{"id":20556,"date":"2018-07-20T14:55:36","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T19:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20556"},"modified":"2018-07-22T17:23:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-22T22:23:05","slug":"nascar-friday-new-hampshire-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/nascar-friday-new-hampshire-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday New Hampshire Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Where dirt racing and NASCAR intersect, Kyle Larson votes for status quo<\/b><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N. H. \u2013 NASCAR\u2019s very own dirt devil would prefer to keep the one dirt-track race currently on the schedule as a unique special occasion.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kyle Larson (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson is well aware that Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart has been lobbying to bring a NASCAR Xfinity Series race\u2014perhaps even a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event\u2014to the half-mile dirt facility, which on Wednesday hosted the Dirt Derby for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.<\/p>\n

Larson, however, believes the Cup series belongs on asphalt.<\/p>\n

\u201cTony is probably going to get mad, but I would like to see it just stay as it is,\u201d said Larson, who served as a guest analyst on FS1 for Wednesday\u2019s races. \u201cIf anything, Xfinity, maybe, but I wouldn\u2019t like to see Cup on dirt. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, to me, Cup belongs on pavement and real road course tracks, but, yeah, I don\u2019t know. If we went to Eldora, yeah, I mean I would be excited because I would be really fast, and I feel like I would definitely have the best shot to win. But at the same time, I don\u2019t know, I think we are fine not going there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson, who races midgets and sprint cars on dirt every chance he gets, is foremost among Chevrolet drivers in the Cup series. He\u2019s currently eighth in the standings but has yet to win a race this season.<\/p>\n

Larson has had uneven results at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but he expects to perform well in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods 301 at the Magic Mile (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some good runs here, for sure\u2014top fives and stuff and won a K&N race, but we are either really good or really bad,\u201d said Larson who was second fastest behind Kyle Busch in Friday\u2019s opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be OK this weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ryan Preece at Loudon: You can go home again<\/b><\/p>\n

What Ryan Preece accomplished last year at New Hampshire Motor Speedway helped propel him to unqualified success in a limited run in NASCAR\u2019s Xfinity Series.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ryan Preece (Photo by Jerry Markland\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Preece didn\u2019t win last year\u2019s race, but his second-place finish opened eyes throughout the sport. And on his very next run, the modified ace won from the pole at Iowa to score his first series victory in his second trip in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.<\/p>\n

The victory was the payoff from an enormous gamble. Backed by a group of investors, Preece opted for a few races in top-of-the-line JGR equipment versus a full Xfinity schedule in lesser-quality machinery. In four 2017 races with Gibbs, Preece finished second, first, fourth and fifth.<\/p>\n

Back in April, Preece scored his second victory, this time in a Dash 4 Cash race at Bristol. In eight Xfinity starts in the past two seasons, he has posted top 10s in all but one. The exception came in his last outing, in July at Daytona, where an overheating issue knocked him out of the race after 51 of 105 laps.<\/p>\n

Now Preece returns to New Hampshire for Saturday\u2019s Lakes Region 200 (4 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Originally, the race wasn\u2019t on Preece\u2019s schedule with JGR.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the people that supported me last year to do those two races (New Hampshire and Iowa), they wanted to get involved and do it again,\u201d Preece said on Friday at NHMS. \u201cAnd so we put it together so we can come back and race here in New Hampshire in front of all their friends and family and my friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really big deal last year, so we ended up putting it together, and hopefully we can do one spot better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though it hasn\u2019t happened yet, Preece hopes continued success will lead to sponsorship money and a full-time stint in NASCAR racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I do (want a full-time ride), but I think what needs to be said is sponsors need to come to the team and say we need Ryan Preece or something like that,\u201d Preece said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just going to keep doing my job, and that\u2019s trying to win races, and hopefully the sponsors will come.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Hampshire Motor Speedway was Joey Logano\u2019s field of dreams<\/b><\/p>\n

Joey Logano has vivid memories of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where he came as a child with all his dreams intact.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, practices for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 20, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

And unlike many children who fantasize about become elite athletes, Logano hasn\u2019t deviated from the path he envisioned as a pre-teen.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, when you\u2019re seven or eight years old, and I came to watch my first Cup race here\u2026 when you\u2019re that old, yeah, there\u2019s nothing telling you you can\u2019t,\u201d Logano said on Friday at the Magic Mile. \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going to make it Cup racing. I\u2019m going to win championships. Watch this. I\u2019m going to be awesome.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cAll kids have a dream like that, and it\u2019s really cool, and kids should have dreams like that and be able to try to make them happen. Sometimes you may have to change your dream as you go, but I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to be able to be able to continue that long road to try to get to a championship. I still think it\u2019s cool, though, to be out there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember coming here my first time and watching the time it was the Busch North Series and the modifieds and the Cup race, and I met Jeff Gordon. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and then you go out there and race against him 10 years later or so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Where dirt racing and NASCAR intersect, Kyle Larson votes for status quo LOUDON, N. H. \u2013 NASCAR\u2019s very own dirt devil would prefer to keep the one dirt-track race currently on the schedule as a unique special occasion. Larson is well aware that Eldora Speedway owner Tony Stewart has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,466],"class_list":["post-20556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-new-hampshire-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/356857.jpg?fit=4076%2C2714","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5ly","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20558,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20556\/revisions\/20558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}