NASCAR at Loudon II: Winners and Losers from Sylvania 300
Chase race No. 2 is in the books and, no surprise here, the winner is a Team Penske car.
This time around it’s Joey Logano in the No. 22.
Tricky track conditions made for a long afternoon for some as New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s flat one mile was a tougher foe than most had anticipated.
And the busiest man in the house had to be NASCAR Race Director David “Put it out” Hoots, "it" being the caution flag.
Winner: Team Penske
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Arguably the best organization in NASCAR right now, Team Penske is cutting through the competition like the proverbial hot knife through butter.
Its Sprint Cup domination of races—three in a row and four of the last five—is quite an impressive win streak. Even the Hendrick Motorsports guys, who up until now have been the standard for others to measure against, have got to be shaking their heads in amazement.
Points leader Brad Keselowski once again battled from the back of the field to the front after spinning into the outside wall. He was also a contender for the race win in the closing laps.
Throughout the afternoon, race winner Logano used a very liberal interpretation of the restart line to snooker Kevin Harvick and others on several occasions. It was brilliant, despite Harvick’s post-race protestations.
This dynamic duo of Keselowski and Logano looks nearly unstoppable as they both are now automatically in the next round of the Chase.
Loser: Denny Hamlin
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It was an extremely frustrating day, to say the least, for Denny Hamlin—who had a very good car. He led 32 laps early in the race.
A mechanical issue with the refueling mechanism on his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry put him four laps down.
It also put him well back in the field, racing against cars and drivers that were clearly no match for the No. 11.
A multi-car wreck on Lap 181 collected Hamlin, causing damage that required a long period of time in the garage. He finished 38 laps down from the race winner in 37th place.
"You just try to do the best you can to get the best finish and hope for some help. It's a long way to go in this race,” Hamlin said in a television interview while his car was being repaired. “I hate to say it, but maybe some guys get some trouble and let us back in it. Other than that, it's going to be hard for us to do it without some help.”
Hamlin heads to Dover the first driver outside the cutoff point to move on.
Winner: Kevin Harvick
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Once again Kevin Harvick was best in class—meaning the best of the rest—compared to Team Penske.
The Stewart-Haas Racing driver was in the mix all afternoon, leading a race-high (again) 104 laps, according to official NASCAR post-race statistics.
Still the most aggressive and consistent driver in the field, Harvick understands the big picture and knows that even without a win, he'll move on to the next round of the Chase.
“It was just a good day for us,” Harvick said while being interviewed on television after the race. “We had a fast car. Track position is tough, and it wound up being really hard racing there, and Brad (Keselowski) moved me out of the way, and I got up out of the groove. All in all, we did what we had to do, and I just enjoyed racing that hard.”
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Loser: NASCAR Flagman's Right Arm
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There were a nearly a record number of cautions (15 for 63 laps) that began on Lap 37 for the competition caution, with the last being thrown on Lap 299. The record for a Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire is 17 cautions (July 1994).
Half of the Chase field was involved in a caution incident at one point or another including—because we knew you'd ask: Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon.
The unusual number of cautions made for a long day as the usually quick Chase race at Loudon ended up lasting more than three hours (3:14.53 to be precise).
"Cautions bred cautions today," Harvick said in his post-race press conference.
*All statistics courtesy of official NASCAR post-race media release.
Winner: Rookie Kyle Larson Almost Spoils Chase Show
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Rookie phenom Kyle Larson nearly won the race and stole the show when he made a remarkably strong charge past Harvick in the waning laps of the race. The Team Target driver, who started 10th, scored his second runner-up finish of the season (Fontana).
His Chevrolet SS was in the top 10 for the final 100 laps. His team made changes on every pit stop, and Larson’s car got better after every one.
"It was a really good race for us,” Larson said in a post-race interview. "Our Target Chevy wasn't even a top-15 car the first 100 laps, and Shine (Chris Heroy) and everybody on this Target team did a great job to get me in the game. They made some big changes there under the second or third caution, and it felt like a totally different race car.”
Larson once again showed us why he’s a shoo-in for the Sprint Cup rookie honors this year.
Loser: Kurt Busch Has a Tough Day
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Kurt Busch's Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet wasn’t very good from the start of the race. Busch struggled to stay with the race leaders but fell a lap down early and found himself racing among cars that were struggling.
On Lap 223, Busch hit the wall when he lost a tire, and his day went downhill rapidly from there. He is now 15th in points, 50 out from the leader (Brad Keselowski) with little chance of moving on to the next round in the Chase without a win.
To paraphrase the oft-used saying regarding the Oscar awards, “It’s just an honor to make the Chase field.” It was an accomplishment for Busch to have even made the field in his first year with a new team, which is something he's done for the second season in a row.
