Elliott looks to follow up on his victory at Atlanta
Sunday’s Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway falls during a distinct and unique portion of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
It is a time when several drivers have claimed stake as championship favorites and several drivers typically carrying that torch still need to lock in for a title run.
The top of the Cup championship standings illustrates that point.
Chase Elliott, the 2020 series champion, became the first three-race winner of the 2022 season with a maiden victory at his “home track” of Atlanta Motor Speedway last Sunday. He continues to lead the championship standings for the 15th week and is currently up 47 points on Ryan Blaney in second place.
Elliott has won two of the last three races — at Nashville and Atlanta — but no driver has won back-to-back races this year.
Ryan Blaney would like to continue that streak and break into the win column himself, a trophy to accentuate a season of high performance. He has four top-10 finishes in nine New Hampshire races with a best of fourth place in 2019.
Blaney has finished in the top 10 in four of the last five races leading into New Hampshire, including a season-best third-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway.
Christopher Bell would surely like to transfer some of his Xfinity Series success to his Cup Series work at New Hampshire. He’s won the last three Xfinity races at the New England miler, and he was runner-up to race winner Aric Almirola in last year’s Cup race.
Kevin Harvick (four wins), Kyle Busch (three), Kurt Busch (three), Denny Hamlin (three), Brad Keselowski (two), Joey Logano (two) and defending race winner Almirola have all earned giant lobsters in New Hampshire’s victory lane.
Of the seven former active New Hampshire winners, Almirola, Keselowski and Harvick are still racing for a win and what could be an automatic playoff berth. None of the three are currently ranked in the top 16 of the points standings to earn that playoff position.
Harvick, who currently has a 62-race winless streak dating back to Bristol in 2020 has four wins at New Hampshire — most among active drivers. He sits 17th in the standings — 19 points behind Bell. He has made the playoffs for the last 12 consecutive years, also a high mark among active drivers.
The 2014 series champ has also been particularly successful at New Hampshire, finishing in the top 10 22 times, or nearly 60% of his starts. Of those, 13 are topfive finishes.
Counting Harvick’s backto-back wins in 2018 and ’19, and Almirola’s victory last year, Stewart-Haas Racing has won three of the last four New Hampshire races. However, SHR has only a single win in 2022 — Chase Briscoe’s trophy at Phoenix in March — also a 1-mile track.