{"id":27379,"date":"2019-07-19T18:05:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T23:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=27379"},"modified":"2019-07-21T18:51:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T23:51:06","slug":"nascar-friday-new-hampshire-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/19\/nascar-friday-new-hampshire-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday New Hampshire Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Joey Logano: There\u2019s a certain knack to New Hampshire Motor Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Is it just a coincidence that six current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers share the distinction as three-time winners at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 AAA Insurance Ford, talks with some fans during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 19, 2019 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

No, says reigning series champion Joey Logano, who will try to add his name to the list in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at the Magic Mile (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis race track is one that, for me earlier in my career, was the most frustrating track for me to go to, which always was awful because it\u2019s my home track, and it\u2019s where you want to run the best,\u201d Logano said on Friday at New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are tracks like New Hampshire or Richmond or Martinsville that it seems like \u2013 and Sonoma is a little bit like this \u2013 but once you get something that works and the driver and the team understand what you need to be really good, not just in practice and not just in qualifying, but in the race when you have a long run or trying to pass cars and what traffic and restarts are, and once you figure out that balance, (you can be successful).\u201d<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/NHMS_MENCS_Logano_071919.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

In fact, New Hampshire is such a \u201cfeel\u201d race track that, once a driver and team unlocks the secret, the likelihood of repeated success rises exponentially. That\u2019s why Kevin Harvick could win in 2006 in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and find success in both a Chevrolet (2016) and a Ford (2018) for Stewart-Haas Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go through spells of capitalizing on things and having good cars and mediocre cars and circumstances, and I think that part of this sport is those streaks come and go at certain race tracks,\u201d said Harvick, the defending winner at Loudon. \u201cAt RCR we had a lot of good, flat-track races at Richmond and Loudon, and we only won here one time, and I thought this was one of our better tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think as you look at different race tracks, I feel like we\u2019ve always run fairly well here. I feel like we probably should have been to Victory Lane 10 times here, but you look at the results, and it\u2019s just hard to win these races, but over the last few years it\u2019s gone OK and we\u2019ve been on the right side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the active three-time winners, Ryan Newman got his first victory at the Magic Mile in 2002, his rookie season. Jimmie Johnson swept both races at the track in 2003, and Kurt Busch followed with a sweep in his 2004 championship season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain tracks that, when you find a nice setup, it stays hot for a while, and you\u2019re able to use it the next time you come back, because not much changed, whether it\u2019s been aero or the tires,\u201d said Busch, last Sunday\u2019s winner at Kentucky Speedway. \u201cI remember in 2004 when I swept the two races here, the second race had a lot of weather issues and we didn\u2019t get a lot of practice time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we were all forced to use the setup that we used at the first race. That helped us as a race-winning team to be able to sweep the races that year. It\u2019s similar to Bristol. If you find that right setup, it works for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as Logano said, you can develop a knack that can last for a decade or more, as three-time winners Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have done.<\/p>\n

KYLE BUSCH FEELS RIGHT AT HOME AT NEW HAMPSHIRE<\/b><\/p>\n

New Hampshire Motor Speedway may be a long way from Kyle Busch\u2019s native Las Vegas, but the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has developed a fondness for the Magic Mile and its environs, dating to his days of racing Late Models.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, drives through the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 19, 2019 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI love coming up here,\u201d Busch said Friday at NHMS. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of friends from the area. I\u2019ve raced over at Thunder Road (Barre, Vermont) before. I\u2019ve race over at Oxford (Maine) before, so I\u2019ve been around this area a little bit racing the short tracks and stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few of those friends come on over here sometimes and visit a little bit, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the racing itself at the one-mile flat track. Busch got the third of his 55 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories at Loudon in 2006, driving for Rick Hendrick. He won again during his 2015 championship season and once more in 2017, both in the No. 18 JGR Toyota.<\/p>\n

Small wonder Busch relishes his trips to New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy coming to New Hampshire,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been a pretty successful place for us. We tend to qualify well here, race well here. We\u2019ve won here a couple of times. We\u2019ve been kind of the car to beat, one of the guys to beat here for about, I don\u2019t know, the last two, three, four years maybe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes guys really, really hit on it, and the they\u2019re better than us, (but) we\u2019re just always consistently good here. So hopefully we can keep that pattern going at least and be consistently good here again, but maybe we can hit on it better than somebody else and try to win.\u201d<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/NHMS_MENCS_KyBusch_071919.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

OUT OF HIS ELEMENT ON PAVEMENT, CHRISTOPHER BELL STILL SCORES TOP 10<\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR Xfinity Series championship contender Christopher Bell kicked off his weekend in New England by stepping out of his comfort zone.<\/p>\n

The driver who has won three straight Chili Bowl titles and grew up racing sprint cars on dirt took a side trip to Thunder Road in Barre, Vermont to try his hand in a Late Model on a paved short track. Bell was there as a de facto ambassador, but his expectations in the race itself were somewhat lower than his usual standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I\u2019m just there to have a good time and hopefully draw a crowd,\u201d Bell said on Friday at NHMS, site of Saturday\u2019s ROXOR 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race (4 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed to work. There were a lot of people there. I just didn\u2019t want to go in there and make enemies. I wanted to go in there and have fun and put on a good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell finished ninth against a strong field at the high-banked quarter-mile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I go sprint car racing, that\u2019s my bread and butter, right?\u201d Bell said. \u201cI grew up doing that, and whenever I go there, I expect to win. I wanted to win last night, but I just don\u2019t have a lot of experience in those things. Expectations were just a little bit different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Joey Logano: There\u2019s a certain knack to New Hampshire Motor Speedway LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Is it just a coincidence that six current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers share the distinction as three-time winners at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. No, says reigning series champion Joey Logano, who will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":27384,"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-27379","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\/2019\/07\/MENCS_NHMS_KyleBusch_071919.jpg?fit=4061%2C2707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-77B","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27379","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\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27391,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27379\/revisions\/27391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}