Week 28 Preview: New Hampshire

Osram Sylvania 300

Week 28

By Richard Tix

This weekend I am making my annual trip up north (Minnesota) for a guys fishing trip. I wont have everything up this week as I have limited reception but I wanted to make sure I at least get the Chase Race Week 2 Preview out for everyone who comes here every week. Check out the Good, Middle, and Bad Preview. Here are the results from the Camping World RV Sales 301 earlier this season.

Check out the Camping World RV Sales 301 Preview 


The Good, Middle, and Bad
(This is just a review of each drivers recent past performance, generally about 5-10 past races)

The Good

• Denny Hamlin- DH is up to 17 career starts, 11 top 10's, 7 top 5's, and 2 wins. Its just Chase race #2 but NH could be a turning point for Hamlin in this three race set.
• Jimmie Johnson- JJ may have went out earlier this year on the first stop at NH (11 total laps, Crash), but that can not take away from his history here. In 25 races he has 17 career top 10's, 9 top 5's, and 3 wins (last one in 2010). 
• Brad Keselowski- BK won his first lobster earlier this year after leading 138 of 305 laps in the Camping RV Sales 301. Before that he had 5 top 10's, 3 top 5's (the other two were 6th), and 2 poles.
• Extra Credit- Jeff Gordon

The Middle

• Kevin Harvick- Harvick only has 4 top 10's in his last 10 starts at NH, but in 2010 he did have back to back 5th's. He isn't bad here, but he doesn't seem to string a bunch of quality finishes back to back here.

The Bad

• Aric Almirola- Not good news for Aric's Chase hopes, he only has 1 top 10 in 8 career starts at NH. In fact he only has 2 top 20 finishes in that same span. Most of the time he finishes right around 20-25, which he will need more to move on.
• AJ Allmendinger- Another Chase hopefully, AJ has 1 top 10 in 11 career starts. Unlike Aric, he has 4 top 20's and 3 finishes 12th or better (all since 2010). So, there is some hope for AJ (however little).
• Paul Menard- Menard is on a career streak of 15 races at NH without a top 10. That is in fact, all of his starts at NH (15). On the plus side, in his last 7 he hasn't finished outside the top 25 and has 5 top 20's (I guess if you call that a plus side?).

Track Stats

• Rusty Wallace won the first race at Loudon in 1993. He started 33rd
• Most cautions was the second race at Loudon, 1994, 17 for 78 laps. Ricky Rudd won the race.
• A Cup race at Loudon has been won from the Pole position five times (Newman-2011, Clint Bowyer-2007, Kevin Harvick-2006, Newman-2002, and Jeff Gordon-1998).
• In 1999 Jeff Burton won after starting 38th (farthest back a winner has started).
• Ryan Newman has won the Pole at Loudon an astounding 7 times in his 25 starts.
• 5 current full time drivers have 3 total wins at Loudon (Gordon, Newman, Johnson, Stewart, and Ku Busch). Jeff Burton (part time) has 4 career Loudon wins.

Have a good weekend everyone! Thanks for checking out NASCAR Behind the Wall. Power Rankings will get up before the weekend (just later than normal)!