Yogi Berra’s oft-used saying, “It’s never over ’til it’s over,” was certainly appropriate for Christopher Bell in Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway.
Certainly, Bell had the strongest car, leading 94 of 257 laps. However, Bell’s chance to win at Iowa appeared to be in jeopardy during the first overtime restart.
Veteran racer Justin Allgaier made a bold, outside, four-wide pass to nab the lead from Bell in Turn 1. While the field raced toward the stripe, the caution came out for a hard crash involving Matt Tifft and Max Tullman.
Following a somewhat lengthy red flag period, Allgaier held the top spot in the final restart of the race. As the late Benny Parsons would’ve summarized, Bell, who restarted fourth, appeared to have been shot out of a cannon.
Suddenly, Bell found himself back in position for the win. The points leader caught Allgaier while knocking on his rear bumper on lap 256. Racing off Turns 3 and 4, Bell was alongside Allgaier before these two gritty racers traded paint along the frontstretch.
Eventually gaining the top spot, Bell pulled away from Allgaier to score his fourth win of the NASCAR XFINITY Series season and his third in a row.
“When it’s your day, it’s your day,” Bell observed. “I’ll take them any way I can. It’s special to win for these guys. My crew chief Jason (Ratcliff) kept making the car better and better. This thing was so good. The races are hard to win.”
Impressively, Bell has bested some of NASCAR’s top drivers like Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and series stalwart Allgaier.
When asked about his bold, aggressive pass for the win, the 23-year-old Norman, OK native may have offered some candor.
“I mean, I haven’t seen it,” Bell said. “The spotter was yelling ‘clear.’ If I’m clear, it was clean.”
Naturally, second place finisher Allgaier expressed some displeasure following the race, coming oh-so-close at sweeping the season at Iowa.
“I’m salty,” Allgaier remarked. “At the end of the day, we raced clean all day. We raced clear here in the spring. It’s disappointing to get run over like that. It’s disappointing. As racers, we’re disappointed to finish second.”
Despite coming one position short, Allgaier led the Chevrolet contingency and was ahead of the last lap carnage.
Ultimately, Bell and Allgaier took the top two spots, with Kyle Benjamin, Ross Chastain, John Hunter Nemechek, Elliott Sadler, Ryan Reed, Ryan Truex, Cole Custer, and Chase Briscoe coming home with top-10 finishes.
Following some exciting short track action at Iowa, the NASCAR XFINITY Series kicks off “Road Course August” with the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, August 4th at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 51 Cessna Toyota in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Gander Outdoors 150 at Pocono Raceway on July 28, 2018 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo by Kirk Schroll for SpeedwayMedia.com.
In what was a wild start for the day, before the race started, Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 18 Safelite Tundra, had to sit out the race due to being sick. He was granted a medical waiver, which means he’ll still have a Playoff spot. Erik Jones, the 2015 NASCAR Truck Series champion, filled in for the ill Gragson.
“We kept working on it (truck) all weekend long and just never quit, got it to where we wanted it,” Busch said. “All these (KBM) guys, (Mike) Hillman and on this No. 51 Cessna Beachcraft Toyota did an awesome job. I mean, we worked it, worked it, worked it, and came up with a couple of ideas of mine own and that slowed us down, but overall Rudy and those guys on the 18 truck were stupid fast. I knew they were going to be tough to beat.”
“I got a good restart and got out front there, and as Erik (Jones) was able to kind of run me down it seemed like he could cool his tires off by doing so,” he said. “I figured if I could at least pinch him one time and then get him behind me for a couple of laps, or a couple of corners, then I might be able to equalize his tires to mine when I was out front because I was just pushing for everything I had and I was just tight. I knew that would be my only shot to be able to hold him off, just to get his momentum broken and when I did that with a lap truck in Turn 2, it kind of seemed like that changed the race.”
The first stage was 15 laps, Stage 2 ended on Lap 30 and the checkered flag flew on Lap 60.
