NASCAR at New Hampshire 2015: Winners and Losers from the 5-Hour Energy 301
You’d think the movie Pixels was the title sponsor of the 5-Hour Energy 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, what with New Hampshire native Adam Sandler telling the drivers to start their engines and the unrelenting barrage of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong on the TV. Not so.
The way Kyle Busch has driven this past month looks like a video game. With his serendipitous (more on this later) win at New Hampshire, Busch has now won three of the past four races and set his steely gaze on the No. 30 spot in the Sprint Cup standings.
He’s close, but not quite there, and winning for the third time proves he’s a Cup contender if only he can keep accruing points.
Naturally, Busch takes the lobster as the big winner, but there’s a sampling of winners and losers worth addressing. Read on for more from Loudon.
Loser: Ryan Blaney's Speeding Penalty
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Every now and again you see a trespasser in the top 10. His name isn’t Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt Jr. It’s someone like AJ Allmendinger or Jeb Burton Casey Mears.
For a time during the 5-Hour Energy 301, Ryan Blaney, racing in just his seventh Sprint Cup race of the season, cruised in the top 10.
For a time.
A loose wheel forced this top-10 trespasser to pit. Then Blaney sped off pit road. He lost his grip on the seventh position and slipped all the way back to 35th, two laps down.
He recovered well enough to finish 23rd, but this was a missed opportunity for him to do something special since finishing in the top five at Talladega.
Winner: Joey Logano
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Joey Logano won the Loudon race in the Chase in 2014, proving he was a viable Sprint Cup contender. Logano would eventually lose, but he did earn his way to Homestead with a chance at the Cup.
Upon returning to Loudon in 2015, Logano was one of the favorites. He said he thought he had a top-five car at the beginning of the broadcast, and that’s where he finished: fourth, in the top five.
“I thought overall my team executed really well,” he said after the race on NBC Sports. “We were toward the front all day. [Crew chief Todd Gordon] gave us a tire advantage when he could. We could move forward, just not enough. It’s hard to pass and get air on the nose.”
Logano has had a quietly great season since winning the Daytona 500. With the ubiquitous dominance of Jimmie Johnson, the top-five-hungry Kevin Harvick and the recent renewal of Kyle Busch, it’s easy to overlook the No. 22 car.
Don’t.
He has 12 top fives and an average finish in the top 10. That’s championship caliber, and nobody is talking about how likely his chances are.
Don’t sleep on Logano—not with those numbers.
Loser: Alex Bowman's Combustible Tire
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Alex Bowman rarely makes one of these slideshows, and he either has to do something spectacular, which, for him, is top 15 or better. Or, as was the case at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bowman’s No. 7 car made the headline for him.
A flat tire forced him to pit road, where a small fire cooked in the wheel well. Once the tire came off and a new one went on, his right front burned up like a bonfire.
It took Bowman somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 seconds to exit his car and exactly 31.53 seconds for NASCAR’s fire crew to stumble alongside (one poor guy fell down with his fire extinguisher in hand).
It made Jeff Gluck, NASCAR writer for USA Today, question NASCAR’s urgency when a significant flame burned while a driver remained inside cloaked in smoke.
Safety remains a concern for these drivers. Newer rules packages designed to reduce downforce and horsepower at various tracks mean little if safety crews can’t reach a fire for more than 31 seconds.
There have been great illustrations of the safety of these tracks (see Austin Dillon’s crash at Daytona). Then there’s Kyle Busch's wreck at Daytona in the opening 2015 Xfinity race that shows that NASCAR hasn't covered all its bases.
Winner: Joe Gibbs Racing's Big Weekend
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Joe Gibbs Racing owns the early summer.
It qualified three of its four drivers in the top five for the 5-Hour Energy 301 and won the race with Kyle Busch.
On Saturday night, Denny Hamlin won the Xfinity Series race, so, overall, JGR can’t be performing any better.
“What they’re hitting on...their company is getting better at every track,” said NBC Sports NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton during the broadcast. “Without a doubt, whatever they’ve done, it’s working everywhere.”
For all the talk of Hendrick Motorsports’ dominance and the speed of Kevin Harvick on a week-to-week basis, JGR’s Toyotas have found an incredible groove, especially on the short tracks.
JGR has now won at three short tracks (Martinsville, Bristol, New Hampshire) and on 1.5-mile speedways (Charlotte, Kentucky).
With Busch, Hamlin (14th at Loudon), Carl Edwards (seventh) and Matt Kenseth (sixth) driving this well, they’ve announced their authority at this part of the season that they must be respected going forward as legitimate threats to win the Cup, with an emphasis on Busch if he can claw into the top 30.
