of Austin Dillon in Saturday’s XFINITY Series Lakes Region 200 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, moving him out of the way in the corner with less than 30 laps to go to pick up his second win of the season.
Don’t expect Dillon to forget about it.
WATCH: Bad blood continues between Hamlin, Dillon
“I missed one corner; I’ll take the blame for that. I got a little tight. … He got to me; figured he was going to race, but he never even wanted to,” said Dillon, who finished runner-up to Hamlin. “He wrecked his teammate (Kyle Busch) and then proceeded to try and wreck me. And if I would’ve gotten back to him, it would’ve happened to him.
“What is racing if you can’t race side-by-side for more than a corner? He never even went through a corner with me. The whole race. Didn’t want to. He just moved me. Missed the corner; wrecked me. I’m fine with racing rough. I promise you I can do it to anybody. But if we’re going to race like that, I need to know before you get into the first corner, you know? Give me a corner, at least.”
While the video shows Hamlin dive into the corner in an effort to gain position on Dillon’s No. 33 Chevrolet and then drift back up and make contact, it was contact that Hamlin explained in full detail in his post-race press conference as being Dillon’s fault.
That said, it was also contact that Hamlin likely won’t lose sleep over, since he felt Dillon jumped the restart when his No. 20 Toyota was the control car.
“I did feel like he left early. I was the control car and I was going to wait,” Hamlin said. “I typically start early in the box most restarts. I was going to wait until late in the box but he took off right in the middle of the box and short of just stacking the field up and not going, I didn’t want to wreck everybody behind me, so I just took off and continued that he was just going to jump the start and really nothing was going to be done about it.”
Hamlin paused, before continuing to further explain why he shouldn’t take the blame.
“There’s a misconception, I think, at this track on what responsibility the outside car has. The bottom lane at this track is the middle; it’s not the yellow line. Nobody runs on the apron at this race track. When you’re the outside car and you choose to run the middle and somebody is underneath you, you run a risk of that car more than likely washing up into you. Everyone’s done it. Austin’s done it. Kyle’s done it sometimes. We’ve all done it.
“When that outside car chooses to hold you down and pinch you down, typically they get the bad end of the deal. I got the worst end of the deal in the first one with Kyle. When a car is on the bottom, I typically move up to the third lane to give the person an opportunity to stay underneath me. I did it with Kyle earlier in the race. I think he passed me twice and I kind of threw my hands up, moved up high and let him have the spot. With him and Austin, they both kind of ran the middle, trying to protect their position like they’re supposed to but it gives me just no opportunity to save my car.
“I’m already committed to the bottom at that point. Once you let off the throttle and you turn down in, you’re hoping they give you the true bottom line, which is the middle, but when they don’t it’s a ‘you pinch, you pay’ type problem.”
The extra wrinkle to all of this: Hamlin and Dillon are both full-time Sprint Cup Series drivers who still have to race on Sunday in the 5-hour ENERGY 301 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network). And if Dillon’s post-race temperament was any indication, he certainly wouldn’t shy away from any contact.
Only thing is, Dillon, winless and mired in 21st in the standings, is the one that can’t afford to wreck his race car seeking retaliation. Hamlin has his Chase for the Sprint Cup all but wrapped up via a Martinsville win earlier this year.
Still, is he worried?
“Not really. I have a win. I have nothing to lose, basically,” Hamlin said. “It’s just heat of the moment. Obviously, as upset as he was that I moved him out of the way, I was just as upset that he jumped the restart. We’re both racing for a win and I’ve been on the other side of somebody moving me out of the way for a race win inside 20 to go and especially on a short track. It happens. It’s part of short-track racing. The two instances when I got into both Kyle and Austin, I didn’t wreck anyone. Definitely didn’t spin anyone out.”
This isn’t the first time the pair have had their issues. Hamlin and Dillon got into it at Texas Motor Speedway two years ago and exchanged heated words post-race.
Those words stuck with Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress.
“I’ve reworked a relationship with Denny,” Dillon said. “He called me a spoiled rich kid in Texas two years ago and I hate it, you know what I mean? He said just the last name and I said, ‘My last name is Dillon, not Childress, but he is my grandfather.’ I always act with class. Everybody in the media knows that. And I’ve worked my way here just like anybody else. But Denny, acting like that, what does he want me to call him, you know? I don’t do that. I know how to act.”