When Stage 1 began, Todd Gilliland took the lead for one lap, but pole sitter Busch took the lead one lap later and held it until four to go when he made a pit stop. Brett Moffitt also had issues which later turned out to be right front suspension problems. Gilliland went on to win the first stage by fending off Gateway winner Justin Haley.
During the pit stops, four-time winner Johnny Sauter received a pit road penalty for being too fast on pit road.
Busch restarted Stage 2 as the leader and held on until Lap 26, when substitute driver Jones took the lead. However, just like the first stage, Busch and Jones pit along with the other race leaders with three to go. Bubble driver, Stewart Friesen, stayed out and won the second stage.
The third and final stage began with 25 to go.
Dalton Sargeant took the lead for four laps, but Busch retook it on Lap 37. Jones came back to battle for the lead with eight to go, with lap traffic being an issue. Busch prevailed and held on to score his second Truck Series win of the season.
Busch gave his thoughts on tying NASCAR Hall of Fame driver, Ron Hornaday, on the all-time wins list in the Truck Series.
“It’s awesome,” Busch said on tying Hornaday’s record. “It’s certainly a true testament to all the people I worked with over time. I’ve raced races with Morgan-Dollar. I don’t know if I ever won races with them and then with Billy Ballew. I ran with them a lot and of course, with my own company Kyle Busch Motorsports team. A bunch of different crew chiefs, five or six crew chiefs I’ve won with here in my place. So, you know, it’s certainly been a lot of fun, a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work and perseverance for my guys and everybody at Kyle Busch Motorsports.”
There were two cautions for eight laps, with six leaders among nine lead changes. Busch led three times for 43 laps.
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (July 26, 2018) – Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announced today CRAFTSMAN® will join the team as a primary sponsor for Erik Jones in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Ryan Preece in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for multiple races in 2018.
Stanley Black & Decker added the iconic CRAFTSMAN brand to their portfolio in 2017. In their fourth season with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stanley Black & Decker uses their NASCAR partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing to showcase the DEWALT® brand on the No. 20 Toyota Camry with Jones and the STANLEY® brand on the No. 19 Toyota Camry with Daniel Suarez, both in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
“It’s really cool to represent an iconic brand with CRAFTSMAN,” said Jones. “CRAFTSMAN is a brand that I’ve used throughout my entire racing career from when I first started with go-karts, through late models and still have in my shop today. We’ve had a great relationship with Stanley Black & Decker this year through the DEWALT brand and I’m looking forward to continuing to grow our partnership with the CRAFTSMAN brand. The car looks great and I can’t wait to get on track with it in the coming months.”
Preece added, “I’m very excited to be racing and representing the CRAFTSMAN brand. I grew up watching what was then the CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and as I grew older, I started using CRAFTSMAN tools. To represent an iconic tool company like CRAFTSMAN is very special to me and I know we will have the same reliability in our Camry’s that they have in their tools.”
To kick off the new partnership, CRAFTSMAN will launch the “What’s Your Craftsman Story?” campaign to share real, human moments of pride. “Your CRAFTSMAN story” could be a memory or a project well done. The goal is not to focus on the tool, but what can be done with the tools and the pride and memories it evokes in each person. Fans can share their story at www.CRAFTSMANstory.com beginning August 1 through September 7, 2018. Three deserving fans will win a garage full of CRAFTSMAN tools and one lucky fan will win a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Coach Joe Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing, including a shop tour and a VIP experience at the NASCAR races at Kansas Speedway on October 20 and 21, 2018.
Team owner and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Coach Joe Gibbs, will help launch the “What’s Your Craftsman Story?” campaign and the new partnership with CRAFTSMAN by participating in a Satellite Media Tour on August 1, 2018.
“It’s a thrill for us to be a part of bringing the CRAFTSMAN brand back into the sport,” said Gibbs. “When you mention CRAFTSMAN to somebody it always seems they have a story to tell about how they used CRAFTSMAN tools growing up or around their own home or shop. That’s why the “What’s Your Craftsman Story?” campaign will be so much fun when we get a chance to hear everyone’s personal experiences with the brand.”
