From the granite state where the ‘lobstah’ rules, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 22nd Annual Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Surprising: Team Penske had an interesting day, with one driver taking the broom while the other driver went boom. Brad Keselowski, this week behind the wheel of the No. 2 Redd’s Ford, took his broom to Victory Lane, sweeping both the Nationwide and Cup races and scoring his first lobster trophy at New Hampshire.
“I don’t want this moment to go away so quick,” Keselowski said. “This was just such a phenomenal weekend, and these don’t happen that often, and that’s what makes it special, and you try to appreciate them and enjoy them and hope that there’s more but not count on it, because these are big deals, winning races at the Sprint Cup level, sweeping a weekend, and it’s all possible because of the hard work and effort from everyone at Team Penske.”
His Penske teammate Joey Logano, however, went boom in his No. 22 AutoTrader.com Ford, colliding with Morgan Shepherd and wrecking out to finish 40th.
“I got taken out by the slowest car out there,” Logano said after his collision with Shepherd. “You would think there would be some courtesy to the leaders. We were in second place. He gets out of the way on the straightaway and then goes into the corner and slides right up into the lane I was in.”
“Whatever. It is just dumb that it happened,” Logano continued. “I feel like that should be stuff that shouldn’t happen at this level of racing.”
Not Surprising: Right behind Keselowski, who was so dominant in this race, were the dueling Kyles, Kyle Busch, who came in second for the third consecutive time at New Hampshire, and Kyle Larson, who scored the highest rookie honors after finishing third for his fourth career top-five finish.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a rivalry,” Kyle Larson said of his race with Kyle Busch. “We just somehow are always finishing by each other. It seems like I’m usually one spot behind him (laughing), but it’ll change soon. It’ll change soon.”
Surprising: Jimmie Johnson, who has scored the lobster in Victory Lane at New Hampshire three times previously, hit the road surprisingly early after crashing out of the race on Lap 11 because of tire issues.
“The first one (tire) I was able to drive the car all the way through Turns 1 and 2,” Johnson said. “I knew I had a flat and then got down the back and came in.”
“The other one just blew on the straight as soon as I hit the brakes,” Johnson continued. “I’m not sure what caused it. I’m sure there will be a lot of speculation and I’m sure finger pointing back to the teams or our team. But we saw some issues here especially with that particular tire the last couple of days. We will try to dig in and learn more, but I can promise you one thing is wasn’t low tire pressure. I’ve been out here for two days running around and haven’t had a flat.”
“But on the bright side…I get to start vacation early,” Johnson later posted on his Facebook page.
Not Surprising: Matt Kenseth, who took the checkered flag in the fourth position, finally seemed pleased with the direction that his Joe Gibbs No. 20 team was headed.
“Overall, it was a good day for our Dollar General Camry,” Kenseth said. “I thought we really gained on it. Denny (Hamlin) and them guys really helped us a lot this week. I felt like all three cars were top-five race cars today. I feel like we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
“I felt like we were definitely in the ball game today.”
Surprising: This season, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is such a competitor that even a 10th place finish, especially after qualifying 28th, was completely disappointing to him.
“That was frustrating, the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet, said. “That was the hardest I’ve ever worked for a 10th place finish. It’s been a real frustrating weekend to be honest. The guys worked real hard. Steve (Letarte, crew chief) and the engineers did their best to try to get the car more competitive. Just to be lacking that much speed against a lot of those guys, I had to drive so perfect every lap.”
“That was really frustrating,” Junior continued. “I wish we were better. We are going to have to come back here and run better than that to have a shot in the Chase. We will keep working.”
“10th place I’m really disappointed, but I remember when we used to like these.”
Not Surprising: NHMS was once again just a gas, gas, gas, with both Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick running out of fuel and finishing 26th and 30th respectively.
“We knew we were very close,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, said. “That pick-up is in the right side and so I was scuffing my tires and think I just took enough fuel out of the pick-up and I could never get any back in there.”
“I tried. I think if we would have gone green, we would have been fine,” Gordon continued. “I think it was really just because under caution it wouldn’t pick-up the amount of fuel that was in there.”
“We got to go for it so I thought it was a great call even if we did come up short.”
DeLana Harvick was not as positive about the fuel mileage rolling of the dice for her husband as Gordon seemed to be. She tweeted this after the race.
“Came out on the bullshittiness side of interesting today..#fuelmileage. Ready for a week off with my boys!”
Surprising: Martin Truex Jr. was the biggest mover, at least at the end of the race, gaining ten positions on the green-white-checkered restart and moving from 22nd to finish 12th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“The biggest reason we gained 12 positions on the final restart is that we had fresh tires and got in the right lane,” explained Truex. “We never had good restarts all day, but once we settled in and had a decent car we made a move at the end. You have to keep fighting — you never know what can happen.”
“That was a good call to come in for two tires during that last caution.”
Not Surprising: It is always tough to get back into a race car after being out for some time and even someone as adept at New Hampshire as Jeff Burton was no exception. Burton took the wheel of the No. 66 Let’s Go Places Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing and finished a disappointing 20th at a track in which he has so often dominated in the past.
“We had a good car — we just never got track position,” Burton said. “And then Danica (Patrick) got into me there — I think Tony (Stewart) was working the outside and I think she just thought Tony was on the outside. Got the right side tore up.”
“After that, we never turned. We tried to fix it with changes, but we couldn’t fix it because it was all aero,” Burton continued. “I’m really disappointed with the outcome. Three-quarters of the way through the race I thought we’re doing pretty good.”
Surprising: A local hero racer Eddie MacDonald of Rowley, Massachusetts, made his Sprint Cup Series debut and finished the race in the 35th spot. This also marked a milestone for the driver of the tryandrozene.com Ford as he completed all five of the sport’s top series.
“This is what I always dreamed of, being able to run in the Sprint Cup Race,” MacDonald said. “It meant the world for me to be able to do that and have my whole family here.”
“Our goal was just to stay up there, stay out of trouble and run as many laps as we could,” MacDonald continued. “Thankfully, we were able to stay out of trouble and get a fair finish.”
Not Surprising: TNT was given a fond farewell as they ended their partnership with NASCAR of 32 years.
“There is no question that the folks at Turner have been fantastic partners for the past 32 years, and we can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done to grow the sport during that time frame,” Brian France, NASCAR chairman and chief executive officer, said. “Their dedication to producing first-class, innovative NASCAR broadcasts has never wavered.”
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will enjoy a weekend off next week and will resume with the race on Sunday, July 27th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