When asked in his press conference what Dillon should call him, Hamlin had one simple, two-word response.
“A winner.”
Hamlin’s bump of Austin Dillon for the lead leads to differing views
RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings
LOUDON, N.H. – To Denny Hamlin, it was just hard short-track racing for the win.
To runner-up Austin Dillon, it was unnecessarily aggressive driving that led to Hamlin’s victory in the Lakes Region 200 NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
On Lap 179 of 200 at the Magic Mile, Hamlin drove his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the inside of Dillon’s No. 33 Chevrolet. Hamlin slid up the track into Dillon, broke the No. 33’s momentum and took the lead.
WATCH: Could payback be coming for Hamlin? | Bad blood continues for Dillon, Hamlin
Eventual third- and fourth-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch also passed Dillon, who later regained the positions he lost to Keselowski and Busch but ran out of time in his pursuit of Hamlin.
Earlier in the race Hamlin had two similar incidents with Busch, his teammate. And though Busch didn’t appear particularly annoyed with Hamlin’s tactics, Dillon was incensed.
"He got to me, and I figured he was going to race, but he never even wanted to," Dillon said. "He wrecked his teammate and then proceeded to try and wreck me, and if I had gotten back to him, it would have happened to him."
Hamlin wrote off the contact to all-out racing at a one-mile flat track.
"The bottom line is, if you don’t have any air on the outside of you, you just can’t hold it," Hamlin said. "There was an example of that about three times today … I want to thank ‘Wheels’ (crew chief Mike Wheeler) for giving me the dominant car. We had the best car, and just, wow, what a day."
In Hamlin’s view, Dillon wasn’t blameless either.
"Well, he jumped the restart, for one," Hamlin said. "I’m the control car, but that’s fine. Eventually I was going to get back around him anyway. Same thing—I was a fender ahead, and he drove in there knowing that he was going to have to hold me low to hold the position, and I just washed up into him.
"But that’s two guys on a short track racing for the win."
Dillon clearly had a different opinion.
"What is racing, if you can’t race side-by-side for more than a corner?" Dillon asked rhetorically. "He never even went through a corner with me, the whole race. He didn’t want to. He just moved me. Missed the corner. Wrecked me.
"I’m fine with racing rough. I promise you, I can do it to anybody. But if we’re going to race like that, I need to know before you get to the first corner. Give me a corner at least."
Dillon indicated there might be some payback in the offing but wouldn’t reveal how or when.
"I’m not going to talk about it," Dillon said. "He won’t be ready."
Hamlin’s reply? "We’ve both got race cars."
Dillon got the lead on Lap 175 moments after a restart following the sixth and final caution for Brian Scott‘s blown engine.
Both Hamlin and Dillon had stayed out on old tires under the previous yellow, but Keselowski came to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 142. As it turned out, the new tires made little difference.
"It was the right call and probably got us to third, instead of fourth or fifth," Keselowski said. "We just weren’t as fast as the 33 and 20 were. … We just weren’t fast enough this weekend."
Rookie Daniel Suarez ran fifth, followed by Ty Dillon, Regan Smith, Darrell Wallace Jr., Chase Elliott and Brennan Poole. Series leader Chris Buescher finished 14th, one lap down, and saw his lead in the standings shrink to 31 points over second-place Elliott.
See where your favorite driver will pit on Saturday (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN)
The pit stall assignments are out for Saturday’s Lakes Region 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (4 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, PRN, SiriusXM) with pole sitter Denny Hamlin getting his pick of the spots on pit road.
Hamlin chose the pit stall closest to the exit of pit road heading into Turn 1. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the XFINITY Series will have an opening in front of him leaving pit road. He is not the only driver with that advantage.
Kyle Busch (starting second), Daniel Suarez (starting third), Brian Scott (starting fifth), Regan Smith (starting eighth) and Brennan Poole (starting 13th) all have openings in front of them. Ben Rhodes has the pit stall right in front of the start-finish line at the Magic Mile.
Smith chose the pit stall closest to the entrance of pit road, which gives him a clear path to his pit box once on pit road.