2018 Race Schedule
Watkins Glen International – Xfinity Series – August 4
Richmond International Raceway – Xfinity Series – September 21
Richmond international Raceway – Cup Series – September 22
Dover International Speedway – Xfinity Series – October 6
Dover International Speedway – Cup Series – October 7
Talladega Superspeedway – Cup Series – October 14
Kansas Speedway – Xfinity Series – October 20
Kansas Speedway – Cup Series – October 21
About CRAFTSMAN:
CRAFTSMAN is the American icon that homeowners, home builders, auto enthusiasts and master mechanics have trusted since 1927 – and today’s CRAFTSMAN continues that legacy. With a focus on reliable, high-performance tools, storage and equipment, CRAFTSMAN has revived its long-established pride in superior quality. Now it’s easier than ever to get the tools trusted for generations at more places than ever. For more information visit www.craftsman.com or follow CRAFTSMAN on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
About Joe Gibbs Racing:
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is one of the premier organizations in NASCAR with four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams, three NASCAR Xfinity Series teams and a driver development program. Its 2018 driver lineup will consist of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Daniel Suárez, and Erik Jones in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Meanwhile Christopher Bell and Brandon Jones will each run fulltime in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, joining Kyle Busch, Daniel Suárez, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Preece, and Kyle Benjamin, all of whom will run partial schedules. In addition, Riley Herbst and Ty Gibbs are currently in JGR’s driver development program. Based in Huntersville, N.C., and owned by Joe Gibbs — a three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame — JGR has competed in NASCAR since 1992, winning four Cup Series championships, and five Xfinity Series owner’s championships along with more than 300 NASCAR races, including four Brickyard 400s and two Daytona 500s.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will both be in action at Pocono Raceway this week and the NASCAR Xfinity Series will be at Iowa Speedway. Check out the full schedule below, which is subject to change.
Note: All times are ET
POCONO Friday, July 27 Noon-12:55 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice, No TV (Follow live)
2-2:55 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series final practice, No TV (Follow live)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
11 a.m.: Kids Drive NASCAR
11:15 a.m.: Grant Enfinger, Justin Haley and Brett Moffitt
IOWA Friday, July 27
5:05-5:55 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series first practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
6:35-7:25 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series final practice, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
POCONO Saturday, July 28 9-9:50 a.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series first practice, CNBC/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
10 a.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series qualifying, FS1 (Follow live)
11:40 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice, CNBC/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
1 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Gander Outdoors 150 (60 laps, 150 miles), FS1 (Follow live)
4:10 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Busch Pole Qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
8:15 a.m.: Jimmie Johnson
8:30 a.m.: Aric Almirola
10:30 a.m.: Bubba Wallace and Richard Petty
10:45 a.m.: Jeffrey Earnhardt
2:30 p.m.: Post-NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race
5 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
IOWA Saturday, July 28
3:05 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying, NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
5:20 p.m.: NASCAR Xfinity Series U.S. Cellular 250 presented by The Rasmussen Group (250 laps, 218.75 miles), NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
POCONO Sunday, July 29 2:30 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander Outdoors 400 (160 laps, 400 miles), NBCSN/NBC Sports App (Follow live)
PRESS PASS (Watch live)
11:30 a.m.: Gander Outdoors
5:30 p.m.: Post-Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race
Here are some thoughts I had of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort and Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
BREAKOUT RACE FOR ARIC ALMIROLA
Prior to today, Aric Almirola never led more than 78 laps in an entire season. While he didn’t lead the race-high (that was claimed by Kurt Busch), we’ll probably look back at today as the day he went from journeyman to a driver who can compete for wins.
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: 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: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Almirola first took the lead after running down and overtaking teammate Kurt Busch, using lap traffic as a pick to drive by him on the inside line in Turn 1, with 89 laps to go. While teammate Kevin Harvick cycled out ahead of him for the lead during a cycle of green-flag stops with 74 to go, Almirola again used lapped cars as a pick to power by Harvick in Turn 3 and regain the lead with 69 to go.