However, Busch—who is a former champion and should be as good as teammate Kevin Harvick during the Chase—is likely to be among the first group of drivers eliminated along with Aric Almirola, Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin.
Winner: New Hampshire Motor Speedway's Tricky Surface
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New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s tricky racing surface took many down the path of destruction on Sunday, as drivers battled slick asphalt that offered inadequate grip as the race progressed.
Many drivers reported their cars being loose during the race (the back end wanting to come around) or a lack of forward grip coming out of the corner. Crew chiefs responded by making adjustments to their race cars, often using lower air pressure to gain grip.
That might have been the cause of many failed right front tires that sent many a driver into the outside wall. Chase driver Jeff Gordon—who had been complaining of a lack of forward grip to crew chief Alan Gustafson over the team radio during the race—was among them.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway was once considered a relatively easy stop on the schedule, but the new, ultra-quick Gen 6 race car makes the track—with little banking to offer a view of what is going on ahead—a more treacherous outing.
Loser: Jeff Gordon's Good Day Goes Bad
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Jeff Gordon’s 26th-place finish was in no way indicative of how well the four-time champion raced on Sunday. The Hendrick Motorsports driver was running with the race leaders until a right front tire failed with 10 laps to go.
“This place just doesn’t like us this year for whatever reason,” Gordon said in a post-race interview. Today we were fighting hard like we have been all day long putting a great car out there. I was real happy with the car.
"I thought we had an awesome race car, but it doesn’t matter if you blow a right front tire. I’m pretty sure we cut something…and there is just nothing you can do. Just go along for the ride and hope the damage isn’t too bad, which we were very fortunate to still end up on the lead lap I guess.”
Gordon, who led the driver points standings for much of the later half of the regular season, finds himself in seventh place heading to Dover where he has four wins and 17 top-five finishes. Don't count Gordon out just yet, as he'll advance to the next round where he'll be racing on 1.5-mile tracks, the kind where he's been strong this season.
Winner: NASCAR Fans Get Another Great Chase Race
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NASCAR’s new Chase format has made for two exciting races so far.
The emphasis on winning means more drivers, as well as crew chiefs, have abandoned the old Chase strategy of racing not to lose and running a mistake-free 10 races. The new strategy appears to be "win at any cost."
That’s not only good for the fans but also for the sport in general, as NASCAR offers up a competitive Chase in a year when its main competition for attention, the NFL, is struggling to maintain its credibility.
Loser: Joe Gibbs Racing Continues Its Struggle
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Despite suffering serious damage to his No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, Kyle Busch held the Joe Gibbs Racing banner high, finishing eighth.
His finish was in stark contrast to the troubles experienced by his JGR teammates Denny Hamlin (37th) and Matt Kenseth (21st).
Busch put a positive spin on his day and pointed out that other Chase drivers had problems on Sunday and are likely to have problems down the road.
"If guys are going to have problems, we'd rather them have problems in the third round,” Busch said in a post-race interview. “That would just make it easier for us to be able to get in and get on to Homestead. We'll just keep fighting—keep going."
Kenseth said after the race that heading into Dover next week there’s no added pressure—it's always there.
"Has it ever been off? There's always pressure to run good,” Kenseth said. “You do the best you can every day and take the results you have and move on from there. I felt like I did the best I could today. I don't know what I could have done any different.”
With the prospect of Hamlin being eliminated after next weekend, there will be pressure on both Kenseth and Busch to carry the JGR banner forward.
Winner: AJ Allmendinger
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As one of the Chase field long shots, AJ Allmendinger found himself deep in the hole after last weekend’s opener at Chicagoland.
His “little team that could” struggled once again on Sunday, but others struggled more, and Allmendinger found himself with a 13th-place finish.
The JTG Daugherty driver was blunt with his assessment of his race day.
"In this race we were awful honestly. We really struggled. I was driving my butt off to keep us on the lead lap,” Allmendinger said in a post-race interview. “We got lucky twice with the Lucky Dog. Then from there, we started making a couple of adjustments that were pretty good. I was just bad on the restarts, really struggled on restarts.
“So to come home 13th is pretty good because at about 150, I thought we were going to be 25th, but also had a point where I thought we would be seventh. Good points day. There were a lot of mistakes around us. I did everything I could. The guys fought hard. Proud of everybody on this Bush’s Beans Chevy. We are all digging hard.”
Dover isn’t one of this Californian’s better tracks. However, his team is racing over its head, and you just never know.
All quotes are taken from official NASCAR, team and manufacturer media releases unless otherwise stated.
Bob Margolis is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association and has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, the NHRA and Sports Cars for more than two decades as a writer, television producer and on-air talent.
On Twitter: @BobMargolis
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