NASCAR Cup PR

“It was kind of a struggle this morning, but actually there it felt pretty good. Definitely a lot better than what we had in practice. I missed it a little bit on the lap. It had some more in it. Just didn’t hit it right. The Stanley Camry felt good there, so I think that was the first time all day I’ve had a good feel in the car and if we can kind of transfer that into tomorrow, that’d be a positive.”

“I don’t know that I’ve ever necessarily looked at a pre-Brexton era and a post. There’s something else that kind of happened around that same timeframe and that was Adam Stevens (crew chief). I think just having the opportunities to work with him and to have the communications that we had from the Xfinity side that transferred to the Cup side since 2015. Since having Brexton there’s been some good success as well too – the championship in 2015 and certainly would have liked to have won a couple more. We’ve been in the Championship 4 four years in a row, but can’t seem to close out the deal when it matters most in the final race, the only race that counts. We’ve just got to keep fighting for that and try to get better and making sure that we’re ready to go when it comes down to that time.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR THE HEAT THAT IS EXPECTED THIS WEEKEND? “You really just try to hydrate as much as you can and also you eat good on race day.  You don’t want anything bad in your system and also have as many electrolytes as you can.  We usually all have something that we use to try and get some electrolytes in us, so that’s pretty big.”

This weekend Corey LaJoie will make his 12th visit to Loudon, New Hampshire as a NASCAR driver, and his fifth as a driver in the Monster Energy Cup Series.

Richard Childress Racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway ... Richard Childress has four victories as a team owner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with Robby Gordon (2001), Kevin Harvick (2006) and Clint Bowyer (2007 and 2010). In 126 starts at the 1.058-mile oval, Childress also has two pole awards, 16 top-five and 41 top-10 finishes.

The past and present of the Wood Brothers and their Motorcraft/Quick Lane team come together this week as they’re preparing the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang that Paul Menard will race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, while also unveiling their Southern 500 car, which is inspired by the 1957 Ford Sunliner raced by the team’s late founder Glenn Wood.

Kurt Busch’s victory at Kentucky Speedway was the third in a row for Chevrolet in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, following Justin Haley at Daytona and Alex Bowman at Chicagoland. Team Chevy last accomplished the feat in 2015 on three separate occasions. Most recently, it occurred in the November races at Martinsville (Jeff Gordon winner), Texas (Jimmie Johnson) and Phoenix (Dale Earnhardt Jr.).

Bowman on the playoffs: “With seven races to go in the regular season, we are really focused on the points. Getting the win in Chicagoland locked us into the playoffs, which was what we have been looking to do all season. Now, we are looking at getting the most amount of points that we can during a race to get ourselves in a good position when we head to Las Vegas in September.”

Kevin Harvick arrives at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) certainly feeling optimistic about his chances of – at last – scoring that first victory of 2019.

Lobster Connection… Toyota has nine NASCAR Cup Series wins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with Camry drivers most recently posting victories at the one-mile track when Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch swept a pair of races in 2017. Hamlin has the highest average finish (10.2) among active drivers and has scored top-10 finishes in over half of his starts at the track. In addition to his win in 2017, Hamlin also won in a Toyota in 2012 after scoring his first victory in 2007.