After teammate Clint Bowyer tagged the wall in Turn 3 with 45 to go, forcing a caution, Almirola exited the pits in third. He fell to sixth on the final restart, before rallying back to a third-place finish.
“I laid back off of Harvick’s bumper a little bit, was trying to time the restart to roll up to him and Kyle,” he said. “Kyle went right at the beginning, maybe even slightly before. He went right at the beginning, if nothing else, of the restart zone. It caught me off guard. Earlier in the race they had been dragging the restart out further in the restart zone. I was kind of anticipating that. When Kyle fired, I was caught off guard. When I fired, I just spun the tires because I wasn’t prepared. That was totally my bad. Instead of giving myself a fighting chance to go up there and win, race those guys for the win, I fell back to sixth and had to battle back to third.”
His podium finish was also his ninth Top-10 of the season, the most of any season of his career. He’s also raised his performance to a point where a Top-five finish disappoints him.
“I’m disappointed. You think I’d be really excited to run top five and I’m not,” Almirola said. “We had the best car hands-down. There’s 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’t even give myself a fighting chance, so I’m just really frustrated. Chicago, we had a car capable of winning and we didn’t execute today again with another car capable of winning, and we didn’t get our Smithfield Ford Fusion in Victory Lane. It’s just frustrating.
“They say you’ve got to lose some before you win some and I feel like we’ve lost some now and it’s time to stop it and go to Victory Lane. I’m really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. They’re giving me incredible race cars and we showed up with cars capable of running in the top five and challenging to win races these last seven weeks. I’m really proud of everybody back at the shop. I’m really proud of Johnny Klausmeier and all the guys on this 10 team. We’re gonna get Smithfield and Ford Motor Company and Mobil 1 and everybody that helps us out to Victory Lane really soon.”
PERFORMANCE TURN-AROUND AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS
The lackluster performance of the Chevrolet camp this season have been well documented, and no stable exemplified the growing pains more than Hendrick Motorsports. Yesterday at Loudon, however, they exhibited signs of improved performance.
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: 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: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Chase Elliott led a season-high of 23 laps, won a stage and finished fifth, at a track that’s not served him well.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you, that we ran even that good,” Elliott said. “Our whole NAPA group did a great job overnight. I really have no idea where that came from. I hope it wasn’t dumb luck. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling because it’s really nice to be able to go up there and lead some laps. I know it wasn’t the right part of the race, but still, leading laps for us is big compared to what we’ve been doing. I’m proud of the effort. I appreciate everybody’s 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.”
Jimmie Johnson ran Top-10 for the majority of the race (average position was 9.6). He was realistic about his performance woes, as he thought Top-10 was where they need to be.
“Top five right now on sheer speed is something we are achieving and trying to get to,” he said. “We scored some great points in the stages, I think (I) finished third and seventh or something like that. All-in-all we had a good day, always could be better, but a nice solid step forward.”
Both ran a higher average position than their season to date average.
Alex Bowman and William Byron also ran higher than their season to date average and finished higher than their season to date average finish.
Now one race is by no means an indication of season performance, but if the performance of Bowman, Byron, Elliott and Johnson improves going forward, we’ll look back at this race as the day the USS Hendrick Motorsports dislodged itself from the shoal.
CASUALLY-DRESSED BROADCAST BOOTH
While NBC’s lap-by-lap announcer Rick Allen took to pit road, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte donned T-Shirt attire to call the race from the booth.
How was it? Well as Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports put it on Twitter…
This NBC broadcast so far feels like three guys just sitting at a bar discussing what’s happening on the TVs in front of them.
As someone who regularly watches episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I thought it was an interesting change of pace to see three personalities commentate on the race in a more casual fashion. While Allen did well on pit road, the booth was rough at times with the lack of lap-by-lap direction. But overall, it was serviceable.
