NASCAR Cup PR

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.

“New Hampshire is always a cool track to visit. We don't race too much in the Northeast, so it's nice to be able to see the fans up there. New Hampshire is a tight, tough racetrack, which makes for a long Sunday, but if you plan ahead and can get your car setup right, you'll be successful. I'm confident that Drew and the entire No. 34 crew will be able to put together a great racecar for us this weekend.”

New Hampshire Preview: The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be heading to New England for 301 laps of action at New Hampshire Motor speedway on Sunday, July 21. With Hamlin and team incurring costly penalties the last two races, Denny and team will be looking to improve their race execution and hoping for their third win of the 2019 Cup Series season.

Newman will make his 34th MENCS start at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. In 33 prior events, Newman has three wins (tied for most of any track), seven top fives and 19 top-10 finishes. His overall average finish is 13.7 with 722 laps led, second-most of any track on the Cup circuit (behind Dover – 849).

DIBENEDETTO BY THE NUMBERS: In seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto has an average start of 27.0 and an average finish of 30.4.  He’s completed 2,082 of 2,104 (99.0 percent) career laps at “The Magic Mile.”

Stenhouse Jr. has 11 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with an average starting position of 22.5 and average finishing position of 20.8.

Nineteen races are now official and the Go Fas Racing organization has had a very respectable first-half of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Driver Corey LaJoie started his first season with the organization off with an 18th-place finish at the prestigious Daytona 500. LaJoie wheeled the now-famous Old Spice Mustang for the crown-jewel, which returned for a second appearance the following weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.