Taking a Look at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Ahead of the Foxwood Resorts Casino 301
The NASCAR season is in full swing and this week brings the turning and burning, clanging and banging on the asphalt to you from the Granite State. It’s the Foxwoods Resorts Casino 301 coming to you Sunday, July 18 from the track at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. This marks the last race before the Tokyo Olympics take place as drivers will have the next couple of weekends off, giving them a rare mid-summer break from boiling over in their vehicles in search of a checkered flag.
Today, we take a look at some of history of the track itself, along with the relative success (or lack thereof) the current drivers have had at the track and inevitably, do our best to get you up to speed before we begin talking about our top prop bets for the race in the coming days.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is known as the “Magic Mile” for its length around the track. Its current iteration has been in existence since 1990 though racing has taken place in the area since the 1960s. There is a road course that measures 1.6 miles in length that has had events since 1964 in different circuits. Bob Bahre made the decision to build the first superspeedway track in the United States since 1969 in 1989, with the track running its first race run on June 5, 1990. The first Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) race was run here on July 15, 1990 with the Budweiser 300. Tommy Ellis took the checkered flag, holding off Harry Gant by .29 seconds for the victory. Meanwhile, the first Cup Series race run on the track came with the Slick 50 300 on July 11, 1993. Rusty Wallace earned the win that day, beating Mark Martin by 1.31 seconds with Davey Allison, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd rounding out the top five.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058-mile oval speedway that is similar to Richmond due to its flat track and relative length. The track is 65 feet in width all the way around, narrowing to 60 feet only on pit road. The straightaways are 1,500 feet in length and are barely banked at just one degree. Meanwhile, the turns are banked at a variable two to seven degrees depending on track position, keeping the track relatively flat, especially when compared to other superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega. Over the course of a racing season, the track normally sees more than half a million spectators come through the turnstiles.
When it comes to experience on the track, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, who have each run here 37 times, lead the way. Ryan Newman (35), Jamie McMurray (31) and Kyle Busch (29) round out the top five most experienced drivers on the track in the Cup Series circuit. Harvick leads active drivers with four wins here while Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Newman each have three victories. In addition, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have each won twice here. On the flip side, McMurray leads active drivers for the most starts here without a win as he enters Sunday zero for 31.
When it comes to top-five runs here, Harvick leads the way with 13 such finishes. Kyle Busch and Hamlin each have 11 while Keselowski and Kurt Busch round out the top five in that category with eight apiece. David Ragan has been unsuccessful here, as he has run here 24 times without recording a top-five finish. Harvick leads the active drivers with 21 top-10 finishes here. Newman is right behind with 20 top-10 finishes while Kyle Busch (16), Denny Hamlin (16) and Kurt Busch (15) round out the top five. If you’re looking for someone to finish outside that top-10 group, look no further than Michael McDowell, who has missed that line in 18 straight runs.
Newman has won seven poles here to lead the way in that category while Keselowski has four and Kyle Busch three. Truex Jr., Harvick and Kurt Busch each have one pole to their credit. Kyle Busch leads active drivers in laps led with 1,128 to his credit, putting him well ahead of second-place Harvick (765) in that category. Hamlin (754), Truex Jr. (744) and Newman (722) round out the top five in that group. Harvick also has the most lead-lap finishes among active drivers here with 28, while Newman (27), Truex Jr. (25), Hamlin (25) and Kurt Busch (24) are right behind to close out the top five.
Heading into this race, Hamlin leads the point standings by 10 points over Kyle Larson. Kyle Busch (97 points back), William Byron (103 points back) and Chase Elliott (132 points off the pace) round out the top five. As far the playoff picture goes, Larson has four wins while Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman each have three to run 1-2-3 in the standings. Kyle Busch and Elliott each have a pair of wins while Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and William Byron have all won once. That puts those 12 guys in the playoffs when they begin in September. Currently, that leaves four spots for non-winners to make the playoff field. As of Sunday, that group includes Hamlin (who is the points leader despite not winning a race yet this season), Harvick, Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon.
Last season’s race here was won by Keselowski, who prevailed by 1.647 seconds over Hamlin with Truex Jr., Logano and Harvick rounding out the top five. There were 11 cautions totaling 52 laps in that race, which took place on August 2, 2020. In Sunday’s race, it’s an all-Toyota front row as Kyle Busch starts from the pole while Truex Jr. starts from the second position. Green flag time for the race Sunday afternoon is scheduled for 3 pm ET with television coverage provided by the NBC Sports Network and the Performance Racing Network. It marks the 50th career NASCAR Cup Series race at the track.
