Hamlin Snaps JGR’s 20 Race NASCAR Cup Winless Streak With Victory At NHMS

Story By: AMY HARROP & MATTHEW WIERNASZ / RPW – LOUDON, NH – Sunday was met with sunny skies and New England personalities coming together to enjoy the action-packed Overton’s 301; July’s highlight NASCAR race at NHMS.

Boston Bruins’ players Brandon Carlo and Tim Schaller were on-site, excited to attend the day’s festivities. The New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was also in attendance, being honored as the official pace car driver. McDaniels is a NASCAR fan himself, having attended this race in the past with both his family and his players. In his pre-race press conference, McDaniels said that he thinks it would be cool to see Tom Brady get behind the wheel of a race car, seeing that he achieves anything that he sets his mind to. On the other hand, everyone shared laughs when he said that he’d be scared to see Rob Gronkowski attempting to wheel a race car. Recycled Percussion, a musical act that uses tools and household items as instruments, was the feature act for the pre-race concert.

The feature race began with some confusion for the #48 team, with Jimmie Johnson receiving a start violation from NASCAR due to him getting a jumpstart on the #78 of Truex. Meanwhile, Matt Kenseth, who just announced his departure from Joe Gibbs racing after the 2017 season, powered his way up to second, making his way to Truex’s rear bumper. Truex managed to pull away from him, setting the pace as Johnson came down pit row to serve his pass-through penalty on lap 3. Kyle Busch, who’s surprisingly facing a 34-race winless streak, began to make his way through the field swiftly, passing the #1 of Jamie McMurray on lap 11 for the third position. Larson, who started at the rear of the field due to failing post-qualifying inspection, powered his way through the field, finding his way up to the 15th spot by lap 17. Jimmie Johnson found the rear of the field on lap 20 after falling back due to his penalty, slowly chipping into the track position he lost while serving the penalty for his violation. Truex caught up to the back of the field early, lapping cars one-by-one before lap 30. A competition caution was brought out on lap 35, with teams being left with the decision on whether to pit or not. All of the leaders decided to pit, with no change to the top 5 upon exit. Kyle Larson was the big winner on this round of pit stops, making his way up to sixth.

Truex Jr. led the field back to green, followed by Kenseth, Kyle Busch, McMurray and Hamlin. Truex quickly drove away with the lead, but danger was brewing. The #77 of Erik Jones, who just announced his move to the #20 Joe Gibbs car in 2018, had made contact with Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin upon exiting the pits during the caution, cutting down his right front tire. The bum tire sent him up into the wall in turn 3, ending his day early on lap 42.

The field went back to green on lap 46, with Truex pulling away from the field once again. Kyle Larson was charging, finding his way up to the third spot by lap 53 after starting the race from the 39th position. Truex found the rear of the field once again on lap 65, setting the pace. The #72 of Cole Whitt blew his engine on lap 67, with a trail of white smoke following his Chevrolet as he brought it behind the wall. The top 11 cars elected to stay out during the caution, but Brad Kesleowski, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola and Paul Menard were among those that elected to pit.

It was a 2-lap dash to the end of stage 1, with Truex Jr. continuing his dominance over the rest of the field. He went on to win stage 1, followed by Kenseth, Larson, McMurray and Kyle Busch. This stage win earned Truex 10 stage points and 1 playoff point, making this his fourteenth stage win on the season. Truex Jr. elected to pit this time around, giving up his lead. Kenseth, Larson, McMurray and Elliott followed him in the race off of pit road. But, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and others elected to stay out, making them the new drivers at the front of the pack. The field was brought down to the pits on lap 80 to make track repairs on a 4” x 6” hole in turns 3 and 4, resulting in the red flag. It was a quick delay in the racing action, with the red flag only lasting for 5 minutes and 29 seconds.

The field took the green flag on lap 83, with Kyle Busch quickly pulling away from the #21 of Ryan Blaney at the front of the field. The #3 of Austin Dillon spun around in turn 4 on lap 87 after making contact with the #17 of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., drawing out the caution. Austin Dillon and Stenhouse were among those that pitted during the caution, but all of the leaders elected to stay out.

