{"id":28796,"date":"2016-07-18T12:04:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T19:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=28796"},"modified":"2016-07-18T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T19:04:25","slug":"kenseth-and-busch-rally-in-nascar-new-hampshire-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/kenseth-and-busch-rally-in-nascar-new-hampshire-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenseth and Busch Rally in NASCAR New Hampshire Races"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASCAR
Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 17, 2016 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kenseth Thumps Sprint Cup Field with Late Race Pass in New Hampshire 301<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Matt Kenseth drove stealthily in Sunday\u2019s NASCAR Sprint Cup New Hampshire 301 to find the right time late in the race to take command from Kyle Busch, who along with Martin Truex, Jr. had dominated most of the day\u2019s race in front for a combined total of 256 laps.<\/p>\n

Although Kenseth led for only 38 laps, his Joe Gibbs Racing Dollar General Toyota was the strongest car when it counted the most holding off a hard charging Tony Stewart for second, who in his own race was fending off Joey Logano, a resurgent Kevin Harvick and a surprising Greg Biffle to round out the top five.<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s pole day qualifying, Kenseth mustered a best 18th<\/sup> place showing, but was seen laughing and commiserating with crew chief, Jason Ratliff afterwards with all his JGR crew knowing his car would be a contender despite their adverse start.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean, it always feels good to win, obviously, but I think today especially,\u201d said the 44-year old Kenseth, who won for the second straight time at the 1.058-mile flat track and for the 38th<\/sup> time in his career.\u00a0 \u201cFriday I didn’t do a good job qualifying.\u00a0\u00a0 We started middle of the pack.\u00a0 Our first run wasn’t great.\u00a0 I don’t know what he (Ratliff) adjusted but he made some great changes for run two, and really I felt like we had probably the best car all day.\u00a0 It just took forever to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota, leads a pack of cars. (Photo by Todd Warshaw\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stewart, however, was delighted with the effort of his team.\u00a0 He and first-year crew chief Mike Bugarewicz exchanged texts dealing with setup notes on Saturday night, after Stewart flew to Ohio to oversee the Kings Royal sprint car race at Eldora Speedway, which he owns.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, we had a much better Chevy today than what we had yesterday,” said Stewart, who is now 67 points ahead of 31st-place Brian Scott.\u00a0 \u201cI went off and went to Eldora for the Kings Royal last night.\u00a0 He kept sending me a couple of texts. \u00a0He was working as late here as I was working late at Eldora. \u00a0It really paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski\u2019s two-race winning streak was snapped in a late race incident cutting a tire after brushing against Kurt Busch, who both in turn had to make unscheduled stops ending up 15th<\/sup> and 22nd<\/sup>, respectively after being top rated contenders during the race.<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Matt Kenseth does a victory burnout. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alex Bowman driving the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was going for a career best finish until cutting down a left rear tire sending him into the turn one wall at the time running eighth.\u00a0 He stayed on the lead lap, but was relegated to 26th<\/sup> position in the final rundown.<\/p>\n

Missing the race for reason of signs of a concussion, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is now on the bubble in 16th<\/sup> place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase standings, 14 points ahead of the cutline with Trevor Bayne (-14), Ryan Blaney (-16), Kasey Kahne (-22) and Kyle Larson (-25) all trying to get into the Top 16.<\/p>\n

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series now moves to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Crown Royal presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 on Sunday, July 24.<\/p>\n

Busch Wins 82nd<\/sup> Xfinity Race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"NASCAR
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR XFINITY Series AutoLotto 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16, 2016 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If New Hampshire Motor Speedway is known as the Magic Mile, then Kyle Busch\u2019s vanishing act from Erik Jones\u2019 view was the grand illusion in the AutoLotto 200, NASCAR Xfinity series race on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Busch was the ubiquitous point man all day leading for 190 of the 200-lap race and despite other cars taking four tires under the last caution, kept Busch\u2019s strategy the right one proving two tires and clean air seemed to be the difference with the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cars were pretty equal and it was just a matter of track position,\u201d said Busch.\u00a0 \u201cI thought the four tires would pay off for him (Jones) but it really didn\u2019t.\u00a0 That\u2019s just Loudon.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the way this place is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Elliott Sadler, driver of the #1 OneMain Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the NASCAR XFINITY Series AutoLotto 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 16, 2016 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Busch\u2019s laurels keep coming extending his own record collecting his 82nd<\/sup> Xfinity win, along with surpassing the milestone of 17,000 laps led in the class. \u00a0In addition, his fifth win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway just sums up it\u2019s in all in a day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s biggest brouhaha developed between Xfinity point contender Ty Dillon and Alex Bowman.\u00a0 Coming off turn two on lap 76, Bowman over steered his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy into the left rear of Dillon\u2019s No. 3 nudging him into the backstretch wall drawing Dillon\u2019s direct ire taking points away from his bid in making the chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably my fault for being back there with a guy who doesn\u2019t race very much and he showed why,\u201d said an irritated Dillon, finishing 33rd<\/sup>.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m very frustrated.\u00a0 He was beyond the corner and down the straightaway and (he) just turned left.\u00a0 I feel he\u2019s pretty lucky; he\u2019s still on the racetrack and not in the garage with me.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty upset right now. \u00a0It\u2019s not how you race.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what to say, when I have nothing good to say.\u00a0 Glad he\u2019s not around right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR XFINITY Series AutoLotto 200. (Photo by Todd Warshaw\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bowman sounded sincere but seemed to stir up more emotions out of the Richard Childress Racing camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want to right rear someone intentionally,\u201d said the eighth place finisher, Bowman substituting for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on Sunday.\u00a0 \u201cI hate that I put us in that box.\u00a0 He drove me way up the racetrack and he obviously got tight underneath me.\u00a0 I had a ton of wheel in it to the left, it got up the racetrack, and it finally caught.\u00a0 I barely came off the wall six inches, you tag somebody in the right rear, and I hate it for the 3 car; definitely didn\u2019t do it intentionally.\u00a0 He\u2019ll get over it one day\u201d<\/p>\n

After Busch and Jones, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, and Austin Dillon filled out the top five.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only nine races to go in the NASCAR Xfinity chase after the completion of 17 races.\u00a0 Jones is still the leader with three wins and has locked in his position in the championship with his solid second place run from today.\u00a0 The bump spot is only 13 points between Blake Koch, who\u2019s in and just that much separation from Ross Chastain in 13th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Next weekend the tour moves to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Lilly Diabetes 250, the last of the Dash4Cash races of the year on Saturday, July 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch take the Sprint Cup and Xfinity wins, respectively, at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,22],"tags":[4067,4100,682,3115,127,3112],"class_list":["post-28796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-event-coverage","tag-2016-nascar-sprint-cup-series","tag-2016-nascar-xfinity-series","tag-kyle-busch","tag-matt-kenseth","tag-nascar","tag-new-hampshire-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/NHMS_NSCS_BO_0717162_Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-7us","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28807,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28796\/revisions\/28807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}