NASCAR at New Hampshire 2015: Race Schedule, Live Stream Info, Drivers to Watch
NASCAR gears up for its 19th race in the 2015 Sprint Cup Series on Sunday, where 43 drivers will take to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, for the 5-hour Energy 301.
Including Sunday's race, there are only eight more stops in the Sprint Cup Series before the field is whittled down to the top 16 drivers for the Challenger Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup and its nascent elimination-style format.
Carl Edwards snagged pole position for the first time in this year's Sprint Cup Series. He'll be chasing down a second victory this season after winning the Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina over Memorial Day weekend.
Brad Keselowski won the 5-hour Energy 301 last year. Kez is in the field on Sunday, starting 10th. All 43 entrants in this year's race can be found at NASCAR.com.
Here's a look at Sunday's schedule and viewing info, followed by three drivers to keep an eye on in the race.
5-hour Energy 301 Schedule, Viewing Info
Date: Sunday, July 19
Location: New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire
TV Coverage (ET): 1:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network
Race Start Time (ET): 1:45:30 p.m., per NASCAR.com
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra (online streaming begins at 12 p.m. ET)
Drivers to Watch
Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin sits 11th in the Sprint Cup standings, and he has just a lone win on the year at the STP 500 back in March. Since then, he's managed four top-10 finishes but has hardly been much of a threat to win in that span up until consecutive third-place finishes at the Coke Zero 400 and Quaker State 400 leading up to New Hampshire.
Now that he's on a bit of a run and due to start from the fifth position, Hamlin could break through for a second win and a nice boost in the standings. ESPN.com's Ricky Craven is picking him to cruise into victory lane on Sunday.
"He is on a short list of drivers who are outstanding at tracks with little banking in the turns," Craven wrote. "Five wins at Martinsville, four wins at Pocono—Sunday will make it three wins in Loudon, New Hampshire."
According to NASCAR.com, Hamlin has seven top-five finishes in 18 starts at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, from a 12.11 average starting position. Hamlin's prior successes here bode well, as this is a track that is difficult to put together a clean lap on, as noted by Craven:
"Although it's classified as a speedway in size, the track operates under the same fundamentals as an asphalt short track anywhere in the country. Passes seldom happen quickly -- or easily. Little gains, and sometimes a little contact, will be the order of the day.
Both right-side tires are at risk of being overworked at any point in the race
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With his strong practice and qualifying runs, good track record on this speedway and coming off his best couple of weeks of driving in some time, all the threads just might be coming together for Hamlin to pull off a crucial win.
While Hamlin will be a threat on Sunday, the Joe Gibbs Racing team as a whole—Hamlin, Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch—figures to be one stable to watch out for. SB Nation's Jordan Bianchi explains:
"With NASCAR introducing a last-minute track-specific rules package for Kentucky designed to create more passing, it would be easy to shrug off the results as an anomaly. However, the speed JGR's Toyotas showed last week on the 1.5-mile track has carried over to this week on the flat one-mile New Hampshire oval.
All four drivers were consistently among the fastest in every practice session, and in qualifying Edwards captured his first pole position since November 2013. Busch qualified fourth, Hamlin fifth and Kenseth eighth.
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With two wins in his last three Sprint Cup races, Busch is coming along strong late in the series. He took the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 28 and followed that up with a win in the Quaker State 400 two weeks later—a race he led for 163 laps.
This recent string of good results puts Busch in a unique position. Only three other drivers—Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle's older brother, Kurt—boast as many wins as Busch. Jimmie Johnson, with four wins, is the only driver with more.
However, Busch is currently 35th in the standings, 87 points behind 30th-place Cole Whitt and the threshold for Chase eligibility.
His two wins also count as his only two top-five finishes of the series. If his current form can carry him to a top finish in New Hampshire, it would go a long way toward alleviating some of the pressure he's going to feel as the season winds to a close.
The other four drivers with as many or more wins than Busch are all in the top 10 in the standings and are likely going to make it to the Challenger Round.
Joey Logano
Tucked in behind Edwards and ahead of the rest of the Joe Gibbs posse sits Joey Logano. He'll be starting from the No. 2 position, a comfortable spot on a track where he has two wins but an average finishing position of 17.92 in 13 races, according to NASCAR.com.
Those two wins seem to matter more to the Connecticut-born Logano than his relative failures in Loudon.
"It’s a special place for me considering I started my first Cup race here and watched my first Cup race when I was seven here,” Logano said Friday, per Dan Gelston of the Associated Press (h/t the Saratogian).
Logano sits a comfortable third in the Sprint Cup standings, even though he hasn't won a race since the vaunted series-opening Daytona 500. With four top-five finishes in his last five races, including a runner-up billing at the Quaker State 400, Logano should be one challenging for the top position for quite some time in this race.
With the Challenger Round featuring a return trip to New Hampshire, Logano could view this race as preparation for bigger things to come, as he told ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass:
"[The rules are] a point of concern because we want to know as soon as we can, but as hard as it is to be patient, we have to be patient. We have to take our time and understand what makes great racing. We're trying things right now. We're obviously trying two complete different packages at different types of racetracks and trying to make the best races at these racetracks.
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Knowing the importance of this race as a veritable scouting trip, Logano's brilliance this season should see him pushing for the top spot on Sunday.
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