The warriors of the NASCAR Cup Series take a trip to New England for the 18th stop on the series’ national tour for the USA TODAY 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
A new dawn, a new beginning glistened on the rows of stalked corn in the beautiful State of Iowa as the Cup cars set out on their maiden voyage to Iowa Speedway.
Tackling a new track with an unorthodox repave in the turns made for a weekend chock full of unique challenges for the drivers, teams, and Goodyear. The tire giant underestimated the speed of the cars before practice, leading to five blowouts in the extended session on the hot new asphalt.
After Goodyear communicated new specifications for the cars to make the tires last longer, a confusing qualifying session ensued as drivers struggled for grip in the turns, tires sliding underneath them because the track was colder than the previous night and green from a morning rain shower.
Series points leader Kyle Larson eked out Ryan Blaney for the pole on Saturday before launching forward to the green flag on Sunday evening. The 2021 champion escaped disaster early after misjudging the entry to turn 3 where he made contact with Blaney on lap 2.
The opening laps weren’t without trouble as Corey Lajoie’s Iowa Hawkeyes machine was on the receiving end of a Spire trifecta as Carson Hocevar slid into Zane Smith, leading to Lajoie backing into the fence.
Larson took the lead back on the next restart and pulled away to a 10-second lead over third-place Chase Briscoe while Ryan Blaney stayed within three seconds of the leader when AJ Allmendinger took his second hard hit at Iowa in as many days due to a blown tire on lap 53.
Those tires were really put to the test as Brad Keselowski and Daniel Suárez stayed out for the last 13 laps in stage 1, allowing both Playoff drivers to earn key stage points.
Stage 2 got off to an auspicious start as John Hunter Nemechek collided three laps after the restart, and suddenly, Larson emerged as the loneliest soul on pit road under caution after feeling an inconsistency in one of his tires.
The move buried the #5 car into the pack with slightly fresher tires, but over the longest run of the race, the crafty Californian clicked off competitor after competitor, inching his way closer and closer to the front.
By the time the fifth caution flew, the HendrickCars Camaro planted its blue nose in the rearview mirror of Blaney’s Advance Auto Parts automobile for the effective race lead, or so we thought.
Daniel Hemric’s mild contact with the wall after a tire failure occurred during green-flag pit stops, meaning much of the field was trapped one lap down or more. The wave around put many of those trapped cars back on the lead lap, but only the ones between the leaders and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The 2023 Daytona 500 winner stayed out on 100-lap tires, holding strong on the restart opposite of William Byron until the #24 car shot up the hill into the side of Stenhouse’s NOS machine, dropping both down the running order until the end of the second stage where Larson claimed his eighth stage win of 2024.
Some of the Fords stayed out at the caution, burying the leaders with fresh tires back in the pack. Fighting for room on the restart ended in calamity as Larson shot a narrow gap between Suárez on the bottom and Keselowski on top; Suárez pushed up into Larson, with the dominant car swerving back into Denny Hamlin.
The wreck ruined the night for both drivers as the Trackhouse driver escaped unscathed. Another run followed, lasting a little over 30 laps before Chris Buescher’s tire gave way on entry to turn 1.
Buescher’s caution represented the eighth and final caution of the day, bringing the whole field down to pit road as the stop would guarantee each car would make it to the end on fuel.
Calculators and tough decisions dominated the day but more so on this stop than any other as a flock of Fords huddled at the front of the field on two tires, separating them from the Hendrick Chevys of Byron and Elliott on four fresh tires.
Blaney advanced past teammate Logano on the restart and never looked back, leaving the Hendrick drivers in his wake as he sped off to his first victory of the year in the inaugural Iowa Corn 350.
Making the win sweeter were Blaney becoming the first to triumph in all three national series at Iowa, punching his ticket to the Playoffs to defend his title, and doing all of this in front of a legion of family members and friends in attendance.
Other notable results are Ricky Stenhouse Jr. snagging his first top-5 of the season; rookie Josh Berry leading laps on speed and placing 7th; Suárez making good on a dubious day in 8th; and, a trio of burgeoning talents in Todd Gilliland, Justin Haley, and Carson Hocevar running 12th, 13th, and 14th respectfully.
A limited repave was thought by many (myself included) to be a potential detractor for this event’s success, but I was pleasantly proven wrong since Iowa still produced multi-groove racing where tire management was paramount to enduring success.
Let’s now turn our attention to another track where heavy banking and tire management play pivotal roles in the race’s ultimate outcome.
The Track
With the development of the Busch North Series in 1987, stock car racing took on the northeastern United States; thus, they were in need of more viable race tracks.
For a quarter of a century, the Bryar Motorsports Park hosted various sports car and motorcycle series in addition to emerging stock car competitions in the region like the American-Canadian Tour (ACT).
Businessman and land developer Bob Bahre purchased the land that hosted the road course and chose to repurpose it as an oval track without the help of engineers.
Yes, they built this race track with one surveyor that was just slapping stakes into the ground to help plot the track surface. Not to point out the obvious, but that’s atypical!
Renovations for the New Hampshire International Speedway oval circuit concluded in June 1990, just in time to host their first Busch Series race on the new 1.058-mile oval later won by 1988 series champ Tommy Ellis. NHMS held two Busch races per year for three seasons before the Winston Cup made its first stop in July 1993.