While I think Allen is best suited for the booth, I’m fine with Earnhardt going T-Shirt casual the rest of the season. And I’m not the only one.
For those who've never seen/watched a race at @NHMS, passing here is a premium. You have to set up the pass for three or four laps, before making your move. #NASCAR
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Beer Ford, celebrates with a burnout after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
While New Hampshire isn’t high on my list of favorite tracks, and I even tweeted that we should only race once a year at Loudon, the PJ1/VHT/TrackBite/Sticky Stuff and its diminishing returns as the race ran on made for an intriguing race. Yeah, it dragged a few times, but passing wasn’t a Herculean task and the leader never pulled too far away from the second-place car that clean air was the be all end all.
Loudon has been described as “Martinsville on steroids.” Well, that was the case yesterday, as lap traffic negated the clean air advantage. It allowed Harvick to reel in Kyle Busch and bump him out of the groove with four laps to go and steal the victory.
“…your goal is to not wreck him (Busch). Your goal is to move him out of the groove, get away from him far enough because you know they’re going to be mad. Today that was the situation. I knew his car was going to get wide. He was going to be tough to pass. Kyle Busch is one of the toughest to pass when he has control of the race. For me, that was the moment that I needed to make it happen, drive away, he finished second, right?”
The Foxwoods Resort and Casino 301 was the cap to a fantastic weekend of racing: From Chase Briscoe edging out Grant Enfinger to win the Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora, to Christopher Bell out-racing Brad Keselowski in the run to the finish of the XFINITY Grand National Series race at Loudon, all three races delivered.
Sitting center at the podium in the deadline room at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a disappointed Aric Almirola put on a forced smile as he elaborated on his third-place finish.
“You’d think I’d be happy (smiling). We had an incredible Smithfield Ford Fusion today, felt like it was the car to beat, for sure. We got out front there and felt really good about it, felt comfortable. That last caution there, we came down pit road leading, went out third, lost control of the race. Then I spun my tires on the restart and didn’t even give myself a fighting chance to go race for the win.
“Just frustrated on all parts that we didn’t execute the way we needed to to try and win. Chicago we had a car capable of winning, and didn’t get it done. Here again, had a car capable of winning, didn’t get it done.”
After usurping the lead from teammate Kevin Harvick with 69 laps to go and with a car that gained speed over long runs, Almirola had the race in check. That long-run advantage evaporated, however, when teammate Clint Bowyer hit the Turn 3 wall with 45 to go. A pit miscue on the left-front tire cost him the lead.
On the ensuing restart with 39 to go, he spun his tires and fell back to sixth in the running order. While Harvick nudged Kyle Busch out of the groove in the closing laps to win, Almirola rallied to a third-place finish.
“I laid back off of Harvick’s bumper a little bit, was trying to time the restart to roll up to him and Kyle (Busch),” Almirola said. “Kyle went right at the beginning, maybe even slightly before. He went right at the beginning, if nothing else, of the restart zone. It caught me off guard. Earlier in the race they had been dragging the restart out further in the restart zone. I was kind of anticipating that. When Kyle fired, I was caught off guard. When I fired, I just spun the tires because I wasn’t prepared.”
While his runs in the first two stages weren’t notable, he finished 10th in the first stage and fifth in the second, Almirola first took the lead with 89 to go when he used lap traffic as a pick to overtake teammate Kurt Busch for the lead. He surrendered the lead to pit 15 laps later and cycled back to second, right behind Harvick. With 69 to go, he used lap traffic as a pick again to pass Harvick for the lead in Turn 3, which he maintained until the aforementioned caution with 45 to go.
“It’s frustrating. But everybody keeps telling me, ‘You got to lose some before you win some.’ So we’ve lost some. Time to stop it, time to go to Victory Lane. We’re capable. We have a race team capable of doing it. Our cars are really fast. Just ready to go get to Victory Lane next week. Where we going next week? Pocono, perfect. Let’s go.”
