New Hampshire / Kentucky Weekend Preview
Sept. 22, 2016
Staff Report
NASCAR Wire Service
Kenseth tries to become next to advance with third straight New Hampshire win
Matt Kenseth has to be one of the happiest drivers in NASCAR right now.
He
currently sits seventh on the Chase Grid – 11 points ahead of Austin
Dillon on the cutoff line – and gets to head to New Hampshire Motor
Speedway, where he has won the last
two races, for Sunday's Bad Boy Off Road 300 (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
Following New Hampshire, he'll travel to Dover – where he won the May
race – for the final event of the Chase's Round of 16.
"It
will only help us in the first round if we win at them again, but New
Hampshire has been a really good track for us the last few years,"
Kenseth said. "Dover has been a little
up and down, particularly our performances in the dominating car, and
it wasn't last time either, we were just kind of in the right place at
the right time and able to hang on. But that's a track I really enjoy as
well."
Kenseth
has excelled at New Hampshire over his last six starts there, recording
three wins, a fourth-place showing, a sixth-place result, and a
21st-place outlier.
"We’ve
had really good cars there since I’ve been at Joe Gibbs Racing,"
Kenseth said. "It used to be a track that I sort of dreaded … but the
last three years it’s been pretty
good."
Kenseth,
44, who won the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, explained
the key to a second title does not simply entail going to tracks where
you’ve seen success.
"There's
a lot of great race teams and drivers in it and we have to figure out
how to beat those guys every week," he said. "It's a tough task.”
Gibbs teammates Jones and Suárez embark on NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase
Joe
Gibbs Racing's Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez should be considered among
the drivers to beat for the NASCAR XFINITY Series championship.
During
a Tuesday media availability at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, both described
the challenges of racing as teammates, but also as individual
competitors, when the NASCAR XFINITY
Series Chase playoffs kick off Saturday with the VisitMyrtleBeach.com
300 at Kentucky Speedway (8 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
"The
teammate deal is always tough in racing and it's been tough since
racing's been around,” said Jones, who leads XFINITY Series regulars
with four wins this season. "So there's
times when you have to race like teammates and there's times you have
to race like competitors and you can't be teammates at times. It's a
tough balance for sure, but it's also nice when you go to the race track
and have other drivers to lean on and you can
get information from them and better each other."
Suárez didn't agree with Jones’ sentiments, but didn't totally dismiss them either.
"I
don't really agree with what Erik just mentioned," said the 24-year-old
Mexican, who has one win and 20 top-10 finishes this season. "I think
it's very helpful through the
practice and qualifying having all that extra information of a good
teammate to try to put a good race car together for the race. He just
mentioned it though, it's hard to balance that because both of us want
to race hard for wins, but at the same time we
have to take care of ourselves to not wreck each other. I think both of
us have a shot to be competitive every single weekend of the Chase and
hopefully both of us can make it to Homestead and have some fun in the
second half of the race."
Jones
and Suárez should start the Chase off well. In the July race at
Kentucky, Suárez finished third, while Jones placed fourth. Jones was
leading the race on the next-to-last
restart on Lap 180-of-201 when he failed to keep pace with the pace
car, forcing him to fall back to third before the race resumed.
"Hopefully
we're in the same position where we're up front and challenging for a
win and we can get a win early on (in the Chase)," Jones said. "But
Kentucky is a place I like.
I really liked the old surface a lot, but I really like the new surface
as well. It was pretty good to us earlier this year, so I expect to be
pretty good."
Byron hopes to win inaugural Camping World Truck Series Chase
With 10 races left in the season, William Byron already boasts a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rookie-record five wins.
When
the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase kicks off with
Saturday's UNOH 175 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FS1),
the 18-year-old Liberty University
student will attempt to join Erik Jones (Camping World) and Chase
Elliott (XFINITY) as the only rookies to capture NASCAR national series
championships.
“I
think it’s going to be intense, especially with it being the first
Chase race anyone has ever done in the Truck Series," Byron said. "I
think drivers will start out pretty
conservative, but by the end the intensity is going to ramp up since
winning is the only way to be locked into the next round. I think New
Hampshire is one of my better race tracks. I really like it and
hopefully that translates to some speed this weekend.
We need to get our Liberty University Tundra fast in practice to make
sure we qualify well because track position is pretty important there.
We want to start out the Chase with a really solid run and just have the
right focus and mentality as we get going."
Byron
registered one of his four wins at New Hampshire on the way to the
NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship last season.
He explained he has to be aggressive during the Chase, but also needs to be careful if the opportunity isn't there.
“I
think you go for the win if you are in that position, but if your truck
is not that good that day you can’t cost yourself a finish," Byron
said. "You just can’t make mistakes
that way. If you do have a chance for a win, you go for it, but if you
don’t, you have to get a top-five or top-10 finish. The important thing
for us is to try and be solid.”
Race Weekend Preview
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Race: Bad Boy Off Road 300
Place: New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Date and Time: Sunday, Sept. 25 at 2 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 317.4 miles (300 laps)
What To Watch For:
Martin Truex Jr. goes for his second win of the Chase. ... Tony
Stewart, who finished
runner-up at New Hampshire in July, currently holds the final transfer
spot to the Round of 12 as he goes for his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series championship. ... Joey Logano, from Middletown, Connecticut,
tries for his third career win at his home track.
... Sunoco Rookie of the Year frontrunner Chase Elliott attempts to
build momentum off his third-place finish at Chicagoland.
NASCAR XFINITY Series
Race: VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300
Place: Kentucky Speedway
Date and Time: Saturday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET
Tune-in: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300 miles (200 laps)
What To Watch For:
Twelve drivers will compete for the championship in the inaugural
NASCAR XFINITY
Series Chase. … Regular season points leader Elliott Sadler embarks on
his quest for his first career NASCAR national series championship. He
finished second in the XFINITY Series standings in 2012 and 2013. Sadler
is the only driver to earn a berth in both
the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup (2004) and the NASCAR XFINITY
Series Chase (2016). ... Chase driver Brendan Gaughan won at Kentucky in
2014. ... NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender
Ryan Blaney takes the wheel of the No. 22 Team
Penske Ford. He is the defending race winner.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Race: UNOH 175
Place: New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Date and Time:
Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. ET
Tune-in: FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 181.5 miles (175 laps)
What To Watch For:
Eight drivers will compete for the championship in the inaugural NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase. …
Chase
drivers Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Timothy Peters, John Hunter
Nemechek and Daniel Hemric finished second through sixth, respectively,
in last year's New Hampshire race. ... Kaz
Grala, from nearby Westborough, Massachusetts, makes his seventh career
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start. ... NASCAR Next alum Cameron
Hayley goes for his seventh top-10 finish in the last eight races. ...
Cole Custer, who became the youngest winner
in NASCAR national series history in the New Hampshire race two years
ago, attempts to visit Victory Lane for the third time in his NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series career.
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