Joe Gibbs Racing sweeps top three in New Hampshire qualifying
RELATED: Qualifying results
Denny Hamlin scooted to the Coors Light Pole Award in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Hamlin blasted to a fast lap of 131.026 mph, putting the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota in the first starting spot for Saturday’s Lakes Region 200 (4 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM). His second pole position of the season was his first at the 1.058-mile track and his 18th in the XFINITY Series.
Kyle Busch posted the second-fastest lap in the No. 54 Toyota at 130.443 mph, more than a tenth of a second slower than his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. Rookie Daniel Suarez clinched a 1-2-3 sweep for Gibbs-owned cars, pushing the No. 18 Toyota to the third-fastest lap at 130.238 mph.
Brad Keselowski drove the Team Penske No. 22 Ford to the fourth-fastest lap. Brian Scott completed the top five in the Richard Childress Racing No. 2 Chevrolet.
Sprint Cup regulars Busch and Keselowski have monopolized New Hampshire’s Victory Lane in the last six XFINITY events. Busch swept from 2009-11 and added a 2013 win; Keselowski posted XFINITY wins at the relatively flat oval in 2012 and ’14.
Ryan Sieg knocked Brennan Poole out of the final, five-minute round as the 12th and final driver above the cut line. XFINITY points leader Chris Buescher was also among those failing to make the final round, managing just the 20th-fastest lap in the 10-minute Round 2.
Brendan Gaughan was the final driver to make the 24-driver cut after the opening 20-minute round. He edged Cale Conley by .072 seconds to advance. The session was interrupted midway through when Matt Frahm spun in the No. 79 Chevrolet.
Coors Light Pole winner pours it on; trouble for Newman, Gordon, Bowyer
RELATED: Practice 2 results | Final practice results
Carl Edwards backed up his show of speed in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying, logging the fastest lap Saturday afternoon as final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice was cut short by rain at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Edwards drove the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota to a best lap of 133.110 mph in overcast conditions on the 1.058-mile track. Edwards will start first in Sunday’s 5-hour ENERGY 301 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) after claiming his first pole since 2013 in Friday’s qualifying.
Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, fastest in Saturday’s early practice, was second-best in the late session, turning a lap of 132.397 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. Ryan Blaney was third-fastest at 132.213 mph in the Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 Ford, which is making its first start since Michigan in June after qualifying rainouts sidelined the team the last two weekends.
Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas driven by Kyle Busch (fourth-fastest) and Denny Hamlin (fifth) completed the top five in the session, shortened from 55 to 43 minutes because of rain.
The Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet of four-time series champ Jeff Gordon returned to the track with right-rear fender damage repaired from a collision in the garage with the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 of Clint Bowyer during Saturday morning’s second practice. Gordon ran 35 laps in final practice, notching the 22nd-fastest lap. Bowyer was sixth-best on the speed chart.
Harvick soars in Saturday’s early practice
Defending series champion Kevin Harvick landed atop the leaderboard in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series second practice Saturday morning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Harvick, driving the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet, clocked a best lap of 132.094 mph on the 1.058-mile track. Harvick, a two-time winner this year and the current standings leader, scored his only New Hampshire victory from the pole position in the fall of 2006.
Jimmie Johnson was second-fastest in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Chevrolet at 131.975 mph in preparation for Sunday’s 5-hour ENERGY 301 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM). Carl Edwards, who won the Coors Light Pole Award in Friday’s qualifying, was third-fastest, just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, last week’s winner at Kentucky Speedway. Kurt Busch, a teammate to Harvick at Stewart-Haas, completed the top five.
The practice session, originally scheduled for 55 minutes, was extended to one hour because of the stalled No. 31 Chevrolet of Ryan Newman, who stopped his Richard Childress Racing entry on the backstretch with a flat left-rear tire.
With the session halted, Newman’s crew came to his aid and changed the tire on the track apron to avoid further damage. A near-identical situation occurred Friday involving the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Chevrolet and driver Martin Truex Jr.
The session was also marked by a collision in the garage between former New Hampshire winners Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer, who was unable to avoid the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet as it backed out of its pit stall. Bowyer was able to return to practice with minor front-end scrape to his Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 Toyota, but Gordon’s crew was faced with more significant damage on the right-rear fender.