Almirola led 42 laps (his highest since Kansas in 2012), earned his first Top-five of the season and leaves Loudon 11th in points.
In a race that appeared to be in Aric Almirola’s hands in the final 45 laps, a late caution in the Foxwoods 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway essentially set up a finish between two of the top three title favorites.
Aggression prevailed on a day where rain seemingly encompassed the 1.058-mile speedway. Finally getting the green flag around 4:25 p.m. ET, pole-sitter Kurt Busch appeared to be the early race favorite.
Leading 94 of 301 laps, Busch’s bid for the win was derailed by a near crash on pit road with fellow Ford racer Ryan Blaney.
Meanwhile, Almirola’s car came to life during a long green flag run, taking the top spot within the final 50 laps before Clint Bowyer crashed into the wall between Turns 3 and 4. Consequently, the final pit stop proved costly for Almirola.
On the other hand, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick suddenly found themselves with a chance to score the win. During the final 10 laps, Kyle Busch’s advantage over a hard-charging Harvick evaporated like the rain at Loudon. Both past Cup champions navigated the high line at Loudon, not wanting to give an inch to each other.
With five laps to go, Harvick decided to use the chrome horn on Busch, rooting the Las Vegas native from the top spot in turn two. While Busch saved his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota from the wall, Harvick piloted his No. 4 Busch Beer Ford to his sixth win of the 2018 season.
To say the least, the Bakersfield, California native relished his late race move at “The Magic Mile,” living up to his moniker as “The Closer.”
“I just didn’t know if I was going to get there again,” Harvick said. “It felt like that was my best opportunity to do what I had to do to win. I didn’t want to wreck him but I didn’t want to waste a bunch of time behind him.”
Despite scoring wins at Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dover, and Kansas, Harvick’s focus on a second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title has been precise. On the other hand, the grizzled veteran noted how Loudon, Pocono, and Watkins Glen were tracks he hoped to improve on given his dominant regular season.
“Winning is important,” Harvick remarked. “You’ve got to take every opportunity you can. My car was better in the lane I needed to be in and as you get to the end there, you need to be aggressive.”
While Harvick, Busch, and Almirola earned podium finishes, Martin Truex Jr, Chase Elliott, Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Joey Logano, and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-10.
Following a weekend in the Granite State, the premier division treks down to Pocono Raceway for the Gander Outdoor 400, where Kyle Busch looks to repeat his victory from last year. Round 21 of the season goes green shortly after 2:50 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
Christopher Bell held off Brad Keselowski and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ryan Preece to win Saturday’s Lakes Region 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, scoring his third XFINITY Series win for 2018 and fourth career win overall. Bell, who started second, led 93 of the 200 scheduled laps and crossed the line .416 seconds ahead of Keselowski’s Team Penske Ford.
John Hunter Nemechek finished fourth and Matt Tifft took fifth to round out the top-five. Brandon Jones, Justin Allgaier, Elliott Sadler, Cole Custer, and Austin Dillon rounded out the sixth through 10th positions.
“You hope to race those guys at one point, so I’m thankful that I get the opportunity here in the Xfinity Series to race with them and proud that I’m able to compete with them, let alone beat them,” Bell said.
The win is Bell’s second straight, both wins coming ahead of Cup champions as Bell also defeated series regular Daniel Hemric and a dominant Kyle Busch at Kentucky a week ago.
The win makes Bell the winningest XFINITY Series regular in 2018 after 18 events, with Allgaier (two wins), Tyler Reddick (one win), and Spencer Gallagher (one win) being the only other regulars to win this season. Preece, despite having one win this season (Bristol) is only competing part-time this season. Bell still remains second in points to Hemric, who despite remaining winless in 2018 leads the standings by six points over Bell by virtue of finishing 11th Saturday.
Bell’s win over Keselowski also reignited the discussion of whether or not Cup regulars should race in the XFINITY Series. His victory was seen as a win for the up-and-comers of the sport with Bell saying that he believes that Cup drivers should be allowed in the division so he could race against the best drivers in NASCAR.