Penske Racing South’s Rusty Wallace notched the inaugural Cup Series win at the New England track, and since then, the track secured a second date by kicking North Wilkesboro Speedway to the curb prior to the 1997 season. The Cup Series dropped the track down to a lone race date for 2018 and beyond.
2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick and former teammate Jeff Burton share the wins record at Loudon with four victories while Jeff Gordon printed his name in most of the other slots in the record book.
To show you how the drivers feel, let’s take a lap around the track.
Roaring onto the front straight, drivers cross the start-finish line midway down before soaring into turn 1. Banked at 2° on the apron and 7° on the racing line, turns 1 & 2 provide drivers a plethora of options for approaching and exiting the corner.
Sailing out of turn 2 leads the field onto the backstretch. Equal to the front straight at 1,500 feet, the backstretch pushes cars to the limit at the end of the straight, engines revving high into the chip.
Turns 3 & 4 mirror turns 1 & 2, so drivers typically fan out from beneath the apron to close to the wall, clawing for every last ounce of speed they can to shoot out of the corner and back onto the front straight again.
Now that we’re acquainted with the track, let’s dive into the weather and fast facts.
Weather & Fast Facts
I wish my outlook for this weekend wasn’t so dour, but we’ll be lucky to see any racing until Monday or Tuesday in Loudon.
AccuWeather predicts that a tornado is possible amongst an endless thunderstorm will befall the Magic Mile in spite of just two rain showers during the fourth Sunday of June since 2014.
NASCAR has drifted into the work week several times in recent years, but postponements often resume on Mondays, save for two instances. A rain-drenched affair at Michigan in 2007 handed Kurt Busch a win, and his brother Kyle waited until Wednesday to claim victory at Texas 13 years later.
Tuesday’s forecast shows a more favorable projection for possible racing with a high of 84°F at race time, matching the track’s average high over the last decade.
New Hampshire’s caution count hovers around 8 and taking 41 laps staring at the pace car’s bumper. Loudon hasn’t been a bastion for passing because of the 1-miler’s flat, tight turns, averaging 2,120 green-flag passes and 13 lead changes.
The green flag for the USA TODAY 301 starts at 2:06pm Eastern time with the green flag waving closer to 3pm on the USA Network. Three stages break up the race on laps 70-185-301.
Now let’s hop on over to the betting favorites chosen by the fine folks over at DraftKings.
The Odds
Top of the food chain this week in the Land of Lobsters is Christopher Bell (+400). The 2022 winner of this event routinely runs well at smaller, flatter ovals, picking up a win at Phoenix earlier this season in addition to being in contention for the win at Gateway before a souring engine saddled him with a top-10.
His last trip to New England ended in disaster as Bell pounded the outside wall late in the going, relegating him to a 29th-place finish. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver enters the weekend seeking his third win of 2024, and it would not surprise me if he cracks open a lobster tail in victory lane on Sunday.
Next up is Kyle Larson (+600). The multi-talented hotshoe appeared to have the best car last weekend, but after pit strategy sunk him into the pack on a late restart, Daniel Suárez made contact with the #5 car coming out turn 4, prematurely ending Larson’s day.
The 2021 Cup champ has run well here in the past, notching five top-5s in 13 starts, but a win in Loudon has thus far eluded him. With wins at Phoenix and Martinsville in his career, crew chief Cliff Daniels handles these flat tracks well, and I suspect Larson will find himself in late contention.
Bell’s teammate, Denny Hamlin (+600), holds the third spot among winners this season on the odds list for New Hampshire. Despite his prowess on courses shorter than a mile this season and being the active Loudon wins leader, Hamlin ranks fourth in odds for this weekend.
Over Hamlin’s 30 starts, the veteran Virginian holds three wins, 11 top-5s, and 19 top-10s, culminating in an average finish of 9.4 that also leads all active drivers with more than five starts. In need of a jolt, the #11 team could employ their wizardry on a 1-mile track yet again this week at the Magic Mile.
As for the winless drivers this season, my eyes are on Martin Truex Jr. (+500) and Joey Logano (+850).
The defending winner of this event, Truex paced the field at New Hampshire 400 more times than Hamlin, yet he scored his first victory at the track just last year. With his retirement just announced and rain on the way, Truex might be able to get his swan song victory in Loudon during the work week.
Logano won his first race at the track in 2009, a rain-shortened affair at the circuit closest to his home state of Connecticut. Far from his youth now, the seasoned Penske champion is the last of the fleet to claim victory, and NHMS presents a golden opportunity for the two-time champ to score a feel-good victory.
Writer’s Pick
Speaking of Logano, he was last week’s writer’s pick, and unfortunately, I hitched my wagon to the wrong Penske car.
I won’t be making that mistake yet again. Ryan Blaney is my pick to win the USA TODAY 301.
The series’ reigning champion evaded calamity and capitalized on a two-tire strategy call from crew chief Jonathan Hassler to land the first triumph of his championship defense at Iowa.
Outside of last year’s Coke 600, Blaney struggled mightily through his career to finish races he led the most laps, and after the Iowa win, I think Blaney will have a reversal of last year’s dog days of summer where he collects multiple wins before the Playoffs start at Darlington.
Years of strong performances on flat tracks helped Blaney deliver a title to the Captain, and I believe Blaney is going to go back-to-back by winning at New Hampshire.
(Top Photo Credit: Steven Senne/AP Photo)
pitboxpress.com 