Kyle Busch elected the outside line for the restart on lap 92, pulling away from the field. Stewart-HAAS drivers Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch powered their way around the #21 of Ryan Blaney, capturing the second and third place positions. The #11 of Denny Hamlin was making his way through the field, finding his way up to the third position by lap 97. After restarting the race toward the back of the pack, Truex Jr. had found his way back into the top 10 by lap 112, sitting in eighth. He continued his march to the front of the pack, clearing the #21 of Ryan Blaney for P6 on lap 115 in turn 2. Kyle Larson was also making his voyage back to the front, clearing the #22 of Joey Logano on lap 128 for the 9th position. Lap 130 was met for a wild battle for the 10th place position between Dale Jr., Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez. Suarez managed to squeeze by the challenging cars, capturing the 10th spot. The field was completely spread out by lap 145, with 5 laps to go in stage 2. Kyle Busch ran away with the stage win, followed by Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson. This was stage win #5 of the season for Kyle Busch, earning him 10 stage points and 1 playoff point. All of the leaders elected to pit this time around, with Hamlin leading the race off of pit road. Harvick, Truex, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson followed, with the #18 of Busch losing 3 spots under caution due to his jack falling too early during his pit stop.

Hamlin elected the outside line for the restart, with Kevin Harvick to his inside. Lap 157 was met with a wild battle for the lead between Hamlin, Truex and Kyle Busch. But, Hamlin managed to maintain the lead, pulling away from the other 2 cars. Truex Jr. continued his march back to the front, clearing Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot in turn 2 on lap 163. Truex found Hamlin’s door on lap 167, but was unable to complete the pass for the top spot. He found the inside of Hamlin in turn 1 on lap 172, capturing the lead. But, his car got loose in turn 2 and slid up the track, losing him the top spot. New England native Joey Logano pulled into the pits on lap 174 after facing problems with the left rear of his #22 car, later bringing his car behind the wall. These troubles for the #22 car ended his chance to contend for the victory. By lap 182, Truex had found his way to the front once again, pulling away with a 1.4 second lead over Kyle Busch. Ryan Blaney and his #21 crew were not happy with their changes made on their last pit stop, falling back 5 positions back to 13th by lap 192. Kyle Larson captured the 4th spot on lap 205 after passing Kevin Harvick to the inside in turn 1. Joey Logano pulled back onto pit road on lap 207 after suffering from a rear suspension failure, trying to salvage whatever points he could. Logano was 33 laps down when he returned to the track.

Truex and Suarez were the first leaders to come down the pits for green flag pit stops on lap 218, with Truex being forced to pit due to a flat right front tire. Danica Patrick, Ty Dillon and others followed, copying the leaders. Two top-5 contenders, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, elected to pit on lap 235. Clint Bowyer’s pit crew had multiple problems on their pit stop on lap 236, causing him to lose a handful of positions. Kyle Busch elected to pit on lap 238 for 4 tires and fuel. He was served with a speeding penalty after his pit stop, being forced to come back down pit road for a pass-through penalty on lap 241. After serving the penalty, he was posted as being one lap down. Dale Jr. was stretching his fuel, saving his pit stop for lap 246. This pit stop was performed 28 laps after the leader, Truex, elected to pit. The #20 of Matt Kenseth, who recently announced that he will not be racing for Joe Gibbs Racing next season, was all over Truex’s back bumper of lap 258, clearing him for the lead on lap 260 in turn 1. Ryan Newman went around in turn 1 on lap 263, drawing out the caution. All of the leaders elected to pit this time around. Kenseth took 2 tires, but the majority of the other leaders elected to take 4 tires. The #18 car was served with a speeding penalty once again on this caution, forcing him to restart at the tail end of the field. Dale Earnhardt Jr. elected to stay out with fresher tires, restarting at the front of the field.