Bell also spoke highly of his Joe Gibbs Racing equipment, pointing out the expectation to win with the team.
“Whenever you come to here, you step in this equipment at Joe Gibbs Racing, you’re expected to win,” he said. “Pressure’s on for you to deliver and thankfully I’ve been able to deliver, at least some of the time. They’ve won before me, they’re going to win after me. It’s my job to make sure they win with me.”
The XFINITY Series stops next at Iowa Speedway, where Allgaier won back in June, leading 182 laps on the way to victory. Preece scored his first career win in the event a year ago for JGR, whose Toyotas have won three times at the speedway.
The U.S. Cellular 250 airs Saturday, July 28, at 4 p.m. on NBCSN.
UPDATE: Green flag set for 4:15 p.m. ET after delay at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
NASCAR and track officials have moved up the start time for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to 1 p.m. ET (NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) because of the potential of wet weather.
The Monster Energy Series race was originally set for 2 p.m. ET. That start time — and all pre-race ceremonies — have been moved up to one hour earlier.
Officials reached that decision Saturday morning, faced with a chance of precipitation in the race-day forecast at the 1.058-mile track.
Kurt Busch will start on the pole for the race while Martin Truex Jr. rolls off second. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney round out the top five starters.
LOUDON, N.H. — Early bird Kurt Busch ran his best lap of the day in the final round of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to earn the top starting spot for Sunday’s Foxwoods 301 (2 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The first driver on the track for decisive Round 3, Busch covered the one-mile distance in 28.511 seconds (133.591 mph) to edge reigning series champion Martin Turex Jr. by .019 seconds. Truex will start from the front row for the seventh time this season.
“I don’t want to second-guess anything, so when the crew chief (Billy Scott) says ‘Go,’ you just go,” said Busch, who won his first Busch Pole Award in 35 races at the Magic Mile, his third of the season and the 25th of his career. “I like the way we made the right changes through each of the rounds, and we stuck to a game plan.
“That’s exactly what you hope to have each time you go to qualifying, where you don’t have to deviate away from the plan you set in place.”
In fact, the three rounds of qualifying for Busch followed a script that had been written before the first round began.
“We discussed it, and the call was made back at the hauler before the qualifying session started,” Busch said. “It was almost like a non-discussion. It was, ‘This is what’s going to happen in Round 1, this is what’s going to happen in Round 2, and here’s what’s going to happen in Round 3’—and we stuck to our plan.”
Truex felt he lost what could have been a pole-winning run in the first corner.
“I just missed Turn 1 just slightly there in that last run on the first lap, but overall it was a solid day,” Truex said. “We had a decent practice – a short practice, you know, because we waited a little bit for the VHT (traction compound) to kind of get run in, and we went out there and ran and were probably a little bit off further on balance more than we needed to be at the end of practice.
“So made some changes for qualifying, and the guys did a good job of getting it right and we were close. So couple thousandths, a few inches here or there in a different spot on the race track and might have been able to make it up, but a solid effort for us, and we can go get them on Sunday from second.”
Led by his brother, Kyle Busch, Toyota drivers occupied the top five positions in Round 2, but Kurt Busch broke the monopoly in the round that counted in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Kyle Busch ended up third, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, as Camry drivers claimed positions two through four on the grid.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman earned the eighth starting position in the fastest Chevrolet.
“To come here and qualify a solid top 10 means the car is probably a whole lot better than that, which is a good thing for me come Sunday,” said Bowman, who entered this race weekend with an average starting position at Loudon of 30.8 and previous best qualifying effort of 18th.
With Erik Jones earning the seventh position and Daniel Suarez qualifying ninth, JGR drivers placed all four cars in the top 10. Surprisingly, Busch was the only Stewart Haas driver to make the cut for the 12-driver final round.
The Team Penske Fords of Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski will start fifth and sixth, respectively, on Sunday.