Loser: Kyle Larson's Continuing Sophomore Slump
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Kyle Larson, the 2014 Rookie of the Year, is having a 2015 worth forgetting. New Hampshire looked to be the track where Larson could find his mojo, but what he found was much of the same average driving that's plagued him all year.
In 2014, Larson finished third and second in the two Loudon races. This year? Thirty-first.
“We were just off the whole race,” Larson said on NBC Sports after the race. “We were really tight in the center of the corners. We haven’t been running very good lately or all season. Hopefully we can run in the top 20 sometime.”
How far has the No. 42 car fallen to be wishful of a top 20? In 2014, his average finish was 14.2. In 2015, it’s 21.0. Last year he had 17 top 10s. This year, only five.
The NBC Sports reporter told Larson he’d likely need a win to make the Chase. Larson, with barely a trace of energy in his voice, replied, “We need to run in the top 10 first. We aren’t good enough to win right now. We’re working hard. We’re trying to find anything. It’s definitely frustrating.”
Whether it’s the rules package for this year that has sucked all of their horsepower, or just a failure to pair up seasons, Larson is in a slump, and there’s no foreseeable end in 2015.
Winner: Brad Keselowski's Late Charge
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Brad Keselowski exited the race as if he had been in a 15-round title bout against Floyd Mayweather. During his broadcasted post-race interview, he was winded, gassed and unusually short.
“Really fast car, proud of everyone, hoping to catch a break, didn’t catch one,” was all Keselowski offered at the end of the race.
That’s understandable given that he led the most laps (101) and probably spent the most time in second place of all the drivers, too. When Kevin Harvick led for 59 laps, it was Keselowski pushing him for most of that time.
During Kyle Busch’s 95 laps on the lead, the No. 2 car pressed him the entire time in second.
Afterward, Keselowski rubbed his lips as if he’d been slammed with a left cross and barely put together more than six words at a stretch. Several drivers received medical treatment following the race, so this was a particularly taxing day in Loudon.
It was the first time Keselowski led the most laps during a race this season. Paired with teammate Joey Logano (fourth), Team Penske had a special day in the shadow of Joe Gibbs Racing.
Loser: Late Loser Jimmie Johnson
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Jimmie Johnson was nowhere to be found at the end of the 5-Hour Energy 301. He started seventh and reverse-hurdled his way back to 22nd by the end of the race.
NASCAR seasons have waves. For a while, he was riding high on the crest of said wave with four wins. He still has the most wins by one over the resurgent Kyle Busch, but he seems to be losing that Sprint Cup grip he had after his 10th career win at Dover.
Johnson has been winning a race in every quarter of the regular season. He hasn’t won since Dover, a stretch of six races, his longest of the regular season.
Next week’s venue could be just what Johnson needs. The No. 48 car has four wins at the Brickyard, and that would suggest a return to winning form and proof that he hasn’t slipped from his early season summit.
Winner: Race Winner Kyle Busch
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Kyle Busch’s ascension to the top 30 is the most interesting thing to happen to NASCAR all season.
The shackles NASCAR put on Busch to make the Chase—win a race, finish in the top 30—seemed too much to overcome. Better off taking the rest of the season off. Heal up. Come back strong.
“I said it was going to be extremely hard,” said team owner Joe Gibbs after the race on the NBC Sports broadcast. “He averaged 17th, and he was in it [in 2014]. This year we needed about 15th. I don’t know where it is, but I know this is sure helping.”
Busch has won three of the past four races over a road course, a 1.5-mile track and a one-mile track. After being about 130 points out of 30th when he came back, he’s now only 58 points out.
Busch said on NBC Sports in a post-race interview:
"No, I don’t think any of us would’ve [thought we could’ve won]. It’s such an awesome win, such an awesome comeback. Our cars are a lot better than they were last year, so much fun to win these races. This is a crazy sport, and you never know how it’s going to turn out. I thought I had a tire going down and oil on the track I got back on the lead lap.
"
About that...
He pitted during a green-flag run when drivers were reporting oil on the track. He also thought one of his tires was going down, so it was better to sacrifice track position at that point. Once back on the track, Busch sped past all the bald-tire drivers and flew by Kevin Harvick—then on the lead—to get back onto the lead lap.
Then came the yellow flag.
Having pitted, Busch stayed out during the ensuring caution. He took the lead and never relinquished.
“I drove as hard as I could,” Busch said. “I knew I needed to get those guys. What else do I gotta do to get to the lead lap? The [No.] 4 and [No.] 2 was the class of the field.”
For the past few weeks, Busch has been the class of the field, and there’s no slowing down. He can’t. He still needs to point in, and anything—good or bad—is possible in the following seven races.
I tweet @BrendanOMeara.
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