The #20 of Kenseth and #11 of Hamlin blew right by Earnhardt Jr. and pulled away from the field, with Hamlin clearing Kenseth for the lead on lap 267 in turn 4. Hamlin broke away with a 1.5 second lead on lap 276, with Kenseth and Larson battling for the runner-up spot behind him. Larson pulled away with the position and Truex joined in, passing the #20 of Matt Kenseth for the 3rd spot on lap 277. Hamlin extended his lead to 2 seconds on lap 185, blowing past slower traffic. Kyle Larson was chipping away at his lead little by little, cutting it down to 1 second by lap 292 with under 9 laps to go. Hamlin held off Larson for the win, earning his first victory of 2017 and locking himself into the 2017 Chase playoffs. This was the 7th runner-up finish for the #42 of Kyle Larson this season. Following Larson and Hamlin were Truex, Kenseth and Harvick. Rookie Daniel Suarez took home 6th place, making this one of his best finishes of the 2017 season. This win also broke a 20-race winless streak for JGR, which is uncanny compared to recent years. Hamlin celebrating by starting his burnout celebration in turn 2, coming to a stop in front of the flagstand at the start/finish line. “It’s cool to win one like this.” he said in his victory speech, adding that he’d love to race at NHMS “twenty times a year”. Hamlin, running with a back-up car due to a wreck earlier in the weekend, was able to pull off the win in the end over a charging Larson, working hard to earn his berth in the Chase playoffs.

Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Wheeler hails out of Long Island With JGR and Denny Hamlin getting their first win of the year it does feel like a home win for Wheeler.

“ I actually didn’t realize until Ricky asked me in Victory Lane about being a home track. It’s one of the closest tracks I’ve got to home. I raced here before he started paying me, which was good. Had to pay my way in here type of deal. Raced modifieds here and all that kind of stuff.

So yeah, I didn’t really quite realize it, but probably most of my closest friends are in this area. Hung out with a guy like last night that I used to race late models with. Definitely part of me is very happy for that part of it. Honestly, I was so happy that we got JGR a win, got Toyota a win, got FedEx a win, got the 11 car a win that I didn’t think even about how that ties to being close to home. But obviously, yeah, a little something special here.” Wheeler Said

It was announced earlier in the week that the VHT surface would be added at the Magic Mile. Denny Hamlin said it was good and thought it changed dramatically throughout the race.

“ I would love to see a lot of new paved racetracks, Kentucky, Texas, tracks out of the preferred lane. If they could put it in the higher lanes and force us to go up higher to search for it, I think you could create a lot of really good racing in the future. Obviously NASCAR is easing into it. New Hampshire did a good job of listening to the drivers and where they wanted to put it, and I think it created a multi-lane racetrack today like really we hadn’t seen here in a while.” Hamlin Said

It was announced earlier in the week that Erik Jones would take over in place of Matt Kenseth in the # 20 at Joe Gibbs Racing in 2018. Joe Gibbs weighed in on Matt Kenseth

“ From Matt’s standpoint, Matt really had a good car today. Felt like he had a chance. It was just making some decisions at the end there. But really what I said earlier, that you’re planning things out for years in advance, and we did not expect to be where we are today. We had a plan, and things kept coming up and kept changing. I mentioned Carl Edwards just being one of those. But all of a sudden things start changing, it puts you in a situation where you have to make a tough decision. We did not want to do that. Certainly didn’t want to — we didn’t want to do something to upset Matt. He’s been a great partner for us, and our drivers, everybody said, we don’t want to race against him. I think that’s what’s going to happen. It was just a tough situation for us. Things changed, and then we got forced into making a decision.” Gibbs Said

What makes Joe Gibbs Racing successful at Loudon. Denny Hamlin feels it started out when Tony Stewart was racing for the team years ago and watched turn many laps at the Magic Mile

“ The cars have changed. But just kind of being a student to the game and seeing what all he’s done. He was a great leader, and really, I think, when I got to drive his car at Richmond in my rookie year during a test and kind of felt what he thought was a good short track package, I just kind of levitated to that ever since I got in a race car on a short track, and I think it’s raised all of our games. Really the short tracks and flat tracks weren’t really Kyle’s forte.” Hamlin Said

