New Hampshire summer race serves as important Chase prelude
LOUDON, N.H. — If there is a catbird seat in NASCAR, Brad Keselowski currently is king of that roost.
He is the only driver with four Sprint Cup victories this season, and he has won two straight — at Daytona International Speedway and Kentucky Speedway. Keselowski has been carrying a big stick, particularly lately. In the past nine races, he has three wins, six top fives and only one finish outside the top 10.
Next is Sunday’s New Hampshire 301, a race that is important not so much in itself but in its implications for the track’s Sept. 25 race — the second event in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is unique in the Chase lineup because of the eight Chase tracks that host two annual races the gap between its events is easily the shortest — only 10 weeks. In most cases, that means that cars and teams that perform well here this weekend can expect similar results in September.
“The guys that are fast this time around will probably be fast next time around when we come back here,” Keselowski said. “That makes this weekend a pretty important weekend for us. You look at it in terms of car development, and Phoenix (with races in March and November) is probably on the opposite end. It seems like you have two completely different cars with development your team has put into it.
“You look at this track, and I don’t know if there is another track in the Chase that races back-to-back so quickly, in such a short time span. That means that generally what works here in the first race carries over to the second race because the car specs and development cycle is relatively close. I think it is a good indicator for sure and important for us to run well being that it is in the Chase when we come back.”
Jimmie Johnson won the pole position Friday and will look to break out of a slump Sunday. He hasn’t won since the fifth race of the season (at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.) and hasn’t finished in the top 10 in the past five. Johnson's Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will sit out Sunday's race because of concussion symptoms. Alex Bowman, who drives part time for Earnhardt's JR Motorsports Xfinity Series team, will pilot the No. 88 Chevrolet in place of Earnhardt Sunday.
Kyle Busch won this race last year on his way to his first Sprint Cup Series championship.
“This is a race that you will focus a little bit more effort on and make sure that you’re a little cleaner in your changes during practice,” Busch said. “You focus on what you feel like you need to focus on this time around that you learned from last year, and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and I have that experience from last year that will help us this year to making sure that we can really prepare ourselves for the next race here.”
Joey Logano, a winner at NHMS in 2014, said his Team Penske operation is looking at new approaches this weekend.
“You have to have constant improvement, and the only way to do that is to try new things,” Logano said. “This week I am personally trying some new things because I feel we have been stuck here at a fifth-place car. That isn’t bad, but we want to win, and this is a Chase race in the fall and will be super important.”
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