{"id":20581,"date":"2018-07-22T21:34:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T02:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=20581"},"modified":"2018-07-22T21:34:44","modified_gmt":"2018-07-23T02:34:44","slug":"nascar-sunday-new-hampshire-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/22\/nascar-sunday-new-hampshire-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Sunday New Hampshire Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Aric Almirola scores bittersweet third-place finish at New Hampshire<\/b><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Despite a slow pit stop and a poor restart, Aric Almirola finished third in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was hardly enthused about his best result of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Aric Almirola, driver of the #10 Smithfield Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Almirola was leading the race when teammate Clint Bowyer slammed the Turn 3 wall to bring out the seventh and last caution of the race on Lap 256 of 301. Pitting under caution, Almirola lost two spots because of trouble with the left front tire.<\/p>\n

On the subsequent restart on Lap 263, he spun his tires, fell back to sixth and had to claw his way back to third at the finish. But Almirola lost a chance for his first victory in a Stewart-Haas car, and for that reason, the result was disappointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think I\u2019d be really excited to run top five and I\u2019m not,\u201d Almirola said. \u201cWe had the best car hands-down. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind. We gave it away on pit road, and then I gave it away again on the restart. I spun the tires on the restart and didn\u2019t even give myself a fighting chance, so I\u2019m just really frustrated. <\/p>\n

\u201cChicago, we had a car capable of winning. And we didn\u2019t execute today again with another car capable of winning, and we didn\u2019t get our Smithfield Ford Fusion in Victory Lane. It\u2019s just frustrating. They say you\u2019ve got to lose some before you win some, and I feel like we\u2019ve lost some now, and it\u2019s time to stop it and go to Victory Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHASE ELLIOTT SHOWS PROMISING SPEED WITH STAGE WIN AT LOUDON<\/b><\/p>\n

At the end of the second stage of Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott tracked down reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. and passed him for the lead.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Eighteen laps later, Elliott took the green\/checkered flag for his first stage victory and first Playoff point of the season. Ultimately, Elliott came home fifth, his only top-10 finish in five starts at the Magic Mile.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, to a Hendrick Motorsports organization that hasn\u2019t posted a victory this season, the speed Elliott showed was a promising sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked, to be honest with you, that we ran even that good,\u201d said Elliott, who also finished second in Stage 1 and led 23 laps. \u201cOur whole NAPA group did a great job overnight. I really have no idea where that came from. I hope it wasn\u2019t dumb luck. Hopefully we can keep it rolling because it\u2019s really nice to be able to go up there and lead some laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it wasn\u2019t the right part of the race, but still, leading laps for us is big compared to what we\u2019ve been doing. I\u2019m proud of the effort. I appreciate everybody\u2019s effort back at Hendrick and the chassis shop and engine shop and Chevrolet and all the folks that are working hard to try to get better. We took a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

PIT ROAD SNAFU DERAILS KURT BUSCH\u2019S STRONG RUN AT MAGIC MILE<\/b><\/p>\n

Kurt Busch started from the pole in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods 301 t New Hampshire Motor Speedway and led a race-high 94 laps, but a miscue on pit road during a green-flag stop on Lap 227 of 301 cost him a chance to score his first victory of the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy\/Haas Automation Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Busch rolled down pit road toward the No. 1 stall, but Ryan Blaney\u2019s Ford was already parked in the stall immediately behind Busch\u2019s. The jack dropped on Blaney\u2019s car, and Busch\u2019s crew chief, Billy Scott, yelled \u201cStop\u201d over the radio, think that Blaney was on the verge of leaving his stall.<\/p>\n

But Blaney didn\u2019t move, as a courtesy to Busch, and after losing several precious seconds, Busch proceeded to his pit box. But the damage was done. Busch was running fifth when he returned to the track, and subsequent restarts in the bottom lane cost him even more positions.<\/p>\n

Busch finished eighth in a car that was capable of running with the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up (pitting) on the same lap as Blaney,\u201d Busch said. \u201cThat\u2019s just bad luck or bad communication between two crew chiefs. And then the crew chief is like, \u2018He\u2019ll be gone by the time you get there.\u2019 And I initially thought that, and then they were still hanging left-side tires and I was like, \u2018Oh no, oh no. He\u2019s gonna be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would have come around him, I would have blocked him huge. I would have been at a bad angle, and that was just one of those \u2018We\u2019re two guys walking down the hallway, and we bumped into each other and had to hold each other up.\u2019 That just kind of pushed us back too far on the final restart, and I didn\u2019t get a good last restart. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could have come off pit road in fourth, it might have been a whole different race. I think that might have been where (race winner Kevin) Harvick might have been or the 78 (Martin Truex Jr.), but we were in the mix today. That\u2019s what counts. We had a Playoff type of day today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just aren\u2019t supposed to pit on the same lap they do under green,\u201d Busch said. \u201cThat was a fundamental mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Aric Almirola scores bittersweet third-place finish at New Hampshire LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Despite a slow pit stop and a poor restart, Aric Almirola finished third in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was hardly enthused about his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,466],"class_list":["post-20581","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\/356891.jpg?fit=4175%2C2778&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-5lX","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20595,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20581\/revisions\/20595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}