We worked together so much now over the last few years, he’s really good if not exceeded beyond that. Matt has came in and been dominant at this racetrack and so we look at him and look at his notes, and so I think it’s just kind of a feeding off of all the good things that have happened here, and everyone is just working off of that and getting better.” Hamlin Said

Mike Wheeler thought once you get a good package at this track that works good you will understand why

“ It’s easy to kind of duplicate over time, do different tire changes and aero changes. It might take a race or two to get it back, but once the drivers get a good feel for what it takes to get around here, get in the corner, get off the corner, you can go year in, year out and try to get that same feel for them again. Just really at all the tracks, they’re intermediate and they know what it takes to make a car go fast around the track; give them that feel the next time you go back there is what you try to search for.” Wheeler Said

Joe Gibbs feels it all around team that works hard together.

“ These guys are the key because you’ve got to have great drivers and great crew chiefs, but also the guys back home, our technical people work extremely hard, and so it takes all of that in this sport. It’s hard to do. And so you’ve got to enjoy each and every one of these wins because they’re hard to come by. This year is a good example.” Gibbs Said

While drivers like Hamlin, Larson and Truex continued to excel, drivers like Joey Logano and Dale Jr. were unable to get it done at NHMS. But, there’s still 5 more races until the Chase begins in Chicago on September 17th, so only time will tell on what 12 drivers will return to NHMS in September to contend as championship eligible drivers.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series will head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend.

NASCAR will be back in New England at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 22nd-24th for the ISM Connect 300 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event along with the UNOH 175 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series F.W. Webb 100 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the ACT Tour Invitiational.

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race – Overton’s 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
Sunday, July 16, 2017

1. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301.
2. (39) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 301.
3. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 301.
4. (3) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 301.
5. (12) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 301.
6. (14) Daniel Suarez #, Toyota, 301.
7. (19) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 301.
8. (9) Kurt Busch, Ford, 301.
9. (10) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 301.
10. (2) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 301.
11. (11) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 301.
12. (7) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 301.
13. (30) Danica Patrick, Ford, 301.
14. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 301.
15. (26) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
16. (25) Ty Dillon #, Chevrolet, 301.
17. (4) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 301.
18. (18) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 301.
19. (15) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 301.
20. (27) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 301.
21. (23) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 301.
22. (29) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 301.
23. (28) Landon Cassill, Ford, 301.
24. (21) Aric Almirola, Ford, 301.
25. (22) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 300.
26. (20) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 300.
27. (24) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 300.
28. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 300.
29. (32) David Ragan, Ford, 300.
30. (16) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 299.
31. (31) Corey LaJoie #, Toyota, 298.
32. (36) * Ryan Sieg(i), Toyota, 298.
33. (37) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 297.
34. (35) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 296.
35. (34) * Gray Gaulding #, Toyota, 295.
36. (38) * Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 290.
37. (13) Joey Logano, Ford, 269.
38. (33) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, Engine, 66.
39. (6) Erik Jones #, Toyota, Accident, 40.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 105.8 mph.
Time of Race: 03 Hrs, 00 Mins, 36 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.509 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 7 for 34 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 6 drivers.

Lap Leaders: M. Truex Jr. 1-78; Kyle Busch 79-153; D. Hamlin 154-173; M. Truex Jr. 174-217; Kyle Busch 218-237; K. Larson 238; D. Earnhardt Jr. 239-245; M. Truex Jr. 246-260; M. Kenseth 261-263; D. Earnhardt Jr. 264-266; M. Kenseth 267; D. Hamlin 268-301.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): M. Truex Jr. 3 times for 137 laps; Kyle Busch 2 times for 95 laps; D. Hamlin 2 times for 54 laps; D. Earnhardt Jr. 2 times for 10 laps; M. Kenseth 2 times for 4 laps; K. Larson 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 78,20,42,1,18,5,31,21,11,24
Stage #2 Top Ten: 18,11,4,41,48,78,20,